Digital BW, The Print

Martin Wesley

http://www.borderless-photos.de/guests.html



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "A. Huntley" <leicam6@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2003 9:16 AM
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Digital, film, scanning comparisons


(snip)
>
> My 16-bit 4x5 grayscale scans on the Epson 1680 flatbed usually top out at
> about 100MB. My 450Mhz G4 Mac seems to handle this size without a hiccup.
I
> usually scan my 8x10 B&W negs at 800 ppi figuring that with this size neg
I
> don't need anything more than that for my typical print size; generally
> about 11x14, or so, on 13x19 paper. However, for best quality I should
> probably be scanning at max optical density (1600) of my scanner. No doubt
> that any drum scan would produce better quality than my flatbed, but the
> Epson 1680 seems to do pretty well for LF work. I'm actually toying with
the
> idea of getting some Kami fluid, or equivalent, and trying a quasi
wet-mount
> directly on the glass. I've read some things about the 'net of people
using
> mineral oil, etc., and reporting higher resolution scans with better
shadow
> detail. All good things! But, then there's the cleanup. <G>

Alan,

George DeWolfe wrote a nice article with examples on using wet mounting with
a 1640. It was in View Camera or Camera Arts about 18 months ago. It really
does improve things. I would recommend you try something like Kami fluid or
Prazio Anti-Newton oil which are very volatile and easy to clean up. Need to
seal the edges of the glass plate on your scanner really well with mounting
tape to keep the oil out of the works. I think you would see a big
improvement.

Martin

(Snip)