Digital BW, The Print

In no way minimizing the great pointers so far about where to do
research, I sense you're looking for ideas on specifically what to
buy. I'm a year into this, very happy and not seeing a need for an
equipment upgrade. My thoughts:

Epson 1280 printer - a rock solid simple functional workhorse. Get a
refurb directly from Epson (about $350) as they are essentially new
and have warranty. Remember 99% of digital printers use Epsons. 

Inks from MIS - either Ultra Tone or Full Spectrum Neutral for the
Epson Driver. widely used, great support both from MIS and on this
site. They use free curves & workflows available on the MIS site or
here. Buy them in carts. 

Paper - Epson Enhanced Matte or Epson Heavy Weight Matte. Reasonably
low cost and works very well. You'll go through a lot. 

Film Scanner - for 35mm, The Minolta Scan Dual III should do
everything you need for a long time. Great cost / performance ratio. I
think they're about $300 now. (B&H has always been a reliable supplier
for me)

Software: Photoshop is used by probably 98+% of digital printers.
Although Adobe Elements will get you going. Just don't spend time
learning a version of Photoshop earlier than 7. The earlier versions
work well but your major investment will be in time learning how to
use it, not money to buy it. Learning how to use Photoshop is the
biggest part of the learning curve in making digital prints. Count
your blessings that you're an IT pro. 

bottom line: just buy the stuff and start making prints. Learning how
to improve is a lot more motivating than doing research. 

Bob Michaels

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Jim Mooney
<jmooney776@c...> wrote:
> Hi All,
>          I recently found this groups and am intrigued by the idea of 
> making B&W prints on my own.  I haven't yet switched to digital
capture but 
> I also don't have the space for a darkroom so this seems like a great 
> solution.  My questions to the group are:
> 
> What would you all recommend as an affordable basic setup consisting
of a 
> printer, inks, papers, software, and perhaps a scanner?
> 
> Are there any resources such as a FAQ that go through to get the basic 
> concepts down?
> 
> I guess I consider myself an impassioned amateur photographer and my 
> shooting consists of travel, outdoors, and some people.  I'm a IT
person 
> who works with MAC's and PC's so I hope that I can contribute to the
group 
> if anyone has any computer issues.  I'm a total novice to digital photo 
> work, so I won't have much to offer in that area yet.
> 
> Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.
> 
> 
> Take care,
> 
> Jim