Hi Rob Studdert, I am a newbe to this discusion group so please exuse me if I am not responding to this email correctly.
"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? 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:" OK, You got me here. I suspected that there would be a digital enlarger down the road. I also have a 67 system too. However, I do not have a bottomless budget and when it comes down to it the digital divide is $$. That enlarger (http://www.benboardman.com.au/bb/devere/dv504d.shtml) I am sure is no out-of-pocket expense. Top of the line cannon is still some serious $$$$. Most people (pro or not) are not going to justify that kind of layout of cash and why should they. As you stated; "I'm guessing that printing B&W digital to paper will get better and easier as digital print systems evolve too." "Granted digital image capture is in its early stages" Granted, most digital that I have seen has been on a computer. I am still not convenced (yet) that digital can do B&W affectively. All digital is doing is taking a jpg or tiff and changing the colot to grey tones. I am not sure if that is really a desired affect? However, I am still a film snob at this point too :) I am sure you have seen this link. http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-02-05-02.shtml I have not seen tests on all their latest lenses but I have on their EF 50mm lenses an they are not Impressive. http://www.photo.net/equipment/canon/ef50/ I am not sold on the anti vibrasion stuff as really worth a cannon system. Mike R. - you will only get my pentax from my cold dead fingers ;)
