Options for printing from transparencies?

Hi Gordon

I will try to explain my quick evaluation in a different manner.

When I go to a gallery show , I am expecting that this exhibit will represents a paticular photographers best work.
As a printer for different photographers who exhibit work it is my responsibility to make the best possible print of each photograh in the show.That includes good density , contrast, dodging and burning as well as a sharp image edge to edge.
Imagine a series of images that include buildings with straight lines and angles that go to the edges of the print. I find it difficult to follow the lines of the image, only to find them soften at the edges. This is what I mean by looking at the four corners or edges of the prints.
If an optical printer is not up to snuff , you can see it immediately *soft edges* and to me the photographic show is not good.
You are right at small magnification and low ISO films the ability to pick this out is very hard. The fact that you have 24x36 inch tack sharp edge to edge images from 35mm, only tells me that you have a very good printer doing your work.To me that part of the criteria for print print excellence. The rest belongs to having a great image and a printer who can bring out all the best qualitys of the negative you provide.

Thanks for clarifying that Bob.

Bob Carnie said:

Re Issaac7 post

I too agree with his assesment of Repro Images ability to scan. I just finished a show that consisted of 40 Tango scans from 6x7 transparancies done by repro images , that in my opinion were the best high resolution scans we here have printed from.
In fact we recommend them for high end drum scans to all our clients.

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I've never used them for scanning, I'm sure that they have the same exacting expectations for their digital stuff as they do for their optical work. I used to do the QC, mounting, and LF dupes for them 9 or so years ago. Things sure have changed in that line of work!

Isaac

What a wonderful summation of pure optical versus computer scanning/wet process differences. Bob knows his stuff.
In the end, I'm just glad we still have choices.
Of course, you could always invest the time and money to do it yourself!
Long Live Ciba!!!

Dave Travis

I am blushing , thanks.

What we are finding with this hybrid mix of digital and traditional is increased flexibility and a willingness of the manufacturers to invest in new and different traditional materials that can be used under an enlarger as well with laser technology.

The biggest unkept secret right now is the new Harmon Technology offering that will be launched at Photokina. talk about a material that bridges both traditional and digital.

Don't be suprised that other paper suppliers start following Ilfords lead and produce products that we all want.
*long live fibre paper.*

isaacc7 said:

... It consisted of a modified Mitchell motion picture camera with pin registration, an optical bench, and a conventional color enlarging head was used for illumination. We would use a color analyzer to insure accurate color adjustments. The whole thing was bolted directly into the foundation of the building in order to minimize possible vibrations. The lenses were special Nikkor duplicating lenses. I think they were originally designed to be used in motion picture optical printing machines. There was no helical, movable iris, or anything else that we're used to seeing in a regular lens. They cost something absurd like $1100 back in '73! (snip)
Isaac

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Cool! First time I have ever heard of using a VisitaVision 8 perf movment to copy slides! Yes, those 105mm f4.5 Printing Nikkors still adorn our Optical Printers; they are now selling for $5 to $6K when they can be found and they depend on bellows movement to focus and camera movement for sizing...

Kino said:

Cool! First time I have ever heard of using a VisitaVision 8 perf movment to copy slides! Yes, those 105mm f4.5 Printing Nikkors still adorn our Optical Printers; they are now selling for $5 to $6K when they can be found and they depend on bellows movement to focus and camera movement for sizing...

Click to expand...

Yeah, they were heavily modified to be used as slide dupers. There is an outboard controller for setting the number of exposures and the cameras are run at a rate of about 1 1/2 frames a second, This is the only way to be able to make high quality dupes in large quantities. The rig was made in the mid 80's I think, so all of the controllers are analog controlled. It's all switches, counters, relays, etc. The camera they use for 70mm dupes had to undergo even more modification. I think that they had to rework the sprocket pitch and/or the registration pin movement to make it compatible with the duping film. The owner of the lab claims to be the one that made EK offer the film in that size. He would have to special order an entire batch. The good news is that ensured great consistency from roll to roll, the bad news was that it was a ton of film!

Isaac

BTW, if anyone is interested, the website for Repro Images is:

http://www.reproimages.com/home.html

Looks as though they now have a camera to do the 6x17 dupes. I used to contact print them, what a pain in the neck!

Isaac

Getting good prints from transparencies was always painful as far as I remember. Looking at the results has always disappointed me, because the original slides are so much better. Maybe it would have been easier not to look at the prints at all and give them away in a closed envelope - the majority of people that are used to get the crappy prints from big labs wouldn't have noticed anyway how bad they are.

The worst thing that once happened was that the lab lost all originals (as well as the prints) from the selected best shots of my sister's wedding. This was the moment in life I never gave any film or slide into a mass users lab again and turned to professional labs that do the job locally.

Unfortunately the pro labs are not all better. Especially with 120 film I have never experienced that the slides came back untouched. Sometimes finger prints, sometimes scratches, sometimes dirt. Even when they wear gloves, I would be interested to understand their washing cycles for the gloves, because sweaty gloves will cause smear on the slides as well. They are simply not able to handle 6x6 slides appropriately with an edge of 2mm on each side. I always use tweezers to keep them fat-free.

As prints are always secondary usage for me, because slide projection is intended, I most recently bought an Epson film scanner and I am happy to say that the labs can now scratch their displays, make as many finger prints on their monitors, and loose as many of my files as they want!