Terran Melconian: Spectral Response
of Films and Sensors
[introductory text is to be written]
canon a210 digital
nikon d200 digital
fuji superia 400, 35mm
fuji superia-reala 100, 35mm
fuji velvia, 35mm (velvia is
known for unrealistic color rendition)
So, what does it really look like? The best thing to do is
to spend $30 on your
own spectrometer and compare directly. Failing that, I'll
describe the subjective experience as well as I can. It's very
different than what the films capture, and looks like a continuous
band of color, without dark gaps in between hues. It looks much more
like this image
at NASA.
We'll start on the left. Red is just barely visible at 700nm, and
is distinct by 670. Red peaks at about 630, and 600 is orange.
Yellow is at 580 and green is centered around 540. Around 500 is a
beautiful out-of-gamut teal that you can't produce on your monitor.
Peak blue is at 470, and then a deep indigo/violet extends down to
420, beyond which I can see nothing.
Quite a bit different than the film renditions, isn't it. Major
differences are:
- Red does not extend as far into the longer wavelengths on any of the films
- There's no yellow whatsoever on any of the films, just a dark
band where red and green fail to overlap.
- Some films have another gap between blue and green, and even if
they don't, the color that goes there is outside the RGB gamut.
- Blue extends further into the UV than the eye can see, and also
there is no red sensitivity there on the films, so you get a pure blue
instead of a purple.
This page most recently modified on: Friday, 03-Sep-2010 04:52:16 EDT
Copyright (C) 2010 by
Terran Melconian.
You may mirror this page for personal use. Images may be downloaded and
printed. All other rights reserved.
For questions, purchasing prints, etc, email 