Digital BW, The Print

I started a thread, recently, on film processing. I want to thank 
you all for the thoughtful answers. They will be a big help to me. 
Now I would like to look in a little different direction.

I don't have a darkroom set up in this house yet. If I am going to 
do digital printing, I won't need one for the prints, but will still 
need to do the film. But do I? I have been reading reviews on the 
Cannon 1Ds. Right now, this seems to be at the top of 
the "affordable" digital camera ladder. At least one review has 
compared it favorably to 645 roll film. Now, the review was talking 
about color film. It is my understanding that B&W work is much more 
demanding on camera quality.

Has anyone here used the 1Ds for serious B&W work. I would guess it 
might be fine for portraits, but how about for landscapes? How large 
can you print a file from this camera and still hold satisfactory 
detail? I know it will never compete with a 4X5, but I won't be 
making any 16X20 prints, either. What do you folks think?


Thanks,
Jim

Eyesight problems are tough on photographers, and I am impressed with your
persistence despite it.  Here are a few suggestions:

I had special bi-focals made, the top part is corrected for infinity, the
bottom part is corrected for looking through a viewfinder.  The doctor who
examined me was an amateur photographer and understood exactly what I
needed.  These glasses are weird, you cannot see your feet in front of you,
but they make short and sure work of your shot.  I bought them years ago
when I came back from a shoot with thirty rolls of out-of-focus film,
(whenever possible, I use a view camera, and I never have problems with
ground glass focusing)

Nikon makes eyepiece adapters for some of their cameras, but these get mixed
reviews on the several internet discussions that I have read, so try them
before buying any of them, with all your lenses individually.  I did buy one
for Hassleblad, and what a good difference that made!

Nikon makes alternative screens with larger rangefinder section in the
middle, but it does not work on any lens longer than about 105mm in my
personal experience (it blacks out)

A Beattie screen for your Nikon would give you a whole F stop brighter view
in your finder.  Most big camera stores have a sample or demo camera that
you can see for yourself.  This is a process where the screen is coated with
a luminous material, so probably any screen that a camera repairman can
remove from a camera could be coated.  I don't have any knowledge of how it
would work on specific models of digital cameras.

Best of luck with your photography!

Tom Robinson

> Blah Blah Blah..
> 
> This entire "digital vs film" issue is essentially ridiculous in many
> ways...

I agree entirely.  Digital is particularly suited for photojournalism and
commercial work, but it would be foolish to advise photographers to limit
themselves to it.  Cameras are a photographer's cash register, and the more
the better.  It is better to keep a full arsenal, because cameras are cheap
compared with what they earn.  Look at what any camera can make over a
period of a year, or ten.  If your digital breaks (twice so far this year
with my Nikon, they are very fragile) you might be very happy to pull out an
all-mechanical camera backup and be back in business is a matter of seconds.
tom robinson