Digital BW, The Print

> From: Val Brunell [mailto:vbrunell1@...]
>
> As I do a lot of B&W landscapes I have not made the switch to
> digital capture. I have been scanning 6x7 negatives to maximize
> print quality for 8x10 and 11x14 and use the 1280 w/PT Sellenium
> inks. I've been happy with the output. Needless to say, I would
> love ditch the film processing step, but assume that I would notice
> a significant difference in the output if I went to 35mm digital
> capture for this type of work.

Probably, at larger sizes. But with landscapes, you have one more
possibility that you may not have considered: panorama stitching. You can
easily put together a 12000 pixel wide image. Even the Photomerge function
in PS CS is pretty good, although I still prefer Pano Tools and PTGui.

> However, for my smaller B&W 35mm work, like street work, that I
> would produce as 5x7 (or possibly 8X10), I have been thinking about
> a Nikon D100 (as I have Nikon lenses).
>
> I would like some input before droping the money on a D100 body!
>
> Questions:
>
> 1.) Has anyone on this forum compared the piezo "small print"
> quality from 35mm/6+ mp digital versus 100 and 400 ASA film scanned
> at 4000 dpi? At 5x7, is there noticable/significant quality
> differences in the resulting print?

For 5x7 prints, the sharpness and noise level is probably limited by the
inkjet dither. Six megapixels is more than enough. At 8x10, you might be
able to notice a tiny reduction in sharpness, if you really look for it, but
you can certainly find out whether it's a problem by reducing one of your
existing images to 2048x3072 and printing it. As to noise, the latest
digicams are excellent.

> 2.) Assuming there are folks on this list that are using the
> 35mm/6+ mp cameras...what is your overall satisfaction level with
> this tool matched with the piezo system?

I love my 10D. It's probably a tad better than the D100 in the noise
department, but not so much that I'd recommend trading in all that Nikon
glass. Many people consider them better than film at higher ISOs. But I may
not be as obsessive as you are about sharpness. I've produced nice 12x18"
prints, which is only about 170ppi, so my standards may be different.

--

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco@...