Digital BW, The Print

> If the range of the film stays fixed and the bit depth goes up the
> width of the raw scan shouldn't change. If you decrease the bit depth
> to less than the range of the film then the raw scan would get
> narrower?

Martin, 

I believe this is confusing because Austin has been trying for a long time
to make dynamic range a function of bit depth, and it just doesn't work that
way. Allow me to quote Andrew Rodney (digitaldog.com):

"Dynamic range has nothing to do with bit depth! They are completely
different spec¹s. You can have a scanner with 16 bits per color and a
dynamic range of 3.3 and you can have a scanner with 12 bits and a dynamic
range of 3.8. Bit depth is the number of steps. Dynamic range is the height
of the star case. You can have a staircase that¹s 20 feet high and have 40
steps. You can have a staircase that¹s 30 feet high and have 30 steps."

That's what the Minolta link that irked Austin was trying to establish. Bit
depth is how many tones are used within the dynamic range, not how many
tones it takes to give you dynamic range.

http://www.dimage.minolta.com/multipro/p01_02.html

Of course someone will mention A/D converters and I will get lost, but
perhaps someone else will handle that part for me.

Todd