Digital BW, The Print

Although I also have Nikon glass, as a "Canon guy" going back to the Kodak 
520/Canon 2000 ($15,000 for 2 megapixels, how soon we forget), I have been 
through the evolution of TTL flash.

As a general practitioner, Weddings are a small part of my repertoire. I 
currently have the 1D Mark II and the 20d, upgraded to these as they became 
chronologically available simply because of ETTL-2. It will NOT blow out the whites 
like the 10d or 1d did, which is death in digital capture. I can easily fix a 
shot that's up to 2 stops under.

I actually use those cameras at the Medium jepeg fine setting, which is a 4 
Megapixel file. Anything more than this on a Wedding is overkill for an 8x10 or 
smaller print and this file will easily print a 16x24 on a 7600.

So you can look at a 1Ds mark 2 as having a 4x oversampling characteristic in 
capture. Downshifting in the camera will increase the pixel quality because 
is samples 4 native pixels ahead of color interpolation and downsampling. It 
wil also have a better selective focus characteristic, for obvious reasons.

On the issue of the R800, that unit is a fantastic color printer and does an 
"acceptable" job on B&W, but you CANNOT use it in BO mode. I own lots of Epson 
and have had every major unit since the original Stylus in 1994, and this is 
the first one that does this.

I have yet to see a better color output than the R800 from any printer 
including the 4000, which does a fantastic job on BO, posted a few days 
ago.........no comments or replies.

Claude Jodoin
Tech. Editor, Rangefinder


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