How many equivalent megapixels can have a good optical 35mm film camera ?
On a typical slide scanner or negative scanner, I can usually scan my 35mm film to about 24 megapixel equivalent. That being said, once you factor in grain, dust removal, etc. you lose some resolution, so that in actual practice I get about 12 megapixels worth of equivalent. Now, remember that’s with a desktop negative/slide scanner. If I were to have access to a drum scanner (which I don’t), I would be able to get far more resolution out of a negative or slide. However, this would be a lot of work, including oil mounting the slide/negative, etc. Pretty much, if you have a 6mp to 12 mp digital SLR, you have the equivalent of 35mm film for practical purposes. Or, reversing that, in practical terms, 35 film is about 12mp. In theoretical terms, I’ve seen numbers for 35mm film from 19mp to 50mp. But that’s theory. Because of grain, I really do believe that 12mp would be a better and more realistic number. If you want the best from film, use low ISO slide film. That will give you the maximu
