Digital BW, The Print

Well after holding out, partly because of money, I'm considering 
> jumping into the digital camera realm. I still have budget 
> considerations and since my current set up is a Canon EOS 1N with 
> some good lenses it makes sense to look at the Canons. Used D60's 
and 
> new D10's are not that far off in price so I'm focusing on the 
D10's 

Tim

Hey,didn't Tim say 'Real World'?

I have printed for 25 years starting with the very first cibachromes 
in 1976.

I shoot Portrait with a D60 and convert to sepia and print through a 
9600 onto photorag with matte black ink. I fit 70 images onto a half 
gig card and have never shot anything except RAW (best quality). I 
do almost all my work in 16 bit not 8bit (chalk and cheese for my 
work). This gives me an uninterpolated (after camera interpolation) 
file size of 16bit 32meg to play with.

This takes me to 24x30 through PS Interpolation (10% steps)quite 
nicely for PORTRAIT. Anymore can be still great if you smooth out a 
few interpolation artifacts here and there. The CMOS and firmware on 
the D60 has less artifacts than the D1X and D760 after tests I did. 
It is a wonderful camera for B@W fine art printing.

As far as the real world goes. Side by side, my clients MUCH prefer 
the digital image onto matte paper than hasselblad onto RC paper.

I have to spend an average of two hours more per client preparing 
slides as before they were sent out, however my sales have improved 
by 20% per portrait client because I can shoot a little more and get 
better shots to choose from and can easily fix up duds where 
necessary.

My work flow has been brought forward by about 3 weeks. That is 
delivery is 2-3 weeks earlier and that has effectively paid for the 
new D60 and part of the 9600. (a surprise bonus.)

Summary: Digital for Portrait - more time spent and higher sales.

I miss my softar on the Blad though (Guassian Blur on second level 
just dont cut it)

Garry Sarre

www.sarre.com