Grandma’s Camera had more resolution than your DSLR

The Original Paparazzi, Weegee (left) and a comparison in "Sensor Size" between a full frame DSLR and 4x5" sheet film It's hard to imagine using a camera…

admin·Aug 20, 2010·2 min read

Grandma’s Camera had more resolution than your DSLR

The Original Paparazzi, Weegee (left) and a comparison in "Sensor Size" between a full frame DSLR and 4x5" sheet film

It's hard to imagine using a camera designed in the 1800's when you live in a time period where a new $5,000 cameras is practically disposable after two years. Yet the ancient folding view camera that many artists still use today, has a much larger imaging sensor (sheets of film haha!) than any DSLR on the market. There is a debate as to how many megapixels it would take to equal the quality of a 4x5", some people say as little as 150, others have estimated as high as 500. I'm not sure, but we won't see it anytime soon. I am not saying people take bad photographs with digital cameras. In fact today there are more people making more high quality photographs than at any other point in history. However the photograph as "a special moment captured in time" has lost it's allure. Just as there are many more people taking photographs today than ever before, we are also being bombarded with more images on a daily (or hourly) basis than ever before.

If you want to see some really special images, check out Shorpy.com's collection of 4x5 Kodachrome scanned images. Take a step back and look at the incredibly high quality images from yesteryear. We have lost appreciation for the sharpness, tonal quality, color, and more importantly historical significance that these images boast. You will be amazed that these photographs were from the 1940's, they look better than the pictures we see today! Here are some of my favorites (after the break).