[Leica] Computer costs included

[scott at adrenaline.com (Scott McLoughlin)]

Sorry for the long post.  Just thought a "case study" might contribute 
to the
debate.

I've been a computer upgrade hound most of my adult life.  But putting
that aside, while it's possible to use a "typical" desktop computer for 
photo
editting, printing, storage and so on,  I find that such use will 
typically meet
challenges that beg for an upgrade, potentially significant.

My case. Until snagging a film scanner c. Mar '04, I was a happy Linux
user. (1) Custom configured beefy ABS box, AMD 3000, 1 GB Crucial RAM,
a pair of 80GB disks in RAID 1 config and a larger, slower 160 GB disk, 
CD/DVD
burner, tape backup unit, fast video card, etc.. (2) I also had a 2nd 
older HP Linux
box with 512K RAM  which I ran on the network headless (3) Finally, a 
rather nice
IBM T40 laptop with XP home, 512K RAM, 80GB HD. (4) Dell Trinitron, Samsung
LCD, Wifi home network, USB Zip drive, blah blah blah

A fair amount of kit, very responsive, and mostly used for multi-server 
style software
development, diagraming, word processing, web surfing, etc.

Now that photo hobby has come along, the config is far from ideal.  I've 
blown a bit
on Leica and other camera gear over the last 1 year, X months, and have 
put off
substantial new investments in computer gear. Here's is what's come about.

After buying the Coolscan, the IBM laptop starts to get lots more use 
with NikonScan.
I scan images to the Linux box over the network. After using GIMP/Linux 
for some
months, I snagged the fairly economical and capable PictureWindow Pro. 
This too
runs on the IBM T40. In both cases, I find the LCD's (Samsung and IBM 
T40's)
unsuitable for image editting. Sensitive to angle of view and both 
exagerate grain in
B&W scans. So the Dell Trinitron comes out from the back room.

To economically print B&W I get a C84 and the MIS EZ inks. Also hooked 
up to
the T40 for the Epson driver with sliders and what not.  I get a D70, 
and again
Nikon Capture goes on the T40.

To address Nikon Scan's highlight blowing on B&W negs, I get Vuescan, 
but get
the Windows version since I'm mostly tethered to the T40 at this point. 
Thankfully,
Mozilla and Open Office run on Windoze (and I use IMAP email on a custom 
hosted
server of mine), so I'm not migrating to new apps, a time and cost saving.

But now I'm editting large image files on a 512K RAM machine with a laptop
oriented CPU (1.6 Ghz Intel).  Thank goodness PWP is quite efficient and 
lean,
but even PWP's advanced sharpen with noise reduction is quite sluggish. I'm
accustomed before now to very snappy response times.

As the database of image files grow, I discover the free Picasa. Yea for 
free. But
it freaks on disconnected drives (e.g., network drives). So I'm keeping 
files on my
T40's hard disk. Roll after roll of giant 14bit scanned TIFF's are 
problematic,
storage wise. I "downrez" to JPEG's and rescan individual frames for 
serious editting
and printing. In any case, I run a fancy, open source (free) directory 
synchronization
program to mirror all image files to the Linux machine.

My T40 has a nice CD burner, but no DVD burner to burn rolls of hi rez TIFF
scans. That's on the Linux machine.

More recently, to get larger prints, I snag a 2200 and the economical 
QTR RIP
software for producing neutral B&W prints.  I'm limited to whatever 
profiles I can
snag, as I'm not prepared to swing for a densitometer and roll my own at 
this point
in time.

So, I'm making due without purchasing a new beefy Windoze box and PS, which
I imagine would run me $2K to $2.5K.   I've only purchased three 
printers (another
C86, long story) and some relatively inexpensive software.  And I'm 
producing
output (5x7 to (recently) 11x14)  that I'm pleased with.

But the point is that even if one starts out with a reasonable amount of 
hardware
to play with, it's not likely to be a 1-to-1 match to what one would 
want for photo
editting.  But what do we mean by "photo editting" - 4x6 prints from 
Ritz?  or
"Digital Darkroom"  style work?   Storage, processing power and some 
potentially
expensive software are likely in one's future for any "serious amateur" 
or better
work.

I imagine I'll eventually:

(1) have a beefy Windoze box built for me. 4GB or RAM and one or two really
fast CPU's should work wonders for response time.

(2) I'll likely  break down and buy PS. There also seem to be some 
rather nice
plugins available ($$$) for B&W conversions, sharpening and noise reduction
that would come along in tow.

(3) I'll likely abandon Picasa and work with some commercial indexing 
software
that handles removable storage media seemlessly and segregates lower res 
jpeg
thumbs from higher res full scans. A fast DVD burner on the same box should
help things along.

(4) Snag a different scanner for a foray into MF. Recent Epson flatbed or a
used Nikon 8000/9000 class machine.

(5) Snag sensor (and scanner mirror) cleaning kits which I've thus far 
avoided.
The D70 and Coolscan V are getting old enough that minor gentle "blower 
bulb"
cleaning isn't doing the trick.

I like the control. I don't have space for a wet darkroom. But these 
expenditures
will not represent any search for economy vs. commercial processing.

In the meantime, I'm still on my "do not spend $2-4K on new computer gear"
kick.  So I'll up the RAM to 2GB on my little IBM T40 and see how far that
takes me.

Sorry for the long post.  Just thought a "case study" might contribute 
to the
debate.

Scott



dnygr wrote:

>Nathan and I are going back and forth on this one. I hope we don't bore the 
>rest of you, and in advance I must say I respect what Nathan writes so much 
>that I offer the following opinion in the most respectful of ways.
>
>When we write grants at the clinic, we have to include costs that are not 
>directly related to the services we provide. This means that we have to 
>include secretarial and bookkeeping expenses among others. I think by 
>analogy one needs to do the same with a computer used for many things 
>including photography. It is part of the cost of the photography one does. 
>
>Doug Nygren 
>
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