Bill wrote: Sorry, I disagree with that statement in the strongest way possible. Even on a bad day (well, yesterday was a good example), the 2102 prints film better than the digital. FWIW, every Noritsu person I have talked to, every real lab tech we have (this excludes the monkeys), and every photographer I know agrees with this.
I don't think we disagree on that. My point was that given the high percentage of "monkeys" working (and running) 1 hr labs, machines that do a better job on full auto will give a better result then a machine that does not do a great job on full auto. Given a choice, I would prefer an analog print from film from a well maintained machine printed by someone with as good or better training, knowledge, and eye, then me. Unfortunately, we are dinosaurs, a dying breed. Every year there are, IMHO, fewer well trained, photographically oriented, lab personnel around. My experience has been that most chains at best give lip service to good training, it all falls apart when that starts to cost money. Then hours and $ for training never seem to appear. I've never worked with the 3101, however my experience with the Noritsu 2711 agrees with your experience. I was using Kodak's SM-2 chemistry and never got the plots where I like them, saw too much variance from day to day. Re-calibrating the system after a bulb change would be 2-4 hours. I also agree that gamut and the tendency towards fake (compared to analog) sky and water is inferior to analog. I had less problems with color stability with the Frontier. The gamut was still inferior to analog, but I liked the color more on the Frontier then the results on the Noritsu. My comment about jumping on an opportunity for a Frontier was based on my guess that we are going to see a huge increase in printing from digital media in the next couple of years, and I'm underwhelmed by the PrintPix's output. I would love to have a 2 machine digital and analog solution like you but unfortunately I run a small lab in an underperforming store. I don't expect any new equipment for a while :( Butch Each man had only one genuine vocation - to find the way to himself. Hermann Hesse (Demian)
