New DIGITAL enlarger to revolutionize photo priting again

Thanks for the link - a very interesting read. I wonder how a print produced in this way would compare to an inkjet print or a traditional negative print. I imagine you could do traditional dodge & burn with a digital image - surreal:cool:
 
Just found an article that places price at approx. 18,000 GBP. WOW, I didn't know it would be THAT out of my price range!!! I still think it is incredible and I would probably buy this over a 30mp Hassy back even though this is ONLY 17.1mp if I had that kinda cash but could only choose one. I'm sure I could make do.
 
Thats whats amazing is that it is a traditional print just with a digital negative. With all the advancements in HD plazma TVs etc. I'm sure it is almost as good as a real negative.
 
Oh and to be able to use photoshop first on a negative and then have all of the control of a wet darkroom just blows my mind. Well, it's 3am in California, so I'm off to bed but I KNOW what I'll be dreaming of. :D
 
This technology has been around and under development (if you'll pardon the pun) for a few years. I remember seeing a set up and demo at a trade show in New York maybe four years ago. It has now advanced to the point of being advertised more widely. It works, and it works well. The prints I've seen look good. They look like traditional prints because they are. They betray no evidence whatsoever of their digital provenance. I'm not sure if this is the future of digital imaging, or if it's going to revolutionize digital printing all over again, but it's a really good application of technology, and certainly has it's place. As the above poster says, it's pretty cool to get to manipulate an image in PS and then make a wet print using traditional techniques and technology- the best of both worlds. Time will tell if it catches on or comes down in price to where any of us mere mortals will get to use one.
 
Any RFF'ers in or near enough to Brighton to stop in and report? I don't suppose many of us could afford it at current cost, but if good, it will be fun to watch and see if the price drops. Also, it might be worth while sending in the occassional photo we would like in large fiber based size.
 
I'm almost ready to sign away my life and first born son in tuition costs if I can find a photography college that has one of these to play with. I had heard of similar technology in development as well but had yet to see any finished product. This , to me at least, is almost as perfect of a merger of past and present technology possible today.
 
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Not interested. I have two color enlargers and I am more interested in straight photography. Fixin stuff in photoshop loses some of the magic that drew me to photography in the first place.

This will be a boon for labs though. I am sure it will please some customers. Especially the folks who can't the image quite right or need very specific effects.
 
I actually have two prints made on this enlarger and I received an honarble mention at the San Diego fair (or I still call it the Del Mar Fair)with one of them.
I was looking for a way to print some of my digital stuff on traditianal fiber based paper and I found a lab that has one of these enlargers. http://www.fiberbaseprints.com/
It looks wonderful and it was nice to get some of my photos printed the way I had imagined.
 
Well, it goes without saying that even if I bought one of these I would not get rid of my film enlarger, it would supplement it not replace it. Congrats on the prize at the fair mllanos, I'm glad to hear from someone who has had a print from one of these. It also sounds like the print quality, as well as your photographic abilities, are very good. Thanks for the link to the lab. Do you recall what you paid and what size enlargment was it?
 
I think the key is finding a way to bring the price down. If it was just an application and an enlarger that might reduce the price quite a bit. It's a complete system that most people (non-professional) do not need.

What I would really like to see is a head that plugs into my Mac Mini and fits on to several different old enlargers (with some tweaking). Now that might be worth $2000 USD.

B2 (;->
 
I agree 100% with you Bill, I would probably even pay up to 5,000usd (with ALOT of saving up) for a set up like your talking about. To me if the M8 is worth 5,000 this would be as well.
 
Thank you! I dont remember exactly the price but the print was an 8x10 and it was in the neighborhood of $25.00 give or take a couple dollars.
The picture was an abstract, I'll try and post it, but I've never posted on here.
It looked wonderful on fiber paper.


Revolucion Artistico said:
Well, it goes without saying that even if I bought one of these I would not get rid of my film enlarger, it would supplement it not replace it. Congrats on the prize at the fair mllanos, I'm glad to hear from someone who has had a print from one of these. It also sounds like the print quality, as well as your photographic abilities, are very good. Thanks for the link to the lab. Do you recall what you paid and what size enlargment was it?
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I wonder if a dot pattern will show up on close inspection.
Basically this is a high resolution LCD video projector built into an enlarger.
 
How is this any different from the machines that today take a digital file and "print" it onto traditional light sensitive photo paper of the sort that companies like Mpix use?

/T
 
This is how my local professional labs have been printing for some years. Even if you bring in a negative, they scan it and then print with their digital enlarger onto regular C print process.

What is more relevant to this discussion, I suspect, and pretty exciting, is that this technology may be filtering down to the level of affordability for individual ownership, say a pro photog who wants to do his own lab work.
 
What Doug said, Basically this is very similar to The Fuji Frontier system many mini labs have right now for color work. The De Vere version is a very similar set up. Scan a neg, and project the image with laser light onto regular B+W paper, or use conventional negs.
 
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