Canon 5dMkII versus 6x7 Film (28th January 2009)

Updated - apparently the images were not visible using Internet Explorer 6 - fixed now.

The following observations and discussions are my own opinions. They are not intended to represent any sort of intensive investigation or to propose any particular course of action. I offer them in the hope that at some point in time, they may help someone.

As I drove home from work the other day, I watched a storm front building over the hills ahead of me. By the time I reached home, about an hour before sunset, clouds with beautiful colour and light were overhead. Where I live in the Perth Hills region of Western Australia, interesting clouds are somewhat rare, the usual Perth Hills sky being either clear and blue or overcast.

The scene was being set for a great sunset and I was thinking what an opportunity to try out my latest acquisition, a Canon 5D MkII, on a landscape shot. I purchased the 5D MkII as an upgrade for my Canon 350D which I used primarily for scouting my landscapes and also for anything needing speed, such as action or wildlife shots. The 5d MkII is a bit of a step up from the 350D and I am intending it to give me an edge with bird and wildlife shooting while also keeping my commercial customers happy.

My "normal" capture format is 120 format film using a Mamiya RB67 and I have used this in the past for every form of photography but primarily for landscapes. I also shoot large format 4x5 in colour and black and white. Most fine art prints I sell are in the 16x20inch size, which is the largest I normally print from 6x7 film. I was interested to see how the Canon 5D MkII captures would compare to my 6x7 film, and whether there was a possibility of retiring my medium format system and using only the 5D and my large format systems. As the Canon 5D MkII has a full frame 35mm sensor and 21Megapixels, a print at 240dpi would give a 16x23inch image.

Please keep in mind that I am comparing these two systems in a landscape photography context and with my, probably less than perfect, capture, scanning and processing methodology. To briefly outline my processes, capture is done with good lenses, tripod, remote release and mirror lockup, scanning is done with an Epson V700 flatbed scanner (because Epson Australia in their wisdom would not bring the V750 into the country), and prints are done on a HP Z3100 44inch large format printer (retaliation towards Epson for the V750 decision). Incidentally, after having scans and prints done by third parties in the past I have found that it's much better to do the job myself, even if I have to use lower spec. equipment (I'm thinking of the scans here - the Z3100 is an amazing printer).

Arriving home I jumped out of the car to commence negotiations with my wife Anne. Tea was ready and waiting and she had been through a trying day - this was not the best start. Anne, however, is a wonderful person and my best friend, and so, after dragging her outside to show her the clouds and light overhead, she agreed to start tea without me. Not stopping to change, I quickly grabbed the 5D kit and drove out to Mundaring Weir, about twenty minutes away, to a picnic area called North Ledge which has a favourable view. I have captured this same view on many occasions in many different formats, but as every photographer knows, the light is never the same twice. Setting up my tripod I was in perfect time to catch the best light of the day.

Because I wanted to compare the 5D captures with my previous 6x7 film captures, I chose a normal 50mm prime lens to give a field of view very similar to some images I had shot with 6x7 film previously. Over the next half an hour I captured a selection of images using tripod, manual focus (live view is brilliant - ever tried manually focusing using a 350D's view finder), mirror lockup, a couple of ND graduated filters and remote release. The focus point was the tower on the dam wall, the aperture was set to f11 and the file format was RAW. I had a very enjoyable time (thanks Anne) standing in the natural bush, watching the brilliant colour display in the clouds and on the lake, as the sun quietly set.

Mundaring Weir – Perth Hills, Western Australia, January 2009

Canon 5D MkII with Canon 50mmf1.8II; @ ISO 200
0.6 sec @ f/11

Processing the captures later, I selected the shot above and then brought up a scan taken from a comparable image captured on 6x7 colour film (Fuji Provia 100F) previously. Both images were individually sharpened and processed for levels and contrast and then a crop was taken of the tower on the dam wall for comparison, see below. The 5D image has been enlarged in the image below as the 6x7 is from a 3200ppi scan. Adobe Camera RAW and Photoshop CS3, as well as Canon Digital Photo Professional were used to process the Canon 5D image with little difference noted.

Canon 5D MkII Image

6x7 Provia 100F Film Image

I processed these images several times including enlarging as well as reducing the images for comparison purposes and scanning at different resolutions (2400 and 3200 ppi) and the result is quite obvious to me in Photoshop. The 6x7 film image has significantly more detail present than the Canon 5D MkII capture.

This, of course, is not the whole story as far as a comparison of these capture formats. There are many other considerations which could be taken into account, and some which could be more extensively investigated, eg. the quality of the lens used, the accuracy of the focus, the affect of diffraction. I know that the 50mm f1.8II canon lens, though fairly cheap is a sharp lens that has produced good results for me in the past. I also know that f11 is a good compromise between a large DOF and minimising the affects of diffraction in the small format.

For the purposes of this simple test, and for a single image capture with a similar FOV, I am confident that if I point my trusty, fully manual, 6x7 film camera at a scene, I will get a better result in terms of fine detail than if I point my Canon 5D MkII at the same scene.

A further interesting point is that I find it much quicker, at the moment, to capture an image of this type with a fully manual camera. The 5D MkII has so many "features" that it can take some time to ensure that I have the capture criteria that I want. With my Mamiya, the process is position and lens selection, focus, meter reading, f-stop, dark slide, wait for the moment and shoot. With the Canon, it is position and lens selection, manual focus, live view, focus the lens, select ISO, Mirror Lockup, one-shot, f-stop, shoot, check the histogram, adjust exposure, wait for the moment and shoot. It's not a big deal, but it is easier for me to get lost with the Canon at the moment. The Camera User Settings, C1 - 3 on the Mode Dial are a life saver here, however, if you make a change, the way they reset when the camera goes to sleep is a real nuisance.

The conclusion I draw, for my fine art landscape photography, is that I should, in general, limit fine art prints I make with the Canon 5D MkII to an 11x14inch target size. This is one size larger than I currently print from 35mm film or from the Canon 350D (8MP). I have a passion for fine detail in my images and I like to be able to explore a print at close range. I thought that the 5D MkII may challenge medium format 6x7 for landscapes, but it is not the case.