Re: [Leica] B&W with no darkroom

[Henry Ambrose <henryambrose@home.com>]

>I'd like to explore B&W with my Leica but I have no dark room and, I have to
>admit, really no interest in having one.
>
>What's the alternative? I guess I could process my own film, that doesn't
>really take a darkroom does it and then scan the negatives into photoshop.
A fine plan.
>
>Can I reliably send out B&W to a lab?
Yes, but you will reliably get whatever their machine is set up for 
unless you find a place that does manual, custom B&W.

Process your own film to exactly suit your needs and wants. Get connected 
with your photography!

If you don't do it yourself I suggest Kodak T400CN or Ilford XP2 (my 
choice)
You can get standard, repeatable processing almost anywhere. They are 
processed the same as color negative films. Both scan really well.
>
>What sort of film scanner should I be looking for given that I'm a novice. I
>have a Mac G4/450/MP that is my video editing system so I have tons of
>horsepower and about 200 GB of disk along with lots of archival storage, the
>least of which is CD-RW. So storing and managing images isn't an issue.
Right now the Polaroid 4000 is the best in affordable desktop 35mm 
scanners.
Nikon has new ones coming soon that should be good. Kodak has a new unit 
that is probably good. 
>
>I'd love recommendations about how to procede. I'd like to become good
>enough to make a quality B&W image.
Epson 1160 with Cone Piezography monochrome inks (B&W only)
or Epson 1270 with stock inks (color and B&W)
>
>I plan on doing most of my color work with a digital camera at this point.
Don't overlook color in your Leica!
Digital (except for real expensive or studio oriented stuff) is not equal 
to film cameras.
Having said that, I have made some pretty nice pictures with my Nikon 990 
and it's so easy. Download the card, adjust and print.
Its a good to use both, they both have strong points.

>Thank you,
>
>Adam Bridge
>
Henry Ambrose