Film recorders to b&w enlargements

There is a place in town that advertises a film recording service. They can write to either 35mm or 4x5. The price isn't too bad. I have had a lot of my hybrid photos printed on the Noritsu machines on RA-4 paper. On color that is fine but the black and whites, while in the past weren't bad, are very poor anymore and I really like the enlarging paper I'm using now for optical prints. What kind of quality could I expect if I had this place make me some negatives and print myself to silver based paper? How many dpi can these film recorders typically deliver? Also, if I sharpen the images in photoshop, would the enlarged prints retain the sharpness or would much of that be lost? I'm currently making 8x10 but would like to go up to 11x14. I don't have a real great inkjet so those aren't an option at the moment.

Doug

the dpi/spi can vary. Solitaire 16 will give a 16k or ~3k per inch image on 4x5 and it is nice, I forget what the Rhino LVT's are res wise, but they are in the same range, and the light jet's can achieve Res80* which, if I recall correctly, is 2032 spi. It has been a while, but I've used all three. The light jet is superior to all. The LVT is a bit better than the solitaire, but the solitaire is really consistent and far easier and more versatile to use. Of the three only the Solitaire will do both 35mm and 4x5 (70mm and 8x10 too). There are other makes and models, but these three were the players back in the day when outputting film was big.

Most of these machines were used for tranies, but are fully capable of producing very nice negs.

We have a member who owns two light jets -- maybe he'll post.

*they may go as high as res120 which would be ~3034 spi -- but I just can't remember.

As John mentioned the resolution and quality of film recorders varies. The LightJet that I have can write at res 80 (2032 dpi). From this I have made 4x5 negatives that under an 8x loupe look identical in detail to the 4x5 original. I am sure something is lost in the process, but it should be good for a 20x24 print (5X). Any sharpening you do to the image will show up in the final prints. However, I think this should be applied based on the final print size. Sharpening that looks good for an 8x10 will possibly look over done and hide detail on a 20x24. Conversely adequate sharpening for the 20x24 print will be lost at an 8x10 size.

The lab you are looking at may have a CRT based film recorder instead of a Solitaire. I say this because the highend CRT based Polaroid offered 35mm and 4x5. I have no experience with these, but from what I have read the Polaroid was a good machine, but not quite as good as the Lightjet and LVT.

What is the source of your files?

The files are photoshop processed MF negative scans, and possibly some conversions from Canon 5D images. (I had to sell the 5D last fall to avoid losing my home while I was unemployed.) I print negatives optically but there are times that they just need more work than I know how to do with enlarger and paper alone. I would sure like to be able to print these myself.

Doug