What to do with my 6x17 negs?

[Ralph Barker]

Although scanning and outside printing are viable options at the technical level, it may be that the ultimate emphasis for publication purposes should be on controlling the images yourself. Thus, the 8x10 conversion Frank mentions might be a good option if you have a Beseler 4x5 enlarger. If not, another alternative would be a used 5x7 Zone VI enlarger, as they come up on eBay from time to time. They aren't much bigger than 4x5 enlargers, depending on which model you get. And, the typical price is about the same as buying the Beseler conversion new.

[Bryan Willman]

A number of sensible posts.

However, if you are going to make a book, won't the best printing quality be made from a scan of the 6x17s, said scan adjusted to make half-tones or seperations for printing? (The publisher would scan a print anyway, no?)

So, if they're going to be scanned (as either prints or negatives) anyway, why not get very high quality scans of the negatives, and work from those? You will then have the smallest number of generational steps to lose image data.

[John Adler]

I just had to say something. I have thousands of 6X17 negatives, all most all are nudes. I also have a Beseler 8X10 enlarger. About two years ago I moved to the digatel darkroom. The reasions were: 1) I used FP4 developed in PMK Pyro thus giving a very long grey scale. 2) I wanted to make big prints, 19" by 25" prints for my next show. With the current scanners and printers I can make prints much better than the wet darkroom with a grey scale over than 256.

John Adler