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Can you use film as an alternative to digital cameras for large prints?

In the ever-evolving world of photography, the debate between film and digital persists, especially when it comes to the ultimate output: large prints. With the dominance of digital cameras offering instant gratification and seemingly endless megapixels, many assume that film is a relic of the past, incapable of competing in the realm of high-resolution, billboard-sized images. However, this is a misconception. Film, with its unique characteristics and inherent properties, not only can be used for large prints as an alternative to digital, but in many cases, it offers a distinct aesthetic and technical advantage.

A hand holding a Kodak Professional Ektar 100 color negative film canister and its corresponding box in an urban outdoor setting.

Our film of choice for high resolution scans

At the heart of this discussion lies the concept of resolution. For digital cameras, resolution is measured in megapixels – the number of individual photo-sites on the sensor. More megapixels generally equate to more detail. Film, on the other hand, doesn’t have pixels. Its resolution is determined by the grain structure of the emulsion, the size of the film negative, and the resolving power of the lens used. A common misconception is that film has a lower resolution than modern digital sensors. This is simply not true, especially when considering medium and large format film.

A vintage Kodak Retinette IA camera featuring a silver body with black textured detailing, a prominent lens labeled "Reomar f:2.8/45mm," and various dials and controls on the top.

The camera used to capture our banner – From the 1950’s and available from $95!

Consider 35mm film first. While it’s often compared to digital full-frame sensors (which are roughly the same size), a high-quality 35mm negative, when scanned professionally with a dedicated film scanner, can yield an image equivalent to 20-30 megapixels of usable information. With the correct equipment you can push this all the way to crazy heights like over 200 megapixels. This is more than sufficient for many large prints, often exceeding the requirements for a standard A2 or A1 print viewed at a typical distance. The beauty of film lies in its continuous tone and organic grain, which can handle enlargement gracefully without the pixelation artifacts sometimes seen in heavily interpolated digital images.

A man squatting on the grass helps a young child adjust their shoes, while a woman stands nearby holding the child’s hand in a field. The woman is wearing a hat and sunglasses, and there is vintage camera equipment on the ground.

Test shot of the subjects – the settings ended up being 1/30 of a second at F11

At PhotoCo Camera House we put this into practice to demonstrate the potential of normal 35mm Film. Owner Paul took a 1950’s Kodak Retinette and some Kodak Ektar on a road trip with his kids to get a new banner for the store, going out in the South Australian countryside to for a nice view with some flowing green grass. With a Manfrotto 055 tripod to stabilise the camera and a Ricoh GRiii being used as the lightmeter he snapped a few photos of his son Jasper playing with some vintage cameras in the grass. Once all the photos were taken, the film was dropped back at our lab in the Adelaide Central Market for the $7 film developing service. Our in house scanning service has more than enough for A4 prints in our standard resolution and even A1 with our Super-High Resolution options but for this task we decided to go a step further.

A screenshot of the Image Size dialog box showing an image with dimensions of 14551 x 5610 pixels, a width of 246.4 cm, height of 95 cm, resolution of 150 pixels per inch, and a file size of 233.5M. The Fit To option is set to Original Size, and Resample is checked with the setting Automatic.

The insanely high resolution file for the final image

A strip of Kodak Ektar 100 film negative showing a landscape scene with a small structure and bushes. The film has perforations along the edges and is marked with 'Kodak Ektar 100' at the bottom.

The developed negative that was selected on its way to being scanned

 

A child wearing a hat sits in a green field holding a vintage camera up to their face, surrounded by various old cameras. A close-up inset shows the child's face and the camera in detail.

Close-up crop highlighting image resolution.

Now that the film is ready to be scanned it was taken to Atkins lab to be scanned in an incredibly high resolution, 236 megapixels to be exact. Atkins used a Imacon scanner to complete this, with this incredible size it will be more than enough to look clear on a giant print like we had planned. After a few test prints in a smaller size the final piece was installed and looking awesome! This goes to show that film can still hold up against digital in large size prints even using a $95 1950’s camera and off the shelf film. The final image has been cropped by almost 50% to a 3:1 aspect ratio which ended up being 3 metres by 1 metre in total size.

A storefront of a camera store named 'Camera House' with a sign that reads 'Your photo and video experts.' The window display features various camera equipment and a large photograph of a person in a field capturing images. A man in a jacket is examining products inside the shop.

The final print installed pride of place at the front of the store

Drop into our store to see the final work in person!

Poster for the Adelaide Camera Expo featuring a black and white photo of an audience seated indoors. Event details include Sunday, September 21, from 10am to 4pm, with workshops, technology exhibits, market stalls, guest speakers, photoshoots, live music, food and drink. Tickets are $5, with a raffle for prizes, and only 1,500 tickets available. The Adelaide Photoco logo is displayed alongside a QR code.

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