Digital BW, The Print

> In a message dated 4/30/06 10:49:48 AM, hogarth@... writes:
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>> My understanding is that it's impossible to actually image film grain
>> (that is, grain clumps or the resulting dye clouds in color films) with
>> a scanner. The grains when seen under a microscope are generally
>> fractals. The fractal detail (actual shapes) is considerably smaller
>> than the 3 micron size of the best aperture on the best drum scanners. A
>> 3 micron square is at best a poor representation of most film grain.
>>
>>     
The problem here is that there are two different meanings of film 
grain.  Normally, "grain" is used to indicate the dots that ones sees in 
a traditional print when it is enlarged enough to show them. For 
example, you will see these dots in a Tri-x negative developed to a 
normal contrast in HC110B on printed at 8x10.  The second use is to 
refer to actual silver crystals or dye clouds.  Thus to day that it's 
impossible to image film grain is false in the first sense, but true in 
the latter.