rp_photo wrote:
'Office Max special" flatbed scanner.

those don't count

Christopher Bush wrote:
those don't count

About two years ago, when I first felt a yearning to share my images with others, all I had was a $100 HP 3970 flatbed and decades-old film images. I then moved to the present by scanning new film with it, then getting a "real" K-M Dual IV scanner, and finally a Nikon D50 DSLR.

Here is an image from a 126 film negative taken in early 70's and scanned with the 3970:

rp_photo wrote:
Assuming that one is producing anything other than darkroom prints, the final quality of a vintage equipment images is limited by the capability of the film scanner.

Actually, I print only in the darkroom.  I shoot in 4x5 and 5x7 with a Sinar Norma and a selection of lenses, the oldest of which is an 1860's-vintage Hermagis portrait lens.  For snapshots I shoot roll film with a Rolleiflex or a folder.

I used to print digitally but no matter how much I squinted it never looked like a photograph.  So I cannibalized a big closet for a darkroom.  Really, who needs a lot of clothes? 

The good news is that you can assemble a first-class camera and darkroom for much less than the cost of a digicam -- and the camera and enlarger will outlive you.  I can speak only for myself, but I've yet to see digital output that can match a fiber print from a 4x5 negative. 

Nor can I imagine feeling the emotional attachment to a digital camera that I feel for my film camera.  Working in film, I feel myself to be a part of a 150-year-old tradition.  I look through my lenses and wonder who else used them before me, and what did they see through them? 

Somebody smarter than me once pointed out that online forums like this are digital mdia that attract the digital converts, so my guess is that this thread will be thinly populated. 

Sanders McNew

Mark Wangerin wrote:
I love my Linhofs and lenses and I have all the latest-greatest digital crap, too.   I scan 4x5 negs for 500MB files and they are stunning. Only the H2 could rival it, but not beat it.

Actually, the H2 is pretty crappy.  Check-out the bench tests on their new "non-Zeiss" lenses.  Good contrast but very poor sharpness.  What good is a 500mb digital file with only 60mb of information?

Sanders McNew wrote:
I used to print digitally but no matter how much I squinted it never looked like a photograph.  So I cannibalized a big closet for a darkroom.  Really, who needs a lot of clothes?

i'm moving to a bigger apt this weekend, and just might have room to set up my 6x7 omega that's been sitting in corner...

i popped for a nikon ls9000 and epson r1800, and the results are pretty good.  for the kind of stuff i shoot, i don't need much photoshop, but i have to retain the option of minor retouching.  the catch is that i cannot shoot for both - neg film does not work well in the scanner, and chromes don't work well in the kitchen (i hate rotary processing).  so i guess...personal work on negs, fashion stuff on chrome.  maybe i should just shoot everything black and white so i don't have to worry about it.

Christopher Bush wrote:
i popped for a nikon ls9000 and epson r1800, and the results are pretty good.  for the kind of stuff i shoot, i don't need much photoshop, but i have to retain the option of minor retouching.  the catch is that i cannot shoot for both - neg film does not work well in the scanner, and chromes don't work well in the kitchen (i hate rotary processing).  so i guess...personal work on negs, fashion stuff on chrome.  maybe i should just shoot everything black and white so i don't have to worry about it.

I feel your pain.  I've got an Omega D-2 in the closet, which works for my 4x5s but not my 5x7s.  I just bought an old Eastman Model E enlarger for the 5x7 negatives, but the column is over five feet tall and the baseboard is -- well, it's not fitting inside the closet, that's for sure.

If I were working in color, I might move to digital -- as you note, color chemistry is a lot more fuss than B+W.  But I'm a B+W photographer and quite content to stick with film and paper.

Sanders.

Sanders McNew wrote:
If I were working in color, I might move to digital -- as you note, color chemistry is a lot more fuss than B+W.

two words: tetenal mono

room temp ra-4 that works great in trays.  i hope it's still around!

Sanders McNew wrote:

I feel your pain.  I've got an Omega D-2 in the closet, which works for my 4x5s but not my 5x7s.  I just bought an old Eastman Model E enlarger for the 5x7 negatives, but the column is over five feet tall and the baseboard is -- well, it's not fitting inside the closet, that's for sure.

If I were working in color, I might move to digital -- as you note, color chemistry is a lot more fuss than B+W.  But I'm a B+W photographer and quite content to stick with film and paper.

Sanders.

Sanders,

I have been enlarger printing color since 1966, and find it to be easier to print and finish, than B&W. I can have a 16x20 print processed, washed, and ready to dry in seven minutes. My Ilford fiber prints would just be going into the second fixer bath, in seven minutes. Then there is the long wash time, soaking in pakosol to soften the prints, and over night air drying.

My darkroom is an apartment kitchen, with light tight black panels placed over the windows.

There is some great work being done with digital today, and I like shooting both digital and film. It's all just stuff for getting to the finished prints. I am finding that with the new one pictoliter printers, I have smaller ink droplets, than the grain size from some of the films, like the older Tri X. About half of my 120 film negatives are now scanned to make digital prints.

Sanders McNew wrote:
If I were working in color, I might move to digital.

Sanders.

I should have added that, being partly color-blind, no one should be expecting me to move to color (or digital) any time soon.  :-)

Sanders.

Justin N Lane wrote:
Personally, I've been shooting work digitally for a little over a year, and I think the results feel MORE organic and intuitive than any film based work I've shot for the previous 13 years...with the possible exception of black and white.

Justin, greetings.  Can you elaborate?  Both the main idea, and the exception?  Sanders.

Marvin Dockery wrote:
My darkroom is an apartment kitchen, with light tight black panels placed over the windows.

Marvin, greetings.  I might be going in the same direction with my 5x7 enlarger.  How did you make your panels?  Sanders.

Sanders McNew wrote:

Justin, greetings.  Can you elaborate?  Both the main idea, and the exception?  Sanders.

Hey Sanders,

since it's kind of divergent from the post here, I'll message you with some thoughts...

btw, our worlds are colliding through models more and more...

J