QTR-Quadtone RIP

Hi all, only hope this post two or three times. Mr. Miller, your last  
has come a half dozen times.

I am just starting to get back into rocks and trees after a career in  
photojournalism and I want to set up a digital darkroom to make black  
and white prints for myself.

What do you all consider a good densitometer for reading negs and  
prints that won't break the bank. I notice there are a lot of them on  
eBay. The only ones I recognize are the ones I have seen in the press  
room or backshop like the Macbeth or Kodak big'uns.

Thanks to anyone who has the time to be helpful.

Dave Polcyn

Hi all, only hope this post two or three times. Mr. Miller, your last  
has come a half dozen times.

I am just starting to get back into rocks and trees after a career in  
photojournalism and I want to set up a digital darkroom to make black  
and white prints for myself.

What do you all consider a good densitometer for reading negs and  
prints that won't break the bank. I notice there are a lot of them on  
eBay. The only ones I recognize are the ones I have seen in the press  
room or backshop like the Macbeth or Kodak big'uns.

Thanks to anyone who has the time to be helpful.

Dave Polcyn

I use a Noritsu DM201 for QTR work.  They are quite cheap on eBay 
(~$100) and work fine for making curves, although they're a bit slow to 
use.  I have mine hooked up to my PCs serial port and use hyperterminal 
to dump the readings into a text file.  Then I copy and paste the 
readings into a spreadsheet for comparison against the ideal curves.

Cheers,

Terence Lowe.

Dave

Until recently, I've used an Xrite-810 that I bought on ebay for about $150.
It handles both reflection and transmission densitometry and has been very
reliable. It came with several out of date calibration plates that I
continue to use. It does need to be calibrated, so if you don't get plates
with the densitometer, you can count on having to spend at least $50 for new
ones from Xrite. I don't remember the exact amount but it's on their
website.

I also have several utilities (free from Xrite) that I can use to import
density readings into Excel (or other application) through a serial port.

I have never used the transmission feature, other than to see if it worked.

Tom Moore

> -----Original Message-----
> From: QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com [mailto:QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of David Polcyn
> Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 9:20 PM
> To: Quadtone Usergroup
> Subject: [QuadtoneRIP] Densitometer?
> 
...
> 
> What do you all consider a good densitometer for reading negs and
> prints that won't break the bank. I notice there are a lot of them on
> eBay. The only ones I recognize are the ones I have seen in the press
> room or backshop like the Macbeth or Kodak big'uns.
...