A week ago we photographed as part of our 1Ds diary the same rock structures at Highway 1 with the following equipment:

• Nikon D100 + AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8 @70~105 & f/11
• Canon 1Ds + 70-200mm f/2.8 (non IS) @ 105 & f/11
• 4x5 Arca Swiss, Nikon lens, Provia F 100 (scanned with Imacon II by Jim Collum)
• 4x5 Arca Swiss, Nikon lens, Provia F 100 (professional drum-scan by Calypso Imaging)
• 4x5 Arca Swiss, Nikon lens, BetterLight scanning back (ISO 500)

Comments:

• We upsized the 35mm digital photos to the same width as the 4x5 digital files and scans
• This is not a scientific correct comparison
• The results very much reflect the experience by Jim Collum who knows Nikon D1x, BetterLight, 6x7cm & 4x5" very well.
• This is a very detailed scene and hard for any 35mm camera
• D100 was first upsampled in a RAW converter to 12MP and later upsized using Genuine Fractals (some final sharpening)
• 1Ds was upsised using Genuine Fractals (some final sharpening)
• The drum-scan was downsampled from 650MB to 150MB which results in loss of detail

We show the crops again in this table:

	D100
	1Ds
	Provia F Imacon
	Provia F Drum-scan downsized from 650MB to 150MB
	BetterLight

How does the 1Ds compare? We can say so much that the difference to the D100 is significant. But on the other side the gap to 4x5 is even bigger.

Prints

We made many prints (18" and 30" wide). Here the differences are clearly visible but not as shocking as the crops make us believe.