[Leica] for sale as a result of our studio going digital

[Cmrausr@aol.com]

Times do change. I just took delivery on a Lightphase single capture back. 
The quality is good enough to hold up as a 13x21 full page single image 
newspaper ad. The detail is astonishing. It captures an 18 meg raw file, that 
becomes 36megs when you convert it to CMYK for printing. It won't quite keep 
up with a motorized hasselblad body, but it will do a frame just about every 
1.5 seconds.  I can give our advertiser a CD 15 minutes after the shoot 
that's ready for placement in their quark document. Saves over 48 hours in 
turnaround time. One CD holds the equivalent of three rolls of 120 film. It 
costs a buck. Film and processing for 3 rolls of film runs about $40.00. I 
guess I'm going to be buying film out of my own pocket now, since my employer 
sees the cost savings as the most important factor. It will take less than 
two years to pay for $50 grand worth of computers and the back out of savings 
in processing costs alone.


I'm happy because in some ways my job is easier. But for the stuff I do 
personally, I'm sticking to film for now.

Scott Stewart