[Leica] Curious about enlargements made by LUG forum members

[scott at adrenaline.com (Scott McLoughlin)]

I've made some 11x14 (color) prints from my D70 (all tripod mounted,
studio lighting shots) that seemed to hold up pretty well.

But 5x7 and 8x10 prints from scanned B&W negs are so far more pleasing
than my 11x14 and 11x17 enlargement attempts.  Perhaps its just because
most of my Leica + B&W shooting is handheld.

I really enjoyed Barry Thornton's book as well. Nicely written, although 
I've
also heard from some detractors regarding his opinions on max print size
(10x10" from a Hassie negative, for example).

I've been eyeballing and researching MF gear for about a year now, and
haven't yet pulled the trigger on a buy decision. I love shooting my Leica
kit, but me'thinks I'm getting closer to that MF system by the day. Now
what will it be:  Mamiya RZ/RB67, Hassie 501C/M or Rolleiflex?

Scott

Alastair Firkin wrote:

> I am currently working on my European shots: 30 odd rolls, and most 
> are 10 x 8. I sometimes make 8 x 5's two to each sheet, but I'm not in 
> that production line "mood". I will then make a "selection" of 16 x 
> 12's, and then I will "scan" the negs and put them up on the computer 
> for final review/web page creation, and annoying the LUG ;-)
>
> Barry Thornton, in the book I read while working in the darkroom talks 
> about getting "perfection" in terms of all factors: contrast, 
> resolution, grain etc and states that although with a good neg you can 
> get slightly bigger images, "about" the maximum you can expect from 
> most negs on 35mm film is a 10 x 8 print.
>
> Cheers