[dietrichepp]

Negative film has a shockingly high dynamic range. It’s high enough that you can easily run into dynamic range limitations elsewhere in the system (e.g. lens, paper) before you run into the limitations of the film itself. TMX reportedly has a dynamic range of something like 20 stops in the laboratory (not that you’d be able to show off that range in a print).

The colors are a bit exaggerated in consumer film, like the Kodak Gold which the author is shooting. Kodak wants people to come back from vacation with nice, colorful pictures. You can get the same, vivid colors in digital, but I think most digital cameras (including phones) just default to a more naturalistic look—IMO, I am so happy with the default colors on most digital cameras, compared to the brighter color settings you’d get from consumer film. One of the big ways you get colors to pop in film is by adjusting the contrast. You’ll notice that film pays for that contrast and color with reduced detail in the shadows and often garish-looking skin tones.