digital vs film

[e2aa]

by way of encouragement, i just had several 4x5 negs drum scanned and inkjet printed. now, the waiting game was a bit painful but let me tell you - the prints make my p40+ prints look pathetic, particularly in color rendition and sharpness (digital too sharp). film is so great. i hope to see a market resurgence when all those (i was one of them) who jumped on the phase one/hassy/leaf digital back hype come to the same realization.

cheers!

[neil poulsen]

How did you print your negatives. Were they scanned and printed or printed directly using an enlarger?

[lawrence beck]

Neil,
There's a reeeelly good clue in the very first line. Here it is again: "i just had several 4x5 negs drum scanned and inkjet printed."
I need reading glasses too, by the way.

[Joanna Carter]

Yaaayy!!! Spread the word.:D

[Mike1234]

I wonder how a well-done 4x5 drum scan would compare to the latest/best Betterlight when done right.

[e2aa]

betterlight has incredible detail and DR but the colors, in my opinion, are flat. of course i am biased...

[e2aa]

subject matter is also essentially limited to still life with betterlight. a friend of mine tried a couple portraits and exposures simply take too long...unless that is the look you are going for. certainly interesting to play around with.

[Jim collum]

betterlight has incredible detail and DR but the colors, in my opinion, are flat. of course i am biased...

with the Betterlight, you can profile it for any sort of color setup you want. For art reproduction (where color fidelity is vital), it's the setup of choice for high end repro.

personally, with the default 10stop S curve that comes with it.. it's about the closest to color negative film that you can get in a digital system.

[Jim collum]

subject matter is also essentially limited to still life with betterlight. a friend of mine tried a couple portraits and exposures simply take too long...unless that is the look you are going for. certainly interesting to play around with.

correct.. portraits, wildlife shots, sports, street candids.. all aren't very suitable for the Betterlight. Landscape, still life, architecture, product, art reproduction are where it shines

[Pawlowski6132]

Lemme give you an amateurs perspective. I scanned a MF neg on an Epson V500 at 6400dpi, processed in LightRoom and had printed by my local camera store. I then took the same negative and printed in my darkroom. My wife IMMEDIATELY picked the developed print as the one she thought looked the best. Asking her why, she said the developed print looked sharper, tones looked more realistic and just overall better.

Of course, maybe a pro could have done better in the digital world or, even in the darkroom. But, my point is, I tried my best in both worlds (digital, analog) and with my skills, I was able to produce a better product in the darkroom. PLUS, it was cheaper, I had complete control of the process (unlike the digital printing scenario) and the whole experience was much more fulfilling to me personally.

Case closed.