Steve's DigiCams, http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html (in Florida)
Phil Askey’s  http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/ (in England)
http://www.megapixel.net/html/issueindex.php?lang=en (Possibly in France)
Dave  Etchells’   http://www.imaging-resource.com/DIGCAM01.HTM  (Includes side-by-side comparisons)
John Hart's Digital vs Film: http://www.crystalcanyons.net/Pages/TechNotes/FilmVsCP5000.shtm

LENS/RESOLUTION TESTS

TEST TARGET - PIMA/ISO Resolution Test Chart   http://www.edmundoptics.com/IOD/DisplayProduct.cfm?productid=2287

This little 200 x 356 mm target costs $150! A scanned example of this chart can be found at: http://www.gpsinformation.org/jack/photo-test/pics/iso-rag.jpg The file has the chart rotated 90° and trimmed slightly, so that it can be printed on 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper with the "height" exactly the required 200mm.  With Photoshop, no size adjustment is necessary.

To use this chart, frame the test picture exactly between the top an bottom tick marks (200 mm).  Read the number where all the lines closest together can be seen and multiply by 100.  This will give you the LW/PH (Line Widths/Picture Height) resolution and is the method used in all the review web sites above.

An example (2MB) file of how well the Fuji S602 can resolve this chart is at: http://www.gpsinformation.org/jack/photo-test/pics/fuji_602iso.jpg  Here the resolution is read out from gradually converging lines (usually nine).  It appears that the Fuji resolved about 1250 LW/PH.

Web Review Results, LW/PH
                       dpreview.com      imaging-resource.com
           Zoom   Mpix    Horiz.    Vert.            Horiz.      Vert.
Nikon 990  (3x)    3.3     900       900             1000         NA
Fuji S602  (6x)    3.3    1200      1200             1150        1150
Nikon 5000 (3X)    5.0    1350      1200             1250        1250
Nikon 5700 (8x)    5.0    1350      1200             1300        1300
Nikon 8800 (10x)   8.0     ?         ?               1650        1650
Canon PS Pro1 (7x) 8.0    1650      1650             1650        1600

TEST TARGETS –AIR FORCE METHOD

The specifications for the USAF targets can be found at:  http://www.efg2.com/Lab/ImageProcessing/TestTargets/#USAF1951

Here the terminology is different from the ISO chart, only lines are counted.  A test pattern that is 1 line per mm on the USAF chart would be called 2 "line widths" per mm on the ISO chart.  Just remember that one line per mm on the USAF charts equals two ISO line widths per mm.

The printed part of the small targets are only 64x64mm and have "pairs" of  three horizontal and three vertical lines, 1 line-per-mm (l/mm) apart at Group “0,1”).   Each successive Group has twice the lines per mm as the previous Group.  The Groups are divided into six pairs, each pair being 1.12246 (the sixth root of 2.0) more lines per mm than the previous pair.  The chart requires a supplied table to read the resolution, but could be calculated with arithmetic, if one didn't have the table.

See: http://www.gpsinformation.org/jack/photo-test/s602_super_macro.jpg   You can run your own tests by printing this AF test target and then determine the line pair group that is resolvable.  This target (photographed with the Fuji S602 in the Super Macro mode) has been modified so that it is 128mm high.  (You don't have to change anything, if printed with Photoshop.)  On this target, 1.0 line per mm  is at "1,1" because the target has been enlarged twice the original size.  This allows you to get the camera farther away from the target.

Modified  table for the 128mm-high target

However, with a digital camera, the Focal Length is based on a chip smaller than a 35mm frame (which is 24 x 36mm).  Thus one must divide the distance to the target by the DIGITAL lens Focal Length (not the "35mm equavelent") and then miltiply by the resolution read out.

NOTE: The Focal Length of a digital test shot can be read out from most modern PC .jpg viewers "Properties", and Nikon also supplies a file that has this information in it.

According to Sensor sizes:  http://www.dpreview.com/news/0210/02100402sensorsizes.asp
The Fuji S602 Zoom has a 1/1.7” (1÷1.7") type CCD, a 6x zoom lens of 7.8-46.8mm (35-210mm equivalent).  "Ratio" = 4.48
The Nikon 990 has a 1/1.8” (1÷1.8") type CCD, a 3x zoom lens of 8-24mm (38-115mm equivalent).  "Ratio" = 4.79.
The "1/1.8" CCDs are only 5.319mm  x 7.176mm.  The larger CCD the lower the ratio -and would be 1.0 if the CCD were to
be the same height as a film frame.  The Canon EOS-1Ds have a CCD of this size.

My tests of the Nikon show about 22 l/mm and the Fuji about 24 l/mm.  A good film camera lens will show 30 to 50 l/mm.  Thus digital has a way to go yet.

CONVERTING AIR-FORCE CHART READINGS TO PIMA/ISO 'LW/PH' READINGS
Analogy to USAF film "lines-per-mm"
The PIMA/ISO test target being 200mm high, has 1 line per mm at "4" (400 line widths per 200mm Picture Height or 200 lines per 200mm).  Cameras resolving 1,200 LW/PH (600 L/PH) would (on 24mm high film), be resolving 25 lines per mm which compares with my Air Force target results of 22 to 24 lines per mm.  Thus, divide the LW/PH results by 2.0 and divide again by 24 to get the l/mm equivalent.  The PIMA/ISO target goes up to 2,000 LW/PH (1,000 L/PH) -or 42 l/mm (for 24mm film frames).  This would say that the  PIMA/ISO chart.canot resolve the better film lenses of 50 to 70 l/mm resolution.

Getting back to the original 64 mm-high AF target, 10.1 l/mm were resolved -or 1,293 LW/PH (10.1x64x2) by the S602 in the Super Macro mode.

Personal Results, LW/PH
           Zoom   Mpix    Horiz.    Vert.
   Bright light
Nikon 990  (3x)   3.3     1020      1029
Fuji S602  (6x)   3.3     1292      1292

    Indoor light, lens wide open
Nikon 990  (3x)   3.3     1008      1008
Fuji S602  (6x)   3.3     1168      1168

WHEN WILL DIGITAL EQUAL FILM -A Personal Analysis
If one looks  at: http://www.imaging-resource.com/DIGCAM01.HTM  Dave will report the LW/PH (Line Widths/Picture Height) resolution of cameras from 1.3 to 6MP.  It's interesting that from 1.3 to 6MP, resolution has only approximately doubled -which is mathematically correct.

Determining film's comparable resolution of LW/PH is hard come by, but this site attempted to do it:
http://www.crystalcanyons.net/Pages/TechNotes/FilmVsCP5000.shtm
Here John Hart has come up with 75 lines/mm on the film (under very special conditions), which would be equivalent to 3,600 LW/PH (24mm film 'height' x 75 x 2 = 3,600).

A 8MP camera might have a resolution of 1,600 LW/PH.  Mathematically this would indicate you would need a 32MP camera to equal film.  However, I never got more than 50 lines/mm (printed) out of film.

So, if normal print processing of film is more like 2,400 LW/PH then a 14MP camera should do it.   There is already the Kodak DCS Pro 14n which has 14MP.  However, $4,600 is hard come by for most people!  NOTE: 2,400 LW/PH is a higher resolution than the ISO chart can resolve -which is only 2,000 LW/PH.

Now comes the hard part of finding an affordable printer that can print this resolution. See: Printer Resolution Test Procedures (HERE).

See Fujifilm Finepix S602 Gallery  for some representative test shots with this camera.  These pics are in the 6 MegaPixel/Normal mode (about 1 MB per pic) on this page.  Tests of the same objects in the TIFF mode (17MB per pic) and 6 MegaPixel/Fine mode (2MB per pic) revealed the no increase in quality up to 800% viewing before a quality difference could be seen.

Jack Yeazel