Digital BW, The Print

I have used Betterlight's immediate ancestor, the Dicomed Field Pro, 
in the field.  These units are still supported by Mike Collette and 
colleagues at Betterlight.  The Field Pro's Betterlight equivalent is 
the 6000.

I have, inter alia, use this unit to photograph buildings and one or 
two landscapes.  Pros are

- superb quality from 130mb files (double if 16 bit), the equivalent 
(easily) of slow 4x5 film drum scanned, but without the grain.

- 8 stop plus latitude (more on the latest Betterlight backs).  Looks 
even better than this in practice

- Natural, lifelike colour

- ease of use

Cons are

- heavy unit to lug around, with battery pack and laptop

- the slightest movement of the subject during the longish exposures 
ruins the shot

- not many shots from one battery charge, long exposures

I look at shots from this thing, and see in to the future of one-shot 
digital capture.  No Bayer interpolation is used, of course.

Betterlight offer superb suport, including an owner only Yahoo 
group.  
--
Quentin

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "shadow22260540" 
<chines@n...> wrote:
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., Paulo Baptista <
> paulo.baptista@u...> wrote:
> > Hi Cleavis,
> > 
> > At 01:06 12/9/2002 +0000, you wrote:
> > >I have a couple of questions, harmless and promise to not take 
over
> > >anyone's life ;-) of anyone who has hands on experience with the
> > >large format Betterlight scanner back.
> > 
> > Actually, I haven't, but as we're planning to buy one for our 
research lab, 
> > I've talked a few times to Mike Collette (BetterLight's president 
and 
> > designer of their scan backs) about these devices, so maybe I 
could be of 
> > some help. I'd be interested, too, in hearing from users of this 
equipment 
> > about some practical issues regarding its use in the field.
> > 
> > Best regards,
> > 
> > Paulo Baptista
> > www.paulobaptista.cjb.net
> > 
> > 
> > >Be much appreciated.
> > >Thanks,
> > >Cleavis
> 
> Hi All, I've used the Betterlight back in studio situations, in a  
> classroom.  It could be used on location with a laptop, et. etc.  
The 
> images are "excellent"  120+ MB files.  It requires lots of light 
and 
> the exposures run into minutes 6-10 being common when stopped down 
to 
> f11-16....Bud