I have a question that has been nagging me for some time. Everywhere I read and in this forum it is stated that you cannot use a B&W densitometer to read a pyro negative because the stain interferes with the reading,Tthe "sees" the stain as "density" and what we really are concerned is silver density. My question is wh y? shouldn't we be concerned with OVERALL density wether it is silver and/or a c onbination of silver and stain, isn't it better to have a reading that reflects how the enlarger light "sees" the negative, with stain and all? For example if I take a reading in the blue channel and I get zone VI, but when I print it it is about VII or more (which coincides with a B&D densitometer read ing), then isn't more accurate to say that the B&W reading was more accurate? OK, I hope some of the more experienced photographers can enlighten me with this question before I run and buy a color densitometer.
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