Digital BW, The Print

IMO 35mm TX or TMZ 3200 should be grainy.  Or dotty?  I don't know but I've 
got nice BO prints from TX and TMZ that look like TX or TMZ.  

I can shoot any format from 35mm-8x10.  Because of time and recently 
moving I've only been shooting 35mm.  And I can only scan 35mm at home.  
While I know that a BO inkjet print isn't really going to look like the the "real" 
silver prints around the house that is OK.  Also like Hartmann I really like the 
grain and look of 35mm, TX especially.   

I used to try to bend 35mm to look like larger formats when all I had was 
35mm.  Once I finally borrowed a friends dads Rollicord I gave up on that and 
waited till I could move up.  TX is my favorite flavor in all formats.

When I was printing Pd and Pt prints my first prints were biased by me to my 
silver taste.  When I got over that things were different.  I went with the very 
long scale and lower contrast. I just didn't at first.  Different process and a 
different look.  BO prints or any inkjet print are different, but that is the Holy 
Grail thread anyway.

Imagine a TMZ 3200 available light shot printed with a dotless system.  How 
would it look?  I've never seen one so I really don't know.  But I would want to 
see the grain, and I'd want sharp grain.  That is part of the shot, the mood you 
get with TMZ.   I wouldn't want it smoothed out in anyway.

I have BO prints from Agfa APX100 in Rodinal 1:50 or 1:25.  Blazing sharp 
negs with killer edge sharpness.  APX in Rodinal will do that.  The BO prints 
look very very much like they would on silver and for me that is the point.

I have too many nice film cameras that let me shoot all the different characters 
of film, film speeds and film developers.  I want all those choices to appear in 
my prints.  That is one very big reason I don't own any digital camera.

It's like a tube guitar amp vs solid state. Electric drums so popular years ago 
vs "real" drums (maybe calfskin heads vs plastic).  My wifes pie crust vs Can'O 
crust.  You get the idea.  

BO is very good, I think very natural and very easy and cheap.  For now I'm 
spending on ink and paper, not RIPs and the like.  

The real test?  I shot a Barmitzvah for a freind a month ago.  All TX, all 
scanned and the prints will be not silver but BO with Ebony on PR.  We'll see 
what the reaction is.

Neil Swanson