Digital BW, The Print

A few observations:

1.   If you are considering MF but have never shot it before, consider the 
Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex as a camera.   They are delicious, a joy to hold and 
use, and the optics are the best in class, period.   And you can buy a good 
user on eBay for a few hundred.   (Insert all standard disclaimers here.)   
Nothing else in MF comes close.

2.   Someone else, considering a return to film, asked for labs to process 
B+W.   If you want to give MF film a try but don't want to process your own film 
(which, really, is easy and a lot of fun), buy some Kodak 400CN film -- it 
gives a B+W image but develops in color C-41 process, so you can have it 
developed at your corner one-hour photo.

3.   As for processing, you can use JOBO tanks without the expense and bulk 
of the JOBO bases.   You can roll the JOBO tanks on a tabletop by hand, or buy 
a used Omega or Beseler roller base for $25.   I use JOBO tanks like that all 
the time for my 4x5-inch and 5x7-inch LF work, and they are dreams.

4.   Which leads to my final thought:   If you're going to take the plunge 
and come back to film, why not do it in style and go to a large format camera?   
There is nothing, absolutely nothing so inspiring as a big sheetfilm negative 
fresh from the fixer.   For the sort of work you are doing -- landscapes and 
still lifes -- a view camera is perfectly-suited.   The learning curve is not 
steep.   The equipment is cheap.   And the results are incomparable.   If 
nudity does not offend, stop by my web page, www.mcnew.net -- I am shooting nude 
portraiture entirely in 4x5-inch and 5x7-inch formats.   

5.   One of the benefits of shooting large format is that the Epson flatbed 
scanners will give you more than enough scanning power to get a first-class 
inkjet print -- that will save you a lot of cash and bother on the scanning side. 
  BUT BE WARNED!   Once you start messing with big negatives like these, you 
might conclude, as I have, that they really want to be printed onto silver 
gelatin papers.   And then you will end up doing something stupid like buying a 
4x5 enlarger and and 

Sanders McNew
www.mcnew.net


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]