Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Scott Rowed" 
 
> The fastest way I found was just to lay the negs on a light table 
> and photograph them with a digital camera. In Photoshop I set up a 
> batch that inverted the files and applied auto levels. The results 
> were surprisingly good. Sure I wouldn't print off them, but for the 
> initial sorting they were more than adequate.
> 
> You could also use a fast scanner for this purpose, but I think the 
> camera saved a lot of time.

A 6MP camera will give you roughly 3000x2000 pixels.  And since the 
the color CCD's in a camera use a bayer-pattern, the actual 
luminosity resolution is even lower than that.

On the other hand, a 4000 DPI scan of even a SMALL MF negative, e.g., 
6 x 4.5 cm, will yield 9600 x 7200 pixels.  And obviously it's even 
worse for 6x6cm, 6x7cm or 4x5in.   So you are throwing away a TON of 
detail, assuming the original negs were reasonably sharp.  You are 
probably also thowing away a ton of dynamic range compared to a film 
scanner.

MF holds LOTS of detail and lots of tonal-range subtlety.   That's 
the whole reason for using MF in the first place!  What you're doing 
is taking all your Hasselblads or Mamiya RB67's or whatever and 
replacing the film backs on them with a little APS camera.