Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/02/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Pascal, My opinion is that IF you are a skilled printer AND IF you have sufficient time then your traditional darkroom prints will be better than digital prints. For me this is not the case, i.e. I make better prints now on my Epson Photo 700 than I did in the wet darkroom. Another part of the decision should be what you already have...since you have one of the best scanners around, I would suggest that you buy a good inkjet printer like the Epson (only around 15.000 BEF) and see how you like it. As for cost effectiveness, I think it depends on how many test prints you need to make in the wet darkroom. For B&W, the traditional darkroom is probably cheaper, for colour digital (because colour papers and chemistry are much more expensive). As an example of digital costs, I use Epson Photo Paper which costs around 450 BEF for a package of 20 A4 sheets. The cartridges for the printer are about 1000 BEF and will give you maybe 40-50 prints at the highest resolution. This works out to about 45 BEF per A4 print. The cost is the same for B&W as for colour, since you need to use the colour inks to make a B&W print. Kind regards, Nathan Pascal wrote: > Friends: > > With this very interesting discussion over the past week on enlargers & > lenses, I was wondering what the relative merits of traditional vs. > digital printing are. > Is it still worth it to start with an own darkroom or would it be wiser > to invest in a printer with decent color quality? > Would the quality of the final printed image (up to 20x30 cm > enlargements) be "better" with one or the other system or is there not > much difference? > Which system is more cost-effective? > > I am asking this because I am seriously contemplating to start printing > pictures (at least duplicates and enlargements) myself. > > I already have a Mac with Nikon Super Coolscan LS-2000 filmscanner, but > no color printer. > What are the decisive factors when having to choose between traditional > or digital? > > Thanks. > > Pascal > NO ARCHIVE > > -------------------------------------------------------- > See my photo pages at http://members.xoom.com/cyberplace/ > ------------------------------------------------------- > Leica. Faszination durch Präzision > Leica. Fascination and Precision > ------------------------------------------------------- > <<< PGP public key available on request >>> - -- Nathan Wajsman Overijse, Belgium Photography page: http://members.tripod.com/~belgiangator/index.html Motorcycle page: http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/downs/1704/index.html