One of the things coming out of this thread is that we all have different preferences, thank God! A couple of points from Shane's excellent post - finding a process that excites you is a wondeful thing!
The concept of darkroom prints being 'handmade ' is a bit of a misnomer IMO. In the darkroom we control a mechanical/chemical process by turning a light on and off and sticking filters in the path of the light. The skill comes in controlling the process. In the digi darkroom we use a computer to do the control, but the process has to be intelligently and expertly managed in exactly the same way as a darkroom. Just like a viewcamera gives you so much control it also gives you umpteen billion ways of messing up an image, the same holds true for the digi darkroom. Even if this wasn't the case, the only thing that should matter is the look of the final print. You need a process which gives your work the look you want.
Both Ilford and Wilhelm have altered the longevity claims of the cib process and they are both claiming about 15years for a ilfochr print behind glass. That would worry me.
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