National Geographic Rates Film 400% better than latest Nikon D1X Digital
Erwin Puts, noted Leica lens tester and author, noted in PN014 of his APEMC newsletter (dated 18 Aug 2002) that National Geographic rates the Nikon D1X images for 1/2 page images, while film (slides) are still useful for a double page spread, a 4:1 difference at their quality standards. Mr. Puts notes that this corresponds with his own tests, confirming National Geographic's standards. While slides can often achieve resolutions of 100-120 lpmm (at least, with Leica lenses ;-), most digital cameras run in the 30 to 40 lpmm resolution range. This difference is inherent in digital cameras which require anti-aliasing filters (which are low pass filters) to reduce the high frequency data which contains fine contrast and high resolution data from the lens.
