When people hear the term "Digital" they automatically assume that it denotes superior quality.  Digital refers to the Binary Digital Code used by Computers.  In the vast majority of circumstances technology provides an improvement over what preceded it, and people therefore now assume that "Digital" is superior to "Film" in the same way that Digital Sound / Video is most definitely superior to Analogue Sound / Video.  However, these are not comparable.  Digital Sound / Video is an electronic recording method which is of higher quality than the Analogue electronic recording method.  Digital Cinematography is simply a higher resolution computerized electronic Video Recording.  All electronic recordings are nothing more than an indirect analogous electric record of the original Light or Sound which has been artificially converted into Electricity.  Film Cinematography however is NOT Analogue, but is a direct real Optical (Light) Record formed by the original Rays of Light.  Film is an entirely unique recording medium that captures the original proportions of the very Light Rays which your Eyes can capture for only a brief 1/10 of a Second.  In many ways Film is miraculous because it both captures the original proportions of Light of the original scene, and then in Projection it filters out the excess portions of Light to reproduce the original proportions.  Some manufacturers of Digital Cameras may claim that Digital is superior to Film, but this is physically impossible since the Digital Camera's individual Pixel Sensors are much larger than a Light Ray and its complete CCD is only the size of the Super 16mm Frame.  In addition to being inferior to Optical Film, Digital Cameras and Projectors are also monumentally more expensive.  The following are some important facts about the differences between Digital Cinematography compared to Film Cinematography.

RESOLUTION   It must first be noted that the size of Light Waves -- which varies based upon the colour -- is the resolution limit of Photography as well as Vision.  The numerous colours of Light that you see do not come from "materials".  All colours come from White Light which is comprised of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Violet Light in 100% proportions.  "Materials" then absorb part of those colours, and reflect the rest to produce the actual colours that you see.  Human Eyes only see Red, Green and Blue Light (the Primary Colours) which in various proportions can produce every possible colour.  Just like your Eyes, Film captures the original proportions of Red, Green and Blue Light, but Digital Cameras must artificially convert that Light into Electricity.  Each Colour of Light Wave has three Dimensions: Length (the Colour: Red, Green or Blue), Width (directly related to Length) and Intensity (the Shades of the Colour).  Film captures all three Dimensions, but Digital cannot capture Width, it can only record one of the three Colours, and it can only record about 5% of the Intensity range.
            Starting with Red Light (.65 to .70 microns) which can potentially produce up to a maximum 2,772,953 Light Waves in a Square Millimetre, then gradually increasing through Green (.49 to .58 microns) which can produce up to 4,879,520 Light Waves per Square Millimetre, and Blue (.42 to .49 microns) which can produce as many as 6,641,569 Light Waves in a Square Millimetre.  These three Primary Colour Light Waves interpose each other to form one Light Ray.  The actual number of Light Rays in a two dimensional Square Millimetre space depends entirely upon the brilliance and amount of the Light Rays present in the scene, the distance of the objects from the Camera Lens, the size of the Lens, and Diffraction caused by too small an Aperture in the Camera (known as the Airy Pattern).

PROJECTORS   Current Digital Projectors have a linear Resolution of 2.2 Million Pixel Mirrors (2,211,840 to be exact) which is comparable to top Digital Movie Cameras.  A Film Projector of course maintains the full Optical Resolution on the Frame of Film with its randomly arrayed varying proportions of the image.  As previously noted, a Digital Recording is an artificial Electronic Record of a Light image, while Film is a real Optical Record formed by the original Light.  A Digital Projector must artificially reproduce the colours of the image.  It has a complicated array of 6.6 Million Tiny Mirrors which mix and combine 3 Light sources (Red, Green & Blue) together for every single Pixel of the Picture in order to produce the proper colour.  This is very complicated which is why Digital Projectors are so expensive.  If the Width to Height Ratio proportions between the Projector and the Electronic Image are not 1 to 1, then the Electronic Image will be further distorted beyond its original distortion of the original Light.  A Film Projector, on the other hand, simply uses a pure White Light which is then converted into the appropriate colours by the Film itself, and this is a simple process.  The Film, which contains the original proportions of Red, Green & Blue Light from the original scene, filters out the excess Red, Green & Blue from the White Light which produces the original proportions of Light.  With Film Projection it is the Film and White Light which produces the complex Image, and this makes Film Projection monumentally simpler than Digital.  There was simply no reason for Digital Projectors to have even been developed in the first place.  Unlike Digital Movie Cameras which are designed for HDTV, Digital Projectors have no use outside of Movie Theatres.  The companies who expended a lot of money on developing Digital Projectors were unwise.  This is just another example of 'technologization for the sake of technologization', and not for the sake of improvement.  There's no purpose to complicating life with hi-technology if that complication does not provide improvement, and Digital Projection is not an improvement.

EDITING   When you edit and duplicate a Movie with a Film Contact Printer, the Molecular and Optical Resolution of the Film, as well as the Colour, is carried through to the copied Print with some Optical degradation.  Naturally, the quality of the duplicating process depends entirely upon the professionalism of the Lab performing the process.  Haste makes waste, and the duplicating process should focus on quality and not speed.  However, if you use Computer-generated Image Special Effects and a Digital Printer (Film Recorder) for editing, all you end up with on the copied Film Prints is 2, 3 or 4 Million or so Pixel Dots of artificial Colour (whatever the resolution of the Recorder).  The original Resolution of the Film, the original Colour on the Film, and the random and proportionate Size (.42 to .7 microns) of the Light Rays (Dye Clouds) are all LOST in any "Digital Computer" printing process.  This is the price to be paid for any conveniences associated with Digital Editing.  If you wish to provide the movie-going public with the highest of quality, then you need to use a Contact Print for editing and special effects. Computerized Special Effects -- which don't look as real as small-scale models -- should only be used as a last resort.  If you need to use Computerized Special Effects, you can print the computer-generated part of the Frame onto its own Film Strip, and then use the optical Contact Printer to combine that computerized part with the rest of the Frame to produce the Final Frame.  This way, only the computer-generated part of the Final Frame will be at the 2 or 4K Digital Resolution, and the rest of the Final Frame will be maintained at the Optical Resolution of Film.
            When duplicating Films, ideally you would want the Original and Duplicate Films to be firmly pressed together and flat so that there is no empty space between them.  Any space between the two Films will lead to refraction and reflection of Light Rays which deteriorates the image.  Additionally, a poor quality Light source will undermine image clarity.  Alternating Current Electricity (which cycles on and off) cannot provide as high a quality of Light as Direct Current can produce.  Optical and Contact Printers should use DC Electricity for their Light.  Another improvement to the duplicating process to mention is that it is not necessary that the 'Intermediate Negative' be made from the 'Intermediate Positive'.  After determining what Frames of what Film Reels are wanted in the final cut, you can then use the original Camera Negative to produce the Inter-Negative through 'reversal' developing.  This would reduce the number of generations from Camera Negative to final Projector Positive down from three to two.  Filming with 65mm would be wise for Scenes which will involve Special Effects.

COLOUR   Since Film captures the original Photons of Light, it has the potential to capture every natural Living Colour.  If the Dye Cloud in each Emulsion Layer were only comprised of 2000 Molecules, that would amount to 2000 Shades for each of the Three Primary Colours for a total of 8 Billion Colours.  3000 Molecules per Dye Cloud would provide 27 Billion Colours.  A Digital Movie Camera must artificially convert the Light into Electricity, and it can only capture one Primary Colour for each Pixel Sensor.  With a Digital Camera that can record 24-Bit High Colour Mode, the Camera's Computer Memory can only record 256 pre-determined Shades for each Primary Colour (8-Bits per colour) -- amounting to only 16.77 Million Colours.  Medium and Low Colour Modes are much less!  Since the actual Picture taken by the Camera only captures one Primary Colour for each Pixel, it must artificially determine the other two colours.  Using a method called the Bayer Pattern which groups together four different Colour Pixels in a block (Red, Blue and two Green), the Computer then uses complicated mathematical calculations to essentially "guess" what the other two Colours for each Pixel should be.  This method of recording Colour is completely inferior to Film's ability to capture the original Light Colour proportions.  This Bayer Pattern also leads to serious distortions of the original Colour such as the Moire Pattern.  There is another type of Sensor called the 'Foveon' which captures all three Primary Colours for each Pixel, but it has its own sensing problems and it is still limited to the Computer Memory's 256 Shades per Colour.  Although the Digital Camera's Computer (24-Bit Mode) can register 256 Shades for each Primary Colour, it is not known how reliable an electronic Light Sensor is for producing 256 different Voltages to represent such a number of Colours.  There are some newer Digital Scanners with a Computer that has 30-Bits of Memory per Pixel -- which is 10-Bits per Primary Colour to record a total of 1024 Shades and 1 Billion Colours.  However, if the Pixel and Voltage Sensors in the Camera or Scanner cannot produce and detect 1024 different Voltages, then that number of Colours is valueless and phoney!  The Computer will record a Voltage number whether it's accurate or not!  It is also not known how Light and Voltage Sensors deteriorate in sensitivity with use.  Light and Voltage Sensors also vary in sensitivity with temperature, and so the Voltage it produces for the Computer will vary based upon the Camera's temperature -- distorting the Colour!  The colour content of Digital Cinematography would be further dependent upon the Digital Projector.  With a collective 6.6 Million Mirrors (3 per Pixel) for the Three Primary Colours, a Digital Projector needs to be scrupulously calibrated if it is going to accurately represent the recorded Colour for each Pixel.

LONG-TERM RETRIEVAL   This is the worst Achilles' Heel for electronic Digital Recordings.  While Digital Cameras can only take a Picture of an Electronic Image converted into a non-real Computer File Record, Film captures the Actual Image on a real Optical Record which is there to be seen.  A Digital Record is nothing more than a modern-day Computer Programme File on a modern-day Computer Hardware Disk, and both that Programme File and Hardware Disk will become obsolete in the future.  Since Film is real, you have the image forever, and a Film Negative or Transparency will last hundreds of years with proper care (i.e. being kept frozen in complete darkness and in an air-tight container).  [An inert gas like Helium would be even better than Air.]  Of all Films, Kodachrome has the best dark-storage Dye stability.  Unlike a Computer Disk, you can look at Film and know what pictures it contains.  Since Film is a low-technology medium, it can be easily retrieved in the future.  A high-technology electronic Digital Record cannot be viewed without the modern-day hi-tech Electronic Equipment required to view it.  A Digital Computer File is even more complicated to produce than an Analogue Record.  It will be a very serious problem in the future to view Digital Video Programmes recorded in modern-day formats when they are decades old and obsolete.  Film can also be easily recorded onto any electronic format.  On the contrary, different electronic formats are not compatible with each other.  To transfer old Analogue Television onto new HDTV requires, among other things, the image to be horizontally stretched which distorts the image.  There are also more than one version of Analogue and HDTV Television.  The transfer problems are fewer when recording Film onto Video.  Even though a Film image may need to be stretched to fully fit Analogue TV, this is not the same as the problems with converting two electronic formats.

MOVIE SCREENS   More than fifty years ago the practice of placing the Sound Speakers behind the Screen began.  Originally the Sound Holes were pin-prick size, but now they are quite large.  A hole in a Movie Screen is a black hole for Light, and these Sound Holes probably deteriorate the picture quality by 1/4 to 1/3.  If the Sound Speakers were along the Top, Bottom and Sides of the Screen instead of behind the Screen, it would essentially be undetectable to a person seated in a dark Theatre.  The minimal Sound Effects benefit of having the Speakers behind the Screen should be easily reproduced by having four Speaker channels from left to right along the outside edges.  Providing a top picture quality should be the number one priority with the Movie presentation, and both the Movie and Theatre Industries should undertake to study whether or not the Sound Speakers should remain behind the Screen.  With the quality that HDTV can provide, no diminution of picture quality should be tolerated in Movie Theatres.

            The Movie-going public certainly deserves the highest of quality in Movie Presentations at their local Theatres.  The Film Presentation provides the highest of quality.  This real Light quality is far superior to any electronic Digital Cinematography / Projection Presentation.  An electronic Digital recording can never equal the quality and colour of natural Light -- not even in 100 years.  It is not possible to convert Light into Electricity in a Digital Video process, and still maintain the real nature of the Light.  That can only be achieved with an Optical Record on Film.  It is no secret that many Studio Executives are avaricious, and are more interested in profit than the "Art" aspect of Movie making.  Some Executives are inclined to embrace Digital Projection in Theatres as a cheaper and less-expensive distribution regime than to ship out many Film Prints to the Theatres.  If those Executives allow greed to get the better of them, and embrace Digital Projection to cut costs, they will ultimately kill the Goose which lays their Golden Egg:  the Movie Theatre Industry.  The Movie Theatre is the best possible revenue generator imaginable for the Movie Product.  Digital Projection will reduce the quality in Movie Theatres to that of High Definition Television HDTV, and people certainly will not continue to spend $7, $8, $10, $12 Dollars and more to see HDTV picture quality in Theatres when they can get that at home.  If Executives think that they can make money through a pay-per-view Television regime, then they'd better think again because 10 or 20 people can watch one TV pay-per-view broadcast.  People could even charge money for others to watch a pay-per-view in their house!  A pay-per-view broadcast can also be immediately recorded and pirated.  There will never be a more profitable and higher quality Movie Presentation than the Film Movie Theatre can provide.  A conversion to Digital Cinematography would ultimately lead to the end of the Movie Theatre business as people would stay home for Television.  Those of you who value Movie-making as an Art must make sure that an avaricious embrace of Digital does not occur.  The Movie product should be enhanced with the Super 35mm format and also 70mm Movies (including 3D).  Whether you be Cinematographers, Producers or Directors, it is important to always strive to ensure that the movie-going public receives the highest of quality.

Mr. Terry Mester
Welland, Ontario, Canada
E-Mail: filmanddigitalinfo@yahoo.ca
www.geocities.com/filmanddigitalinfo
v. 1.17.2009