Digital BW, The Print

Having finally ordered the 9600, I have been looking for nice things 
being said about 35mm digital hoping to skip the scanning era. Just 
when I think I am sold on a DCS 760 or maybe even a D60. Austin 
smashes my illusions to smithereens, not once but over and over 
again.

I justify my thoughts in digi snapping:

I only do portrait - soft is OK, gentle is nice too. Yes, with 
digital, my photographs can be more gentle. What's interpolation to 
skin? Hmm, but the hair will be jaggedy.

If they can stretch a D30 to 12x16, surely a D60 will go to 20x24, 
and you do step back further for bigger ones. Maybe I can give up 
cropping, compose perfectly whilst shooting and change all my print 
sizes to match the sensor proportion so I can use every last pixel.

No more dividing the frame up into grids and de-spotting film scans. 
Backwards and forwards, space/mouse over and over.

If I do this switch, I know I will I miss heading into the seedy 
area of town where my darkroom is, unlocking the ex maltings 
warehouse, and wondering down to the back, through the double dark 
curtains after checking evaporation of the dev' in the Hope 
overnight, pulling out the nights printing from my leather case that 
I got in San Francisco on a trip to Disneyland with my kids, laying 
out these marvelous antique memory strips of century old technology, 
the 120 film strip, slipping it in to the enlarger, focusing through 
the magnifier at full arm stretch whilst pondering how old fashioned 
this all will seem soon. I will miss my wierd shaped dodgers and the 
little inventions that I know I am the only one in the world to use. 
I test, test again, full size now, nearly there, one more time 40 
minutes later, the most beautiful richly goldern sepia 20x30 flops 
into the basket, I hold it up and see an exquisitely fine detailed 
optical/chemical photograph. I follow the intricate line of a single 
hair as it loops down the side of a face a full 20 inches, it's 
shiny on one side and thinner in one spot as it twists and curls 
across a full spectrum of goldern greys with narry a pixel, jaggy or 
microband to be seen.

I can't do it, I can't even see through the piddly view finder of an 
SLR. Looking through my Hasselblad bright viewfinder is BEING THERE. 
Your mascara is clumped on your second from the left eyelash, look 
straight at the lens not my head. Why do I have to spent multi 
thousands to make worse photographs?

I can't do this unless I have a full frame back for the Blad and 
that's it. In the meantime, I will have to put up with Bloody 
scanning.

I need a 120 scanner. I only do B&W, 24 frames per subject. I will 
produce low definition scans for previews and then scan about a 
dozen for printing on the 9600 from 8x10 upwards.

What is a Leaf and is it one frame scan at a time.  It would be good 
if I could automatically slide 3 frames or more through for previews 
at a time (like the Nikon 8000). Any suggestions or knowledge 
appreciated.

Garry Sarre
www.sarre.com.au