Re: [Leica] Offtopic: Scanners and inkjet printers

[Mark Badger <mark@steinberg.net>]

Alan Ball wrote:

> But when some of these users communicate enthusiastically about the
> "fantastic quality" of consumer grade inkjet printing, I have a very
> basic reaction questionning the reasons one has of investing fortunes on
> the picture taking equipment and then allocate such proportionnally
> small budgets to the digital imaging equipment. A 35mm f1.4 Asph
> deserves top notch scanning and top notch printing. Or why bother ?

i've spent "teen pence" on leica gear over the last few months and
have raved about the epson (at $280...incredible).

i don't think these are incompatible activities. they are very different
investments.

the incredible thing about the scanning/printing stuff is that it
is *so* amazingly flexible. i have spent thousands of hours in darkrooms
and i am beginning to approach that with the scanner/computer/photoshop.
the latter is a light year ahead of the darkroom.

yes, you undoubtably get finer results with the darkroom, and yes, it's
probably the case that you get a better representation of "the leica
advantage" by printing photos using traditional methods.

HOWEVER. this ignores entirely the fact that a great photo is not
wholly about resolution, contrast, color range, depth, shadow detail,
etc etc etc. great photos have larger issues too, and these can be
dealt with using digital techniques quickly and easily, without fuss.

take a simple thing like a pimple. yes, people have pimples and usually
they don't particularily want to be reminded of this. take another simple
thing like the ugly telephone and power cables that US utility companies
love to string up all over the place. there's a fabulous view behind the
power cables, yet that view is spoilt by the cables and barbed wire 
fencing and a lake prevent your achieving an angle of view that avoids
them.

etc etc

i've absolutely no doubt that in 10 (2?) years there will be film scanners
and printers available that exceed the capabilities of my ls-1000 and
epson 700 by at *least* an order of magnitude avaiable at prices i
can afford. i very much doubt that there will be a similar advance
in film and lens technology. 

in the future i can do better scans of the excellent negatives/slides
i create now. in the meantime i can learn to be skilled at the process,
i can entertain myself with excellent images of beautiful landscapes
that aren't spoilt by overhanging utility cables, and flatter family,
friends and clients with images that avoid leicalike expositions of 
their occaisional pimples....

in other words, i think we rave about leica in terms of state of the 
art and rave about the incredible progress occuring in digital imaging
techniques. these are not incompatible raves at all.

mark