This might seem like a dumb question, but I'm honestly a bit stymied.

I've been shooting large format for just under three years now, first with a Cro wn Graphic and now with a Wisner Traditional Field. A phenomenon that has consta ntly amazed me is that when printing my large format negatives (TMax 100, typica lly) I percieve an increase in sharpness as print size increases beyond 8X10, up to 16X20 (the largest I've printed so far).

Am I just inventing this perception in my head, or is this a repeatable and m easurable effect similar to the 'better for large prints, not so hot for 8X10s' behavior one sees with digital lightjet/lambda prints from medium and large-form at scans? Is it possible that my diffusion head has something to do with this ef fect? Prints I made last fall with a condensor head on a similar (Beseler 45MX) enlarger and the same lens seem slightly sharper. I normally test with 8X10 prin ts to judge if a negative is worth spending more money (read big paper).

My other theory is that my focussing is less precise with 8X10 from 4X5 because I can't see the darn grain at f22!

-Doug