[SET Man]

Where I live, there are no longer any labs left to process E6. I'd like to be able to shoot w/ my Sinar 4x5 occasionally, as I can't afford a digital back yet.

Hey!

  Yup, this is sad but true. 

  Around here in NYC there seem to be less of so called "Pro Lab" that could do E6 especially for 120 film and larger now a day. And those that are still around seem to get smaller... yes many are down sizing by moving into smaller place and etc.

   Yes, personally I've been wanting to shooting some film, mostly B&W ... well at least for my personal stuffs.

   Well, let's see how thing goes.

  BTW.... JohnR, your "Ghost on the Water" shot is beautiful. Would love to see it on a well printed 8x10 fiber based paper.

Take care,
Buddy

[lazydays]

I've got to correct a point from my last message:

Digital doesn't have the latitude of a number of B+W films

Shooting RAW with a decent DSLR digital does technically have a wider latitude to B+W, but there are differences in the response.

Take a well exposed good shot using something like Technical Pan 25 (i think the sharpest and widest latitude B+W film available) or even just a decent 100, shoot on medium format, and print it on some high-end fiber paper.  Now try to recreate that with digital->inkjet/lightjet/whatever.

You just can't get there. The contrast and density and look of that beautiful fiberprint.    That would be a really great side-by-side comparison to do one day.. Hmmmm..

/A

I like to shoot B&W with my S3 because it's the only digital camera I've seen that actually does white and black. I thought for a long time that it was just me, but on loaning my S3 to a friend's wife who uses a Bronica and a DX2 mostly in B&W she said that it also did B&W better than her DX2. Still as good as it does B&W it still wont do it as well as film. I think the transition from black to the mid tones is much better with film. Most black & whites shot from digital cameras are really nothing but grey scale, and most I've seen prove this out.
gary

[JohnR]

Perhaps I should look into getting a chemical print done. Had always meant to. At some point I intend to figure out how to do my own B&W developing, but darkroom printing is very unlikely for me.

So, well, another reason to shoot film is that some cameras only work with film I like the feel of using (mostly) mechanical cameras But I'm a hobbyist, I can well understand that pros have very different criteria.

[drphoto]

If your digicam has a B/W mode, one fun trick you can do is get an Infrared filter (the opaque one, not a deep red) and you can get a pretty good infrared simulation. As the filter is opaque to visible light you have to compose the shot before using the filter. Unfortunately my Canon's don't have B/W mode, though the newly released 1Ds Mk3 does.

[nathanm]

Tomorrow my new enlarger arrives, but for now I'm having some fun clunking around with reflective scanning my 4x5 B&W negs on my old UMAX.  It is sort of sad to look at the creamy, gorgeous neg and then how it craps out on its way to digital, but it still finishes okay on ye olde internet so I can't complain too much.



Thrill to the hasty clone jobbery at 1:1 here:
http://flickr.com/photos/nathanmarciniak/1326432620/

[JohnR]

Cool, I really like that one. I'm amazed you can do that with reflective scanning! I don't know if you want to keep your eye out for a used/refurb Epson 4990? (Just a thought, who said this hobby wasn't supposed to be expensive...!)

Tell us about the enlarger...

[nathanm]

I'd love to find a used Optronics Color Getter if I could.  A bit ludicrous of a purchase I suppose, but they don't require an engineering degree to operate and do a great job.  A more likely candidate is probably the Epson V750-M (I think) which allows wet mounting.  Wet mounting is a pain in the ass, but it's worth it in not having to clone dust for 10 minutes.  And now with ImageKind's site I hopefully won't have to entertain thoughts of owning and babysitting an expensive inkjet printer to do my own printing.

I watched a really cool little documentary about Clyde Butcher on the luminous landscape site.  This guy's got the darkroom to end all darkrooms!  He uses a giant repurposed stat camera to make giant mural-sized silver prints.  It's quite an operation.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/video_journal/video_clips14.shtml