Digital BW, The Print

> From what I hear, the same applies to a competing technology, sold by Durst 
> as the Lamda and related line of printers. They work by RGB lasers and can 
> take bw neg film. But I will let others who know more fill us in on that. Maybe 
> someone from A&! can come and explain how the Durst machines work. If 
> Benoit or Phil are reading this, perhaps they can help.
> 


Yes, I'm awaiting the second round of test negs from A&I Digital as we 
speak, so to say.  They have 2 Lightjets, one brand new, which is 
similar to the Lambda in that it uses lasers to expose the media.  I'm 
having res80 scans done from 4x5 Tmax 100, which already look 
impressive onscreen and when printed to Piezo.  They are as sharp as 
the originals and with a little unsharp masking, look even better. 
Signal to noise is good, they sharpen well, and overall have an 
extremely fine quality about them. Shadow detail was _remarkably_ 
enhanced and I can recognize grain clouds that are almost identical to 
those in the original neg. Of course piezos at 8x10 or 11x14 look 
really fantastic, but I'm looking at how they play at 24x30 
magnification, which is my favorite print size. I do print to 32x40 and 
want any negs produced to hold up to the image quality of the originals 
at that size as well, so its a pretty rigorous standard I'm seeking 
here. I've expected this to take numerous tests, and that was confirmed 
by A&I from the outset.  They say that it takes them a little time to 
key in on an individual's silver printing setup.  Mine is a Durst L1200 
with color head (diffusion) printing onto Ilford MG IV fiberbase with 
Ilford MG developer/selenium toner.

Have already seen one round of negs, which were a little soft compared 
to both the original and the actual scan they were shot from, but A&I 
seemed to think it was a case of the film perhaps on being flat in the 
carrier rather than an indication of the limit to the Lightjet's 
ability to render image information on film, and are redoing the 
output.

Will let everyone know as soon as I see and print the next round.

Phil
http://philbard.com