Film - analogue and digital

Film

Film

Film refers to a chemical process which is used for analogue recording, copying, playback, broadcasting and display of moving visual and audio media on a material called celluloid.

In a second, 24 frames per second go through the film gate.

Celluloid is a transparent, flammable plastic made in sheets from camphor and nitrocellulose. It was used for making cinematographic films.

The first celluloid size was a size 16 mm. The small negative size meant that films often appeared grainy.

The larger films when blown up appear more resolute due to the fact that is has less enlarging to do, compared to the smaller film, which has to be enlarged more so loses quality in the process of enlargement as it has to fit onto a large cinema screen.

The arrival of a larger 35mm negative brought improvement picture quality.

Video

Video is an electronic medium used for analogue recording, copying, playback, broadcasting and display of moving visual and audio media on magnetic tape using an analogue video signal.

Digital video is a type of digital recording system that works by recording, copying, playback, broadcasting and display using a digital rather than an analogue video signal.

Digital cinematography refers to the process of capturing motion pictures as digital video images as opposed to the historical use of motion picture celluloid film.

Digital capture may happen on video tape, hard disks, flash memory, or other media which can record digital data through the use of digital movie video camera or other digital video camera.

The difference between analogue and digital

Digital technology is fairly simple to define. A system using digital signal simply represents information as discrete, sampled values. An analogue signal use a continuously-varying electrical signal. Both are means of encoding – neither is the literal sound. A digital system is so-named because those discrete values are akin to counting (hence “digits,” as in counting on your fingers), whereas an analogue system uses an electrical signal that is analogous to – though not literally – the original, in that it varies in the way that (for sound) pressure would. Digital breaks all the information and records the sound in ones and zeros.

Analog versus Digital comparison chart
	Analog	Digital
Signal	Analog signal is a continuous signal which represents physical measurements.	Digital signals are discrete time signals generated by digital modulation.
Waves	Denoted by sine waves	Denoted by square waves
Representation	Uses continuous range of values to represent information	Uses discrete or discontinuous values to represent information
Example	Human voice in air, analogue electronic devices.	Computers, CDs, DVDs, and other digital electronic devices.
Technology	Analog technology records waveforms as they are.	Samples analogue waveforms into a limited set of numbers and records them.
Data transmissions	Subjected to deterioration by noise during transmission and write/read cycle.	Can be noise-immune without deterioration during transmission and write/read cycle.
Response to Noise	More likely to get affected reducing accuracy	Less affected since noise response are analogue in nature
Flexibility	Analog hardware is not flexible.	Digital hardware is flexible in implementation.
Uses	Can be used in analogue devices only. Best suited for audio and video transmission.	Best suited for Computing and digital electronics.
Applications	Thermometer	PCs, PDAs
Bandwidth	Analog signal processing can be done in real time and consumes less bandwidth.	There is no guarantee that digital signal processing can be done in real time and consumes more bandwidth to carry out the same information.
Memory	Stored in the form of wave signal	Stored in the form of binary bit
Power	Analog instrument draws large power	Digital instrument drawS only negligible power
Cost	Low cost and portable	Cost is high and not easily portable
Errors	Analog instruments usually have a scale which is cramped at lower end and give considerable observational errors.	Digital instruments are free from observational errors like parallax and approximation errors.