Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/05/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I do not dispute than you can make acceptable slides from negatives, nor that you can make acceptable duplicate slides. A lot of people use them. BUT, they are not equal to shooting original slides. They cannot be. The contrast is different between films and you loose some sharpness in the duplication process. For many uses the loss is insignificant, but for some people and some uses it's noticeable. Some times the results will be better , sometimes worse. The same types of statements are often made about making BW prints from color negs, as most newspapers and news services that use film, shoot color negs exclusively. (But then again some don't make prints at all but just scan negatives into the computer) You can make acceptable BW prints from color negs, but the results are indeed different. The big advantage of the duping or neg to slide process, is that you can correct color and exposure and adjust contrast to a certain extent, more so with help from photoshop. Many printers will work from negatives, prints or slides anymore as it's pretty well all computerized and scanners are getting better. Having said that, our printer still does a better job from slides. I'm cursed with using at least two bodies on most shoots and 3 more often than I'd like. But I do a fair amount of 11x14 and 16x20 display prints where you can see if they were done from originals or internegs. If your pictures are reproduced at 5x7 or 8x10 on newspaper or magazine paper stock you can get away with about anything. Sometimes I wish I couldn't see the difference between original slides and copies and BW prints from color negatives. My life would be a lot easier. Duane Birkey