Digital BW, The Print

IMHO Epson 4870 

If I scan a 6x6 cm negative on Epson 3200, my reaction is: "That looks fine, what will I do next?" 

If a scan the same negative on Epson 4870, my reaction is: "That's it!" 

I do not know the actual resolutions or lpi's; perhaps the differences have something to do with local contrast or whatever.

Of course the 4870 scans need sharpening, but they sharpen well. 

If the scans were sharper I'd want to use a soft-focus filter. 

I have shot on my Hasselblad a Fuji (160 ASA) negative, scanned it on 4870, cut it, scanned the 35 mm part on my Minolta 5400 and printed both. If I won something in sharpness I lost it by diffusing the grain. 

In my eyes one of the greatest dangers in digital image making is oversharpening. Please study the old masters of the darkroom: the prints are sharp and yet soft in a very beautiful way. 

But don't take my word for it; this is just IMHO. I am satisfied but one should test the alternatives, if possible. 

I could not do that, but I don't mind.

Now I'd be able to print about 70 x 70 cm prints without interpolation, output resolution 360 dpi, if I'd want to, but A3 is big enough.

For 35 mm negatives Minolta is better.
 
Ukko Heikkinen


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Stephen Kobrin <kobrins@wharton.upenn.edu>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 5:34 PM
Subject: [Digital BW] scanner doubts


I have been thinking about getting back into MF, especially given 
what Bronica ECs are going for on Ebay at this point.  What is 
stopping me is the price of a MF film scanner.  Given that recent 
posts indicate that true resolution on a flatbed is 2-3 times lower 
than a comparable flim scanner, I wonder how adequate they are in 
practice for scanning 120 film.  Do people get 8X10 prints, for 
example, that they consider satisfactory?  Put differently, would I 
see an improvement versus 35mm scanned on a film scanner if I used 
one of the better flatbeds and 120, all things equal.  If so, a 
flatbed, which is always useful, might be a reasonable stopgap until 
I can replace my LS 2000 with a true MF film scanner.

Steve




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