"Dick" LeadWinger wrote in message
...
In the early days of digital photography, it was said that something
equivalent to 35mm file was some time out in the future. Are we there
yet? What digital resolution would be equivalent to 35mm film?

First, "resolution" in terms of lpp/mm isn't everything. 35mm digital
quality has arrived. Post-processing, in particular a carefully applied USM
is still required to give the same 'accutance' that properly done 35mm has.
Accutance is _not_ striclty concerned with lpp/mm metrics, no matter what
the optical bench racers say.

That said, probably 1% of the digital mavens can make a properly exposed and
printed 35mm picture; that's how difficult it really is and also a measure
of the low expectations of most contemporary photographers. So, a
feature-endowed digital camera will often produce superior results for the
inexperienced, less-expert 35mm photographer.

So spend several thousand dollars on a full-size sensor digicam and be
happy. Or not. For the vast majority of contemporary amateur photographers
(and many so-called "pros"), the errors due to less-than-expert application
of a high-end digital camera would almost certainly be far, far worse for
the same picture in 35mm.

Believe it or don't. One option is to save money by not making pictures and
instead wasting an inordinate amount of time on Usenet arguing over edge
boundaries, noise, "lpp/mm", etc. nonsense instead of making pictures
instead like the rest do.

Oh, and with that $$,$$$$ megapixel camera, you will probably want Photoshop
so budget for that and four more disc drives: two more for your desktop
computer (two extra spindles for source and scratch files) and one for
storage and another for backup. And two GB or RAM.