Jon Pike writes:

What this page most clearly shows, is that there is a 10% loss of
resolution when film gets scanned.

No, it shows that when a single test piece of film was scanned on a
single CCD scanner in one trial, there was a 10% loss of limiting
resolution. Extrapolating this result to other scanners, particularly
drum scanners with completely different optics and scanning mechanisms,
is extremely unscientific.

Besides, the very same tests show that the resolution of the scanned
film is only 28 lp/mm at 50% contrast. This is far worse than any of
the digital cameras tested. Since we know the resolution of the film
plus scanner is 79 lp/mm, the scanner contrast must be quite high at
only 1/3 this frequency, so the low 50% MTF must be due to the film
only.

So, this test allows us to conclude, with at least as much justification
as your "10%" claim, that scanned film has a 44% resolution loss at 50%
contrast compared to an 8 MP camera. This seems to be much more
relevant to the original question that started the thread.

Although everybody says "that's not the same for all scanners!", nobody has
yet posted quantified evidence to back up that claim. Until someone does,
the -only- data we have on the subject (loss of resolution when film gets
scanned) is from this page.

Anyone who thinks that data from a linear CCD scanner that scans the
full width of the frame simultaneously is in any way applicable to a
drum scanner that illuminates and measures only one point on the film at
once is seriously out to lunch. Except for the name "scanner", the two
devices have virtually nothing in common in optics or electronics.

Dave