yes!Originally Posted by 1stormcat
yes!
it all depends what you like to do.
some people make prints and scan them ( or not )
some make negatives and scan them. ( or make darkroom prints )
some people like using hugely expensive scanners
and equally impressive printers ...
and some use scanners that are not exceptionally expensive
and get a lab to print the results.
i fall in the the latter category i have scanned prints and negatives
with equal success and have printed the results at a lab to equally sizes large and small ...
there was no difference in "quality". the scanner that i have been using is
not very expensive, nor was it when i purchased it ( epson 4870 )
i bought it refurbished from epson between 6 and 10 years ago ( maybe longer? )
and got it mainly because it had the ability to scan 5x7 ( or 6x8 ) film. sometimes
it limps along, makes funny noises, red lights blink has schmultz on the glass, but
in the end i have managed to keep it alive and well and scanning.
(its like the monty python bring out your dead sketch, the scanner likes to tell me "i'm not dead yet" )
i am perfectly happy with the results i get, as i said i can't complain. but i am sure
if i had something scanned and printed by eiger studios or bob carnie printmaking, i would easily
be witness to what my shoestring-budget-scanning-set-up lacks.
in my case, ignorance IS bliss. ( for the time being, at least ) ...
YMMV
Actually I think the "best" answer was Kirk Gittings' report about being unable to tell which of the prints at the William Clift show were digital vs. darkroom. I'm only chiming in since some of us have various forms of hybrid workflow. I have a refurbed Epson 4990 scanner which gets used for two purposes. I use it to make digital contact sheets, because usually it isn't worth my going to the darkroom just to make a contact sheet. For example, I just developed 6 4x5 negatives, and they are hanging up to dry. After dinner I will put them in PrintFile negative sheets, put the sheets directly on the scanner glass, and make the two contact sheets. If anything looks particularly interesting, I will re-scan the negative and make a very quick and dirty 8x10 on my all-purpose desk printer (i.e. not a photo-grade printer). That will let me live with the image(s) for a few days and decide whether I really like them. It also lets me post an image to this forum. But if I decide any of the images are "keepers," I will take those into the darkroom to make 11x14 silver prints. Not because they are "better," but I personally am a better darkroom printer than I am a digital printer, simply because I have 50 years of experience with wet prints, and haven't taken the time to become genuinely good at digital.
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