Digital BW, The Print

Greg,
Welcome.  I went down this same road about 4 years ago.....35mm and  
4X5 film.

Scanners:
Two basic choices.   Flatbed backlit scanners or dedicated film  
scanners.  More flexibility and lower cost with flatbeds.  Higher  
quality image output and higher cost with the dedicated film  
scanners.   Im my opinion, most "experts" will tell you that you need  
a dedicated film scanner for 35mm but that  maybe a good flatbed will  
work for the image enlargement ratio that you'd be doing in taking 2  
1/4 up to a 17" long dimension.   I think?? that only Nikon is still  
making a good quality film scanner for 35mm and 2 1/4.   I have a  
Konica/Minolta Dimage Scan Elite 5400 II  (how's that for a really  
stupid name)  that I got just before they stopped making them about  
2-3 years ago that I like a lot.   Popular flatbeds in the serious  
amateur market are made by Epson and Microtek.  Here is a link to a  
detailed Review of the Epson V700.

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Epson%20V700/page_1.htm

Software:
Scanning software.    Start with what comes with the scanner.  Most, I  
think, come with scanning software.  It might suffice.  If not, and  
the experts will tell you that you can do better, VueScan is a very  
popular inexpensive software and LaserSoft is popular but expensive.

Image Processing:
Photoshop..........and maybe, for cataloging and image adjustments,  
Lightroom.

Printing:
A 13" wide printer would fit your size needs (for example, 13x19  
paper).   Next you have to decide upon dye based inks or pigment based  
inks.   Dye based is cheaper and maybe (maybe not) will print a larger  
color gamut in color prints, but will fade some over time.   People  
talk about seeing some ink/paper combinations show fading in 3-4  
years.  Other paper/ink combos have published life expectancies with  
no observable fading in the 15+ year range.  (Of course how the print  
is mounted, sealed, framed and where it is displayed all matter.     
Pigment is the most long lasting printing you can do outside of  
standard, in the wet darkroom, archival B/W silver gelatin prints.   
They talk about test results in accelerated fading tests of no fading  
in the 75-200+ year range.  (since I haven't looked at printers in a  
couple years, this may be somewhat out of date....other here will be  
able to correct/update what I've said) Popular dye printers include  
the Epson 1400, Canon 9000.  Popular pigment based printers are the  
Epson 1800, 2880 (recently replaced the 2400), Canon 9500, HP 9180 and  
8850.

I think that since you said that you'd mostly want to print B/W, that  
the best results will come from the pigmented ink printers.  Lots of  
people seem to be getting very neutral B/W prints from the Epson 2880  
and the HP 9180.    Here's a link that tested the three most popular  
13" pigment printers head to head.

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/printers/Pigs/page_1.html


Good luck with your journey.   I've found that scanning/editing and  
ink jet printing my color images has produced the best prints I've  
ever done.

Brad

On Sep 17, 2008, at 2:24 PM, yelbmw wrote:

> I'm new to the digital world and need to get feedback on what it takes
> to get started. I'll still shoot with my film cameras, 35mm and 2-1/4
> and scan into my computer which is an Dell XP. I'm looking for
> information on software, scanners and printers. 90% of my work will be
> in b/w and will need to be copied onto fiber based paper. I usually
> work in 8x10 or smaller but would like the option of 11x17. Thanks for
> your help. Greg
>
>
> 



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