Enlarger Or Scanner

[oftheherd]

Well, I was never that good at wet darkroom printing. But I was sure a lot better at that than the Epson negative scanner I now use. Maybe it is the printer. I also liked the darkroom work more. Maybe just because I could. But, I don't have the time nor equipment for it. sigh.

 

[nightfly]

Recently went back into the darkroom after a long abscence and forgot what a pain in the ass it is. I do like fiber prints but for convenience and more control (at least for me) I'm sticking with my digital darkroom for now and experimenting with some of the newer papers.

I never particularly liked the darkroom, but I did like the results. I'd love to get away from the computer but the develop the negs in my kitchen, scan and print at home works for me.

If I find a better paper, I think I'll be pretty happy.

 

[Fred]

I still use my Meopta Opemus 5 with Nikkor 50 lens for 35mm and Durst Neonon 80mm for 645 stuff. I've not had much time over many months to get out and about with the camera though so have not printed much for a while. I've not printed colour for nearly a year though.

 

[varjag]

I'll print my negs when I retire.

 

[Tim Gray]

I've been printing with an enlarger for the last couple months. I just did get a Coolscan V though. For contact sheets, 5x7's, 4x6's and 8x10's the enlarger is a lot easier for me. Unless it is a tricky neg with a lot of dodging and burning - I'm not there yet.

That being said, I just scanned a neg the other day and got a 16x24 print done and shipped for like $20. It came out great! Color is clearly getting scanned as well.

I just want to get a couple images scanned that I really like before I try a fancy printing place like Elevator Digital.

 

[John Robertson]

Scanner, but it has to be a film scanner, not an adapted flat-bed. I equally like to print conventionally, and use the flat-bed only to scan the resulting prints.
I have a Durst F60 with El-Nikkor lenses, and a fold-away Russian Zenith UPA-5 with a Rokkor lens.
Oh and a Canon FS4000 film scanner and a HP 8750 printer!

 

[aad]

See if Shuterflower has any leftover negs/slides from his great scanner comparison. A bunch of us scanned and posted results of scans of film he shot. I may still have them floating around.

I'm currently in a queste about the quality of my filmscanning. I can't compare to wet printing, as I don't have an active darkroom for printing, only film developing. I can't compare to other scanners, as I only have one filmscanner.

Just pops to my mind: would there be other members willing to scan a couple of pictures from a sample negative that I send over and provide me with the digital files, so I can compare the quality to my scanner's result? I'm really wondering if another scanner will improve my quality and I don't want to make the investment without trying.

I could make it more objective by shooting ~5 pics of the same subject and send a couple for printing in a lab and a couple for scanning by voluntary members.

Anyone having a decent scanner (but not a profession (read expensive) one) who's willing to make a scan for me?

Are there other threads or resources providing comparison scans with different scanners?

Are there orther means to test a scanner's quality (e.g. calibration slides)? Any experience with that?

Groeten,
Vic

 

[DavidH]

I have 2 scanners and all my output is digital files. But my new house in the US has a laundry room which is huge and has no windows...my better half has already agreed to let me install all the necessary bits for a darkroom and I'm looking forward to spending some time on real b&w printing...

 

[PlantedTao]

I picked up my Beseler 23C for $25 at a garage sale...


I must say, there is no computer that I'm using that can create the tonality of a silver print. Or the smell 😀

I did a great deal on a beseler 23c, lenses and a bunch of other stuff, much cheaper than going digital (photoshop, scanner, printer).

I work on a computer all the time, so I like the enviroment of the wet darkroom...the results may be equal as some have stated, but I feel proud to say my print is a silver gelatin...

this is just the tool I wish to use and I hope that some can appreciate how it was created, in the end, it is the image that matters.

Cheers.

Jason

 

[tedwhite]

I bought my first enlarger - a Simmons/Omega B22XL, from St. Louis Photo in 1971. I still have it and use it weekly. I have the Rodenstock Omegaron 50 and 75 lenses.

Last year I leased the ground floor of an old hotel, brought in four other photographers and created a photo co-op. So we share the expense. We built a large darkroom and have the original deep sink from the University of Arizona and the overhead safelight with adjustable trap doors. As the room is over twenty feet in length, we added a Beseler 4X5 enlarger with a cold head.

What I usually do with film is develop it, make a contact sheet, make prints of the best images in the darkroom, and that's that.

I have a 35mm film scanner - a Plustek Opticfilm 7200 - but I've never been able to get a decent scan from it (perhaps operator is an idiot). I have an Epson 4990 flatbed scanner and an Epson R2400 printer. The 4990 does an OK job with 6X6 negs, but you can forget trying to scan 35mm negs.

If I want to post a black and white image on the internet, I make an 8X10 in the darkroom, then scan it with the 4990. Seems to work best.

For me, the darkroom is hardly a hassle. Everything is set up and ready to go.

If I were trying to do wet printing in a bathroom or laundry room I'd probably give it up out of frustration (setting up and dismantling) and spend the big bucks for a quality film neg scanner that would do both 35mm and 120 negs.

Of course, when I shoot digital with my DSLR (which I usually do only if I'm getting paid) then it's into the computer off the SD card and out through the R2400 printer. I like printing with the matte inks using Epson's enhanced matte paper.

Back to the point. I feel that, at present, nothing can beat a silver black and white print.

 

[MIkhail]

I've got a epson 4990 and a HP B9180. If I use permajet fiber gloss paper, I can produce prints every bit a good as those from a home darkroom set up without the inconvenience.

Just a small bit of info. I have two prints laying on a dashboard of my car for a few months now- one on fiber based paper that I printed in dark room, another- I ordered print from scan on Nikon Coolscan V - online. The FB print did not fade so far, another one already shows some bluish pinkish tones and starts to fade away. I am told- eventually it disintegrates 🙂

I am not even talking about the look and feel differences, plus the uniqueness of hand print, but just based on longevity....

 

[Toby]

Just a small bit of info. I have two prints laying on a dashboard of my car for a few months now- one on fiber based paper that I printed in dark room, another- I ordered print from scan on Nikon Coolscan V - online. The FB print did not fade so far, another one already shows some bluish pinkish tones and starts to fade away. I am told- eventually it disintegrates 🙂

I am not even talking about the look and feel differences, plus the uniqueness of hand print, but just based on longevity....

Not really a good comparison unless you know how the scanned print was made it could be a chemical print, dye inks or pigment inks. What I'm using is the same base as an FB print. (Permajet FB gloss 295)and carbon inks - carbon inks shouldn't fade -like charcoal doesn't fade. The weight and the feel of this type of paper is pretty much indistinguisable from double weight FB paper, the DMax is the same as Agfa Record Rapid, it's not the plasticky crap an online lab prints on.

 

[nightfly]

Is that Permajet FB gloss markete under another name in the States? Is it the same as the Innova FB?

 

[sepiareverb]

I don't think I'll ever make another print except in the darkroom. It's an LPL 4500 for me, with a Zone VI 810 enlarger for the 810 and 120 panorama negs. I contact print a lot of the 810 and any 1114, but these days I'm shooting almost exclusively 35mm and printing. I print 810 proofs of anything that looks promising on the proofsheet and use these for editing and deciding what to make final prints of. Any scans I might want for the book project or posting here are scanned from those 810 proof prints.

 

[photogdave]

Interesting replies here, and the poll results are very close!
In my newspaper days the darkroom was the only choice and I hated it! Mixing all those chemicals, wasting all that time getting the print almost there...one more little burn should do it...too much...argh! :bang:
Then all the bigger papers started getting neg scanners - those lucky $%#@s! We half-assed it and got a flatbed so I still had to make a wet print and scan that.
When they became cheaper I started buying neg scanners and have always been able to get great colour results, especially from chromes, but B&W printing has remained elusive. Since my old Epson printer kicked the bucket about two years ago I haven't been motivated to get back into inkjet printing, even though I understand there has been significant improvement in the printers, inks and papers. I print 4x6 on a little Epson PictureMate with pretty good results, and anything bigger gets done at the lab.
When I was packing for a move recently I came across some old 8x10s from my college and newspaper days and wow! I was stunned by the sharpness and detail of these prints. It was like I had forgotten what a real wet print looked like. Now I find myself pining for more space so I can have a darkroom and Focomat enlarger. Mixing all those chemicals, wasting time getting the print almost there...🙂

 

[John Robertson]

I must be odd🙄 but I enjoy the "alchemy" of mixing the chemicals, loading the tank and developing the film. Then the peace and seclusion of the darkroom. I am too accessible when on the computer, too many distractions. Darkroom time is MY time exclusively, the world outside can go ***** itself when I'm in there.😱

 

[Uncle Bill]

I scan my negatives onto Flickr for my online contact sheet but I much prefer printing with an enlarger and wet darkroom set up. I Have a Devere 504 with the Varicon Condenser head, once you print with that, an inkjet printer is just not in the same league.

 

[tedwhite]

I had "peace and seclusion" in the darkroom yesterday, made about twenty prints and uploaded three last night to the rff gallery. Still haven't got the upload process entirely figured out as the actual prints, sitting here on my desk, look much better - although one of the images (Old Taxi Cab Hood) survived the journey fairly well.