Kodak just released Ektar 100. I've tested it. Exposed in good light, processed by any Costco minilab, scanned at 12x18 (3600 x 5400, if'n you can talk the lab monkeys into doing it for you) it delivers 19+ megapixels that absolutely bends digital over like a cheap whore during Fleet Week.

It does this because it delivers full RGB values at every pixel, unlike digital, which delivers one color at every pixel and guesses at the rest.

But let's be frank, as much as I like to rag the digital monkeys, it works best for most people. Hell, I still use it when I need people pictures fast in low light, where film suffers if you don't have hundreds of dollars in lighting equipment.

But we were talking about photography.

In all seriousness, as a minilab operator (CPC and SPFE certified, if that means anything to you) I can tell you that the following rules will get you the best pictures.

1. Shoot digital in low light, unless you have time to set up some serious (at least 3 flash/strobe/hot units) lighting equipment. Use a digital SLR at high ISO if you can afford one, otherwise buy a Panasonic DMC-LX3. If it won't annoy your fellow meatsacks too much, use a decent flash with a swivel/bounce head. Point it toward the ceiling, wall, whatever, just not directly at your subject. If you absolutely must point it straight at your subject, get some sort of diffuser. Gary Fong makes some stuff that works well but costs way too much. Buy Sto-Fen, it's cheaper and works almost as well.

2. Shoot low ISO film for everything else. Fuji Reala 100 and Kodak Ektar 100 are two brands I can recommend without hesitation. I'm fonder of the Ektar, truth be told. Reala would be better for people shots. But my "everything else" is usually landscape/nature only.

3. Slide film is expensive, but very much worth the price of admission. I really can't emphasize this enough. Slide film can be viewed immediately and will tell you instantly how you did with your exposure. The emotional impact is similar to the first time you "chimped" a shot you'd just made with your digital, only stronger, better, and it never seems to fade, no matter how many rolls you shoot. It's hard to find a place to develop and scan the stuff, but Ken Rockwell ( www.kenrockwell.com ) has a few things to say about that. I think he's currently using NCPS out of California, which will set up a mail order account for you.

Our favorite lens is the el cheapo basic "kit" lens Nikon sold a bajillion of, the 28-80 3.3-5.6 G. It's so much better than a plastic body autofocus lens has any right to be, I just don't have words for it.

To put digital in perspective with film, I like to offer the following explanation.

The Bayer-type sensor used in a digital camera interpolates 2/3 of it's color data at every pixel. This causes some degradation of image quality, which is somewhat compensated for by the fact that Bayer-type sensors use light more efficiently than film. With today's scanners, 35mm film can be scanned at 50 megapixels of resolution, which, even given efficiency differences, is still superior to the best full frame sensor on the market.

That's why 6400dpi film scans from 35mm film produce 20x30 prints that are impeccable at "way too damned close" viewing distances, and digital still looks wrong when you poke your nose right in it.

That's also why serious landscape photography is still done on film, usually starting at 6x4.5 medium format at the very least. Digital is good, but it can't beat the sheer brute force detail capture of film. Yet.

Oh, and a cheese grater? Dude. Ouch.

6x4.5 is the smallest of the medium formats you can still get film for, and it's delicious. I have a Fuji GA645, the finest medium format point and shoot rangefinder ever made, with the possible exception of the Mamiya 6 and 7 series, and I am never giving it up.

Unless Fuji puts out a 130 megapixel replacement with a 3 layer sensor for under $400.00, which is what I paid for the GA645. Not too bloody likely, really.

But I am seriously considering either a Mamiya 645AF or a Bronica SQ-A, either of which can be had from KEH (if you buy BGN condition, which is fine in my book) for about $400.00. With lens and film back, no less. The Mamiya is autofocus, which is nice, but the Bronica flash syncs to 1/500, which makes all the difference in the world for certain shots. Plus, I like the artistic challenges inherent in the square format.

Get on Flickr and check out some of the skateboarding shots the Bronica shooters do. I believe the descriptive most often encountered in viewing these whippersnapper's work is "sick".

Get 3 or 4 Nikon SB-26 or SB-80's sync'ed up with a Bronica loaded with Fuji Provia 100 and indeed it makes digital look quite sick, only not the way they meant it.