Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/09/18

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] Kodachrome Print help
From: Alastair Firkin <firkin@netconnect.com.au>
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 98 18:14:15 -0700

#############
I have just gone to a professional lab, supposedly
the best in the city (Lumichrom in Breslau, just outside Kitchener), to get
some 8X10 prints. After spending $250, they look like crap, very dull and
flat, with low contrast. Was I ever disappointed.
#############

Dave,

I've done a lot of "cibachrome" processing in the past, and when it works,
it works great. But I found it very very hard to get consistent or
satisfactory results. One of the problems was always my insistance that the
final image should look exactly like the slide. I now believe this is
impossible, even though I've not done any darkroom work in the new
Ilfochrome era. BUT, last weekend I printed some images on the Epson
photo700 from slides I'd scanned on an old Nikon Coolscan [and even better
those from a photo CD] and the results were amazingly good. Its quite
quick, and compared to the cost you have been paying cheap. They may not
last forever, but you can always re-print in a year or so if you want to
keep that image on the wall ;-)

I've got lots to learn about printing with the ink-jet printer, but so far
I'm very happy.

One note of caution. Somewhere I read that scanning from Kodachrome can be
difficult because of the image dye layers scattering the laser or
something. If I find it again, I'll comment more, but does anyone else know
anything about this?

Alastair Firkin,

http://users.netconnect.com.au/~firkin/AGFhmpg.html