Digital camera or 35mm and scanner?

[hagbard]

Which would produce the better image, a 4mp digital camera or negatives/slides or prints from a high quality SLR feed into a high quality scanner? I have excellent 35mm cameras (including an Canon A-1) and I'm thinking of just sticking with these and scanning in negatives. Any comments?

BTW, the scanner I'm considering is this one:

Canon 5000F

its around $250cdn at OD. Alternatively, the camera would be a Canon A80.

 

[polar]

I have a Canon A-1 too, great camera!

If image quality is the only concern, SLR + negative scanner is propabaly better than a 4mp DC assuming you have the proper lenses, unless you are into microphotograghy.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: polar
I have a Canon A-1 too, great camera!

If image quality is the only concern, SLR + negative scanner is propabaly better than a 4mp DC assuming you have the proper lenses,

Yes, very true, as long as the negative scanner is good (I've not done enough research to know much about them, unfortunately).

unless you are into microphotograghy.

No. A true macro lens that focuses to 1:1 on a SLR (film or digital) would be a much better choice (especially if you already have the SLR body) than a consumer-level digital camera, if you're serious about macro work.

 

[Nocturnal]

Canon Digital Rebel 300D.

 

[McCarthy]

For you it sounds like 35mm is the way to go. For someone who had no camera and wanted to start from scratch with no experience either way digital has some advantages. But where you already have gone through the learning curve of film and have a nice stock of equipment digital doesn't seem to offer an advantage.

Plus you always have your old negatives that you can scan now and you'll always have your negatives. May not seem like much to people printing out their pictures on their Epsons today, in 20 years when those images have faded, when the CDroms of the original TIFF....wait, no, high quality JPG...well, JPG in normal mode...ok so you could get more shots at 640x480 so you used the lowest quality mode....oh yeah, forgot to burn that CDrom of the images to start with *echoing sound of slapping of forhead 20 years in future*....

Film's still cool, so are negative scanners