Digital BW, The Print

Greetings,


(I understand that this topic has been hashed over many times here, 
but due to the ever-changing state of the art, I figure I'd pose the 
question again.)

I'm currently in the market for a digital darkroom setup to be used 
primarily for B&W development.  I'd like to solicit your advice on 
what I products/systems I should be looking at.   The only 
requirement I have is that the prints are archival and of 
professional quality.

Specifically, I'd like to know more about the following:

Film Scanners.   (I'd still like to shoot with my 35mm.)  Which ones 
give the best output at the best price?  Is there any image 
degradation?  Can the scans be used to produce professional prints?

Digital Cameras.  Which are the best for B&W photography?

Quad Tone Printing.  I've heard that the best price/performance 
option is using the MIS inks with Cone's drivers.  Are any of you 
using this combination?  If so, what is your opinion on the combo?   
Do you know of any sample images available on the web for me to use 
for comparisons?    Which printer should I buy (I want large-
format)?  I like the looks of the Epson 1520 because of the low-cost, 
but can it really produce professional quality prints?

Software.  WYSIWYG software, does it really work?  What's the best?  
Any other "must-have" software out there?

Internet Resources and Books.   Any links to sources on the web would 
be appreciated. Also, if you know of any good books on Digital B&W...


Thanks in advance and happy holidays.  SH

In my testing I liked the Canon FS4000 and the Nikons. I also found the
Kodak RFS 3600 interesting. A 3600dpi scanner, it has the very useful
feature of being able to take a full, uncut strip of 35mm film and batchscan
the whole lot. It won¹t be fast but you can start it going and walk away.
I¹ve used one to scan a large number of films and the results have been
good.

Both the D100 and D60 are excellent cameras. The new EOS-1Ds is stunning in
image quality, easily better than scanning 35mm film, if only we could
afford it.

For internet resources also try http://www.dimagemaker.com

Cheers,
Wayne
-- 
Wayne J. Cosshall
Editor, Digital Photography & Design magazine
Technical Editor, Capture ­ Commercial Photography magazine
Director of Digital ImageMakers International and Editor of their magazine
www.dimagemaker.com
Director, International Digital Art Awards www.internationaldigitalart.com
Personal art website www.artinyourface.com
wayne@...




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

Thanks guys for the tips.  I've decided my first purchase will be the 
film scanner and I've got that narrowed down to the following three:

Polaroid Sprintscan 4000t/tf
Microtek Artixscan 
Leafscan 35/45
(I also plan on checking out the Kodak RFS 3600, which Wayne so 
kindly recomended.)

I'll stick to shooting with my 35mm for now and scan them in for dev. 
I'd like to incorporate an injet system into my lab, but until I have 
a chance to see controlled output from both Peizo and MIS I'll wait 
to make that decision.  It would be really nice to see what both look 
like coming out of a Epson 1280 and 3000 because those are the 
printers I'm condering purchasing.


Lastly, how do you guys make your contact sheets?  Will any ol' 
scanner do or should I be looking for something specific?  


Thanks again.  SH  




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "zelig2 
<zelig2@y...>" <zelig2@y...> wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> 
> (I understand that this topic has been hashed over many times here, 
> but due to the ever-changing state of the art, I figure I'd pose 
the 
> question again.)
> 
> I'm currently in the market for a digital darkroom setup to be used 
> primarily for B&W development.  I'd like to solicit your advice on 
> what I products/systems I should be looking at.   The only 
> requirement I have is that the prints are archival and of 
> professional quality.
> 
> Specifically, I'd like to know more about the following:
> 
> Film Scanners.   (I'd still like to shoot with my 35mm.)  Which 
ones 
> give the best output at the best price?  Is there any image 
> degradation?  Can the scans be used to produce professional prints?
> 
> Digital Cameras.  Which are the best for B&W photography?
> 
> Quad Tone Printing.  I've heard that the best price/performance 
> option is using the MIS inks with Cone's drivers.  Are any of you 
> using this combination?  If so, what is your opinion on the 
combo?   
> Do you know of any sample images available on the web for me to use 
> for comparisons?    Which printer should I buy (I want large-
> format)?  I like the looks of the Epson 1520 because of the low-
cost, 
> but can it really produce professional quality prints?
> 
> Software.  WYSIWYG software, does it really work?  What's the 
best?  
> Any other "must-have" software out there?
> 
> Internet Resources and Books.   Any links to sources on the web 
would 
> be appreciated. Also, if you know of any good books on Digital 
B&W...

> 
> 
> Thanks in advance and happy holidays.  SH

Dear SH,

All those scanners are good. Like all things it is a tradeoff between cost,
personal workflow preferences, etc.

I actually don't do worksheets. My approach is to batch scan a whole roll of
film to TIFFs, burn to CD and then catalogue the CDs using Canto Cumulus (I
have also used Extensis Portfolio). Software like this lets you do keyword
searches, etc to find images, and can print to paper or html contact sheets.
One hint if you go this route is to use meaningful folder (directory) names
and hierarchies when you are saving the images. These programs will extract
the path information and use that in indexing. It saves a bit of manual
keyword entry.

Cheers,

Wayne
-- 
Wayne J. Cosshall
Editor, Digital Photography & Design magazine
Technical Editor, Capture ­ Commercial Photography magazine
Director of Digital ImageMakers International and Editor of their magazine
www.dimagemaker.com
Director, International Digital Art Awards www.internationaldigitalart.com
Personal art website www.artinyourface.com
wayne@...

Hi Peter,
When I have had a lot of film to scan I have borrowed a Kodak RFS 3600 off
Kodak (advantage of being the editor of photo magazines), as this will batch
scan a whole uncut roll of film. Otherwise I use a Canon FS4000 and scan a
strip of 6 at a time. I don't shoot that much film anymore so this works for
me.

I always scan at the maximum resolution that is appropriate to the film
stock. Then the film gets files and never looked at again and the high res
files get indexed with Canto Cumulus after burning to CD.

I've never felt it made sense, for me, to scan at a low res. Because most of
my personal photography gets heavily manipulated (see www.artinyourface.com)
I need access to my imagery as 'components'.

Hope that helps,
Cheers,
Wayne

-- 
Wayne J. Cosshall
Editor, Digital Photography & Design magazine
Technical Editor, Capture ­ Commercial Photography magazine
Director of Digital ImageMakers International and Editor of their magazine
www.dimagemaker.com
Director, International Digital Art Awards www.internationaldigitalart.com
Personal art website www.artinyourface.com
wayne@...

Hi Peter,
When I have had a lot of film to scan I have borrowed a Kodak RFS 3600 off
Kodak (advantage of being the editor of photo magazines), as this will batch
scan a whole uncut roll of film. Otherwise I use a Canon FS4000 and scan a
strip of 6 at a time. I don't shoot that much film anymore so this works for
me.

I always scan at the maximum resolution that is appropriate to the film
stock. Then the film gets files and never looked at again and the high res
files get indexed with Canto Cumulus after burning to CD.

I've never felt it made sense, for me, to scan at a low res. Because most of
my personal photography gets heavily manipulated (see www.artinyourface.com)
I need access to my imagery as 'components'.

Hope that helps,
Cheers,
Wayne

-- 
Wayne J. Cosshall
Editor, Digital Photography & Design magazine
Technical Editor, Capture ­ Commercial Photography magazine
Director of Digital ImageMakers International and Editor of their magazine
www.dimagemaker.com
Director, International Digital Art Awards www.internationaldigitalart.com
Personal art website www.artinyourface.com
wayne@...



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