Digital BW, The Print

With the hope of combining the strengths (while avoiding the 
weaknesses) of the digital and wet darkrooms, I've been exploring the 
possibility of creating digital negatives with my 1160. I've read 
that this can be done -- 
http://www.danburkholder.com/Pages/misc_pages/digital_neg_faq.htm -- 
however, I'm not sure just how much work, problems, troubleshooting, 
etc. it would involve. If anyone on this list has gone down this 
path, I'd be interesting in hearing about your experiences.

Chris Hargens

I also made an attempt at digital negatives with a 1270 with OEM inks and an 1160 using Piezo.  I sealed the Piezo inks to the Pictorico film with a coat of lacquer thinned 100% (fast drying) via an airbrush.  I exchanged a few E-mails with Dan and, at the time, he was experimenting with the same process using a canned matte lacquer.  The Piezo looked promising for a while but I was intermittently fighting the micro banding issue.  I found, and as Paul Roark mentioned, that the inks on the Picto film were not linear.  I could never get a satisfactory print from a subject in a white to off white lace blouse against a dark background -- just couldn't get a decent range from highlight to shadows.  But, for example, I could get a terrific print (using 1270) of the "Adobe Gal" and step wedge included on the CD that came with the book.  I abandoned the effort when I sold off all my darkroom equipment last year.

		William Garcia