Digital BW, The Print

Phil,

By now you are hopefully in Oakhurst having a great time.

I checked A&I's site and it is a Lightjet 2080 which was made by 
Cymbologic. Cymbologic doesn't list it on their website so I wonder 
if it is out of production.

A Yahoo search on "Lightjet 2080" turned up a few mentions of other 
service bureaus that have them. Nancy scans has one but does not 
mention B&W. Found a deal on two used ones, a 1996 and 1997. If you 
have a spare $39,400 you could have one in your studio. No wonder the 
output costs a bit!

I like A&I's reply. You really are doing a system calibration from 
camera-scan-monitor-(proof printer)-digital neg-enlarger-print which 
is a rather long chain.

A rough idea for a possible calibration workflow:

Get a 4X5 Stauffer step tablet

Measure all the steps with a densitometer

Enlarge it onto your favorite #2 paper at the size you anticipate so 
that the print Dmin falls at least three steps from the end of the 
scale.

Raw scan the step tablet

Take it into Photoshop and in levels put the white point on the step 
that gave paper Dmax and the black point on the step that gave paper 
Dmin.

Output this file to the Lightjet 2080

Output the raw scan of the step tablet to the 2080.

Record the density of all the steps on these step tablets.

Hopefully this would give you enough information to create a transfer 
function to map from a negative/scan to Lightjet output.

I may be missing something here, but it might be a way to go simplify 
the system calibration.

Martin

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Phil Bard" <phil@p...> 
wrote:
> Everyone,
> 
> I won't have anything to report on the tests I'm conducting with 
A&I 
> until early next week.  I spoke with them moments ago and they said 
> film should be ready this afternoon, but I'm off to the Piezo 
Summit 
> and won't be able to pick it up.
> 
> Point of clarification, apparently the digital negs they produce 
for 
> enlargement purposes are created not on the Lightjet but a (Fuji?) 
Film 
> Recorder 2080.  The Lightjet outputs Duratrans (as well as print 
> media), but not camera film, and therefore is not suitable for my 
> purposes.  Sorry for the misinformation, my initial meetings with 
them 
> took place along with a fellow photographer who is testing their 
print 
> output, and the specifics as to what device was doing what were not 
> clarified.  I'm now dealing with the operators and getting my info 
> straight from them.
> 
> They have stressed all along, however, and I should make this 
clear, 
> that the initial phases of this process take time.  Everyone's film 
and 
> enlarger combination is a bit different and they have to make 
several 
> runs to get into sync with their client.  You would have to expect 
the 
> same should you decide to go this route.
> 
> Have a great weekend, and I'll see some of you, no doubt, in 
Oakhurst.
> 
> Phil
> http://philbard.com