Digital BW, The Print

Hi,

> Is anyone out there SO happy with their digital b&w production that
> will PLEASE ease my fears that I've dived into a technology that
> really hasn't gotten there yet?  Help me!!!  Is it possible to find
> b&w satisfaction in the digital world?  Can real b&w be achieved?

If you scan film, yes, satisfaction is absolutely guaranteed ;-)

The problem I've had with digital image input is the sensors used in these
digicams, are only RGB, with the exception of a few, one from Kodak and a
back from Kodak come to mind...and if it's RGB, Foveon aside, it's a Bayer
pattern imaging sensor, which means there are only %50 of the sensor
elements are green, %25 blue and %25 red.  So, what you get when you think
you've got a 6M PIXEL camera is really a 6M PIXEL camera that then
interpolates the 6M SENSOR data to give you 6M PIXELS.  That means the data
you get from the camera is made from %33 less information...so the camera is
"making up" %66 of the data you get!

I do have a digital camera that is B&W and not RGB...and it is quite good.
The problem with this is they aren't readily available, and aren't cheap.
It's a niche market, so they're going to be expensive.

I am ecstatic with my methodology, shooting MF (Hasselblad), scanning it at
2540 on a Leafscan that uses only a single ND filter, not RGB, and printing
using Piezography on an Epson 3000 on EHWM.

Austin