On 29 Apr 2005 at 20:58, Michael A. Russo wrote: > I understand peoples feelings about digital and pentax but I would argue that > digital has not mastered B&W to my satisfaction.
Hi Michael, Unfortunately given your statement above it's difficult to tell just where you are coming from. Do you believe that you have mastered B&W conversion from direct digital captures or scanned film, and from what aspect of the process does your dissatisfaction stem? > I develop and print my own B&W > and putting digital on silver paper is no easy matter. Making a decent print is not such a difficult matter for a skilled B&W printer who has good negatives to work with and the right equipment. I'm guessing that printing B&W digital to paper will get better and easier as digital print systems evolve too. There are already various options that can provide exceptional results such as 1:1 contact printing from high resolution digitally generated film negatives and there are also products coming on line that are attempting to bridge the gap between digital image capture and conventional silver print such as the DeVere Digital Enlarger: http://www.benboardman.com.au/bb/devere/dv504d.shtml > Sure digital is easier > to work with than color film but I think B&W is a art form that will be around > for a while - and I like the affect that silver has to offer. I have seen > color > prints that were done by hand from friends and I don't think a color printer > can match it. Interesting points again, I've never made colour prints in a darkroom (I only made some hideous Cibachrome prints years ago, that doesn't count) however I have had professional hand prints made in the past and I can honestly say that the DSLR prints that I've received recently from well maintained colour calibrated digital labs are some of the best colour prints I've ever seen. I can't vouch for colour digital printing at home, I gave that up as a bad idea years ago, I'd rather let someone else spend a half million on a printer and then use that. > So, I would not be chucking your film gear into the dust bind > quite yet. The digital revolution has just started . Lets see how Pentax > fairs. > Keep in mind that Pentax has been traditionally a very innovative company. > Canon - and other lens makers - has just finally caught up with Pentax in lens > quality. Pentax still makes some of the best optics on the market - and it is > nice to see metal autofocus lenses. Apart from shooting the occasional B&W film in 35mm I really can't see myself reverting back to 35mm film in the future, my DSLR is allowing me to produce very acceptable B&W or colour prints up to 30x45cm. If I need more resolution I revert to 67 film. Granted digital image capture is in its early stages but I really can't see it progressing significantly from the point that the top end Canon cameras are currently at apart from slowly becoming more affordable and smaller. In practical terms I just don't think that there will be continuing demand from photographers to drive development that much further. Pentax might have done some great things in the past but I wouldn't call them extraordinarily innovative these days, glass wise they have some nice pieces but don't all the major manufacturers. So I'm not really convinced that Pentax has anything extraordinary to offer these days and my crystal ball looks cloudy. Cheers, Rob Studdert HURSTVILLE AUSTRALIA Tel +61-2-9554-4110 UTC(GMT) +10 Hours [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://members.ozemail.com.au/~distudio/publications/ Pentax user since 1986, PDMLer since 1998
