Digital BW, The Print

The current lesser Nikon (V) is 14 bit, its big brother (5000) is
16...hard to imagine 2 bits making a difference in 35mm scans, but
somewhere I did see a demonstration of significant differences between
 8 and 16 re: Silverfast. 

If B&W film was a digital phenomenon, I wonder what its bit depth
would be? 

Djon

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Steve Kale
<stevekale@b...> wrote:
> thomkrahn <krahn@f...>
> 
> You might gain some comfort on the bit depth issue by remembering
that high
> end DSLR cameras are still only 12bit (the digital backs have moved
to true
> 16).  I was asking the question on another forum as to whether
12bits was
> enough if I wanted to edit in a very large gamut space like ProPhoto RGB
> rather than the narrower Adobe RGB (which excludes and hence clips many
> inkjet printable colours). In short, the view was that while 16 would be
> better, 12 was ok.  I think you can likely take the bit depth issue
off the
> table and assess the scanner on the other merits/demerits.
> 
> Steve
> 
> 
> > From: Andre <am1000@v...>
> > Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> > Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 13:41:31 -0000
> > To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> > Subject: [Digital BW] Re: scanner bits question
> > 
> > --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "thomkrahn"
> > <krahn@f...> wrote:
> >> I am thinking about getting a Microtek 2500 scanner for black and
> >> white 4x5.  I can get a used scanner with 12bit output somewhat
> >> cheaper than a new scanner with 16 bit output.
> >> 
> > The Microtek 2500T may have been an 8 bits only scanner, but it was a
> > capable scanner for b&w negatives. It may be surpassed by newer
> > dedicated mf scanner but I'm not sure that the prosumer level scanners
> > are better.
> > 
> > Check out this website, were the images were scanned on a Microtek
> > 2500T scanner. That's the Jerry Olson website, whom is no longer
with us.
> > 
> > http://www.westernechoes.com/
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > André Moreau
> >