Digital BW, The Print

Martin,

here are some replies. I don't think I know everything there is to know and the 
waters are pretty murky. But there goes:


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Martin Wesley" 
<mwesley250@e...> wrote:

...
Is this they type of situation that as you pay more and 
> more you are gaining smaller and smaller improvements in quality? In 
> other words would I see a huge improvement using Profiler Pro and a 
> Colormouse but a much smaller improvement in moving from that setup 
> to a XTP-41 and one of the high-end software packages?

I don't know that answer for sure - and I doubt anyone does without having 
both instruments. Remember that we are distinguishing between accuracy 
and convenience. A strip reading device is more expensive because of 
convenience features, but not necessarily more accurate than a 
single-reading meter.



> 
> Since I might only be doing say 20 profiles until I found my 
> ink/paper combinations and then 2 or 3 occasionally when a new paper 
> came out, it seems that the tedious patch at a time measuring still 
> might be acceptable.

....

You may want to price what this would cost you to do by sending out to a good 
source willing to make you custom profiles.

> 
> A couple of half way measures suggest themselves and perhaps you can 
> tell me if they are worth the cost. One would be to buy the 
> Swatchbook at $1400 and use it as a highly accurate densitometer to 
> measure step tables to move accurately create correction curves in 
> Photoshop. The second is to spend the $900 to just get the Profiler 
> Pro and rely on my Linoscan 1400 to get no so accurate data off the 
> targets. Would one approach be inherently better than the other?

Scanner-based profiling is something I haven't done. From comments here 
and from just theory in my head, it's a no-brainer to buy the Swatchbook or 
equivalent single-read spectrophotometer (that would double as a 
densitometer and dot gain calculator).  In this case the $500 would represent 
a huge step (as opposed to other "steps" you outlined for higher end 
products).


> 
> P.S. If you want to get rid of any of those X-rites, let me know. <g>

The only one I no longer need is a portable reflection densitometer  X-Rite 
404. As new condition, 12 years old, in its case with power supply. Useful for 
measuring across large prints and not dragging a wire behind you (it's 
rechargable). Price to be determined.
For an alternative source I would look on eBay. Last time there, I bought an 
810TR (refl/trans) for $750. Costs new $3500!!


Antonis