B&W scanning

[taxi38]

Hello everyone,am enjoying these forums a great deal,very entertaining.Have a question,If I am only going to scan b&w negatives does it matter if I use the nikon 50ED or the 5000ED?Speed does not matter but Iam after a similar quality to a wet print.Thanks for any help,Neil.

 

[Tegla]

You can't get similar quality like wet printing with scans. Yes you can have excellent results with digital printing, but wet printing is completely different in terms of dynamic range, sharpness, tonality. Wet print paper have different dynamic range than digital print paper. Also tonality.

 

[amateriat]

It's a little tricky talking about "as good" or "better" than conventional wet-printing. It's different, all right, but can be amazingly good on its own terms, and without apology. (A lot depends on printing as well, just like the wet darkroom.) But it takes some effort to sort out the technical stuff. Don;t be scared off by this, though...there are challenges regardless of the path taken.

As far as scanners go, the 5000 is somewhat more preferable, but if the 50 is all you can get, I wouldn't lose much sleep over it. Either can strike a really good file with the right attention.


- Barrett

 

[payasam]

I shall add one thing (which may not be relevant) to what Tegla has said: Digital ICE does not work with silver-based negatives.

 

[taxi38]

Thanks for the encouragement.I recently scanned a rough unfinished print into photoshop and found the spotting,burning in etc. process much easier and the final result nearer to what I wanted,hence my interest in getting ,what I think would be,the raw file into the system.(No digital experience)