Tests conducted by US magazine, Popular Photography, have shown that pictures taken with the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II have better colour accuracy and lower noise than shots taken on colour negative film.

 

May 14, 2005: Tests conducted by US magazine, Popular Photography, have shown that pictures taken with the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II have better colour accuracy and lower noise than shots taken on colour negative film.
The report overturns past beliefs that it would take between 24 and 30 megapixels to equal the resolution of ISO 100 film. It also clarifies the relationship between sensor resolution and megapixels with the statement: Doubling the pixel count of a camera’s CCD or CMOS sensor doesn’t double its resolution. (This only happens with linear sensors found in scanners.) Camera sensors have pixels arrayed in two dimensions (horizontal and vertical), so it takes four times as many pixels to double the resolution of a digital camera (with all other things, such as noise, lens quality, and focus accuracy, being equal). Therefore, the resolution difference between a full-frame 30MP sensor (if it existed) and a 16.6MP sensor might only be 25-30 percent, not 100 percent.
According to Popular Photography, in real-world shooting photographers would be hard pressed to notice a resolution difference between the film and digital systems they tested, especially for handheld shooting. However, although colour negative film has more exposure latitude for overexposure, the digital SLR provides several stops of exposure latitude in both directions when used in RAW mode and also allows adjustments to ISO, white balance, sharpness, saturation and contrast, both in the camera or afterwards when RAW files are processed.
You can read the full report on Popular Photography‘s website at http://www.popphoto.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=1342&page_number=1.