Digital BW, The Print

Hello Steve,

>My question really revolved around trying digital capture rather 
>than film.  However, I think that you both provided enough 
>information about cameras and the G2 to get me going.

I have a G3 (4mp like the G2) and while it makes excellent pics, the
4mp is not enough resolution for anything over 5x7.  At 7x9
stair-stepping begins to be visible on diagonal lines and the image
has a "digital look".  Last spring I graduated to an 8mp Canon Pro-1
(has an extremely sharp L-class 28-200 zoom) and it's great.  A "film
look" to the pics and room to crop.  I recently printed an 11x14 from
an image that was cropped about 15% and it looked great - no
stair-stepping or pixellation and no "digital look".  

I once printed an 11x14 from a 6mp sample image downloaded from
dpreview and it was fine, but I doubt it would have stood the cropping
that the 8mp allows.  So I would say that 6mp is the minimum
acceptable resolution, and anything over that is even better. 
Obviously I'm spoiled by 8.

One thing that surprised (and pleased) me is that digital images
(assuming enough resolution) hold together for large prints much
better than film scans because of the lack of film grain.  I recently
printed a small section of a Pro-1 portrait at increasingly higher
magnification just to see what the outer limits are.  I got all the
way up to 22x30 before it began to fall apart.  At that point it was
printing at 108 dpi.  The 18x24 version, at 136 dpi, looked quite
good, and the 15x20 at 163 dpi was excellent.

One thing that takes getting used to is the BW digi pics don't
reproduce BW films' spectral responses.  So you probably won't have
the "look" you're used to.  You can approximate it in PS if you're
patient and clever, but it still isn't the same.  You just have to
accept it as if it's another kind of film.  I was a severe Tri-X
addict of many years and thought I never get over it, but I have
adjusted and am now getting very pleasing images - it has taken a long
time to get my PS skills up to an acceptable level (still learning). 
My main problem is not enough time, but I'm getting there.

In January I'm taking my first serious photo expedition with the
Pro-1, to Death Valley and the Nat'l Mojave Scenic area.  My landscape
"kit" has gone from 26 lbs (11 lb tripod and 15 lb bag with Pentax 67
outfit) to  7.5 lbs (3.5 lb bag with Pro-1 outfit and a 3.8 lb carbon
fiber tripod).  I'm not complaining <g>.

I hope this helps get some idea what to expect.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm