Digital BW, The Print

Morning Austin! 

> > What is there about the agfa that puts it outside the leaf's
> > wonderfulness?
> 
> Higher resolution for 35mm, scans B&W with a single ND filter...and the
> overall scanner design.  

I wasn't thinking of 35mm here, but 2 1/4.

The Leaf is designed with no mirrors or deflections
> in the light path, I do not believe the Agfa can say that...as it is a
> flatbed.  I also don't know what lense the Agfa uses, 

Macro Rodenstock APO, I believe; it's one of their best lenses.

but the Leaf uses a
> Rodigon APO flat field lense, that is quite high end.  Believe me, I have no
> disrespect for the Agfa, but it's a multi-purpose scanner that has
> compromises in design...

> > I know it. I'm not positive the guy who scanned my leafscan was an
> > expert.  I'll never know. He's long gone, and so is the leaf scanner at
> > his lab. But my own scan is of equal quality to his leafscan.

> If you want, Jerry, you can send me a B&W MF negative, and I'll send you a
> scan.

I may take you up on your offer.  I would like to rescan one of my
favorite negs on my agfa, then send it to you and have you scan it on
your leaf at the maximum possible quality.  It is an image of a mountain
stream after a fresh snowfall, taken after sunset with a fuji 6x9. 
Unfortunately, I had the wrong film in the camera for this shot, it was
vericolor H.C. We were just driving by this stream in Montana, and I
didn't have a lot of time to set up the shot, or change films, as the
light was rapidly disappearing.  The exposure was about a minute, so you
can see it was getting dark fast! But the image itself is one of my
favorites, and I would love to get the highest possible quality from it. 

I'll rescan it on my agfa, and then send it to you. (I can do a better
job now, I've had much more experience with scanning since I last
scanned it).

When you send it back, send a 11x17 (Roughly) print with it, that you've
printed as well as you can.  I'll print your file as is, with no
adjustments from me, as large as I can on my 1280 printer. And then I'll
see what a leaf really can do and if it is really that much better than
the agfa. Please scan at least 2500 DPI. More if you can. I really hope
your scanner is better than the agfa in this case, as I would love to
get a 3 foot print of it someday to hang in my living room. I'll be glad
to pay you for your print, CD, and postage. 

Jerry

> BTW, were your Leaf scans B&W or color?

Both Tmax Black and white.

Jerry
>f