The hopeful future of film photography

[pdmoylan]

Size does matter (print) for comparisons as RedRock points out, but how big is sufficient for a comparion is the right question.

I wonder if Hans has done a head to head comparison of great enlargement from 8x10 vs his H4 of the same scene and what differences he sees between them, other than what he has already described. As I have said in an old post, I find that digital does not offer as deep black tones when shooting color, is much lower contrast, does not render color the same as film in low light, but has greater DR as Hans points out and "cleaner" color (subjective). Using PS to adjust brings me to speculate that MFD's with Zeiss lens quality should give comparable results to 8x10 within a comfortable print area, say 30x40. How much demand is there for prints larger than this?

[Brian C. Miller]

... Using PS to adjust brings me to speculate that MFD's with Zeiss lens quality should give comparable results to 8x10 within a comfortable print area, say 30x40. How much demand is there for prints larger than this?

According to the fellow from whom I received my Fotar 8x10 enlarger, there is more demand for 16x20 than 30x40. Fact is, hardly any demand for 30x40, which was a factor for him selling his 8x10 gear. From looking at the 8x10 negative of my neighborhood, the print would be six feet wide before the fine details would be readily evident. I could pull Minox-negative-sized enlargements from this, and, oh, hey, that's a neat distortion in a window! The area is smaller than a Minox negative, but I have an entry for the abstracts page...

[John NYC]

According to the fellow from whom I received my Fotar 8x10 enlarger, there is more demand for 16x20 than 30x40. Fact is, hardly any demand for 30x40, which was a factor for him selling his 8x10 gear. From looking at the 8x10 negative of my neighborhood, the print would be six feet wide before the fine details would be readily evident. I could pull Minox-negative-sized enlargements from this, and, oh, hey, that's a neat distortion in a window! The area is smaller than a Minox negative, but I have an entry for the abstracts page...

Depends on what you are doing. In galleries and museums in New York, it is either small 8x10 or 11x14 or huge 3-6 feet. I don't tend to see a lot of 16x20s in my gallery crawling... lately. Things are always changing.

[Marko]

This message has been deleted by Kirk Gittings. Reason: off topic

Kirk, whether I agree with you or not, my hat's off to you for this one...

[Robert Hughes]

Kirk, whether I agree with you or not, my hat's off to you for this one...

That's one serious moderator - he even cuts his own posts!