Digital BW, The Print

> What you say below, is exactly my point, that Austin seems incapable of
> understanding.

I have NEVER, EVER, ONCE disagreed that digital printing produce "better"
(in many respects) prints than darkroom prints.  I have NEVER argued that
point at all.  That HAS NOT been the debate at all.  YOU simply use it to
lump it in your digital camera as the source.

What Clayton said is NOT NOT NOT what you have been saying.  YOU have been
comparing film with a complete analog workflow to digital...EXCLUDING
scanning of film.  That has always been your stance, and you simply have
been unable to separate out film from chemical printing.  If you read what
Clayton said, he said HE SCANS THE FILM, and prints digitally, as I, and
most everyone else on this list do.  I haven't had a chemical darkroom for
printing for quite a few years.  I PRINT digitally.

What YOU call "digital", is apparently DIGITAL PRINTING, but YOU lump in
digital capture to it as well.  What most EVERYONE ELSE calls "digital" is
scanning and digital printing, which, as I've said, %99.999 people on this
mailing list do, as it IS a "Digital B&W" mailing list.

> > My own experience is that during the past year I have been scanning my
> > best 4x5 and 6x7 Tri-X negs and making digi prints, and the prints are
> > better than I could ever do with the enlarger.  Since I'm using the
> > same image source, and it may even be that the scans have less
> > information than the negs, I attribute the difference to the ability
> > to have precise control over areas of the image that I couldn't ever
> > come close to in the darkroom.
>
> The trouble is, Austin and I and a few others have rehashed this theme
> to death,

The problem is simply YOUR use of the word "digital" and what YOU mean by
it.  The rest of us are talking about film vs digital image capture, and the
benefits etc. thereof, and YOU are talking about digital printing...and as I
said, seem to lump in digital image capture to then claim claim it is better
than film.

(swinging a gold pocket watch in front of Jerry's face, said in a slow,
deep, monotone voice, repeated three times) FORGET ABOUT DARKROOM PRINTING,
JERRY...

The "issue", which is FILM IMAGE CAPTURE + FILM SCANNING vs DIGITAL IMAGE
CAPTURE, would be FAR FAR FAR better served if you would simply leave the
darkroom printing out if it.  Perhaps the "tossed about" word "digital" may
need a qualifier, like "digital printing", or "digital image capture"...

Austin