Digital BW, The Print

Hi Ernst,

> I get the picture.

;-)

> But I doubt it will mean a difference in CCD
> filmscanners
> with B&W films.

It can, but that is film, development, exposure, scene (and in fact, output)
dependant.  Also, the main reason it might not make a difference is the
limits of our grayscale vision.

> The difference should be more pronounced in a PMT drumscanner with the
> higher dynamic range.

Shouldn't matter, as far as the limits of our grayscale vision go.  A CCD
scanner can still have a "range" of around 4...and remember, a .3 increase
in density range (or dynamic range) doubles the amount of data.  It may not
matter as much for some of the higher density B&W films, but for Tri-X (my
favorite), which has a below 2 density range, it can make a big difference.

> In practice I doubt you can use true analog
> gain on a CCD filmscanner, there's no margin left at both sides
> of the tonal
> scale.

I have done exactly that (analog gain in a CCD scanner), and it works quite
well in fact.  What you are up against is actually noise.  You can only
discern down to noise, going below that doesn't give you any more good data.

Regards,

Austin