Comparing the same moment on digital and film (Ricoh GR IIIx, Kodak Gold 200, iPhone)

I bought a new camera earlier this month, a film rangefinder called the Ricoh 500G. It’s a great little camera, which I purchased from New York Camera of Princeton (my favorite for used cameras). It’s relatively compact, has a bright viewfinder, and feels fun and intuitive.

What follows is a little non-scientific comparison I did between my digital Ricoh GR IIIx and the 500G. Both cameras have a f/2.8 .. 40mm lens, which is a great for street photography.

The photos below were all taken with the GR IIIx digital camera, all at ISO 200, which was the ISO of the film in the 500G at the time. As a habit, I leave the GR IIIx in positive film mode, which is meant to emulate slide film.

The photos below were taken on the Ricoh G500 film camera on Kodak Gold 200 film. The image on the left is post-scan uncorrected and the image on the right is after corrections. Many of my scans with large areas of shadow in the image seem to come back like the shot on the right. I was able to use the default Curves and Levels options within Apple Photos to correct the image.

All three of the images below were shot at f/5.6 .. 1/500s. The first two photos are the scan and corrected scan from the G500, while the third image, repeated from above, is digital but with the same ISO and shutter settings. The Gold film does indeed have a more golden cast to it, while the digital image is more saturated, a bit underexposed, and tends towards blues.

Below is an image from the same trip from my iPhone 15 Pro Max. Using an iPhone has its pros and this photo illustrates one of the primary ones for me: the iPhone is excellent as properly exposing both the foreground and background of an image.

In contrast, both Ricoh digital and film images from above apply what Bryan Peterson would call a creatively correct exposure, essentially harnessing both devices’ inability to keep everything in the scene exposed correctly. The result is something with more contrast and character than the iPhone image, this is a hallmark of what for me is the film look.