I'd like to try printing my own digital pictures and would like to be able to get high quality 8x10 enlargements. Leaving aside that I would need a really good printer, would I get better results by investing in a medium format (nondigital) camera and having the negatives scanned onto a CD, or would I get equal or better results by investing in a digital camera? I'd really appreciate your views. Thanks.

-- jerry epstein (jepstein@jenner.com), February 14, 2000

Answers

you'll get a lot better results with the medium format camera, but the digital is more convenient. A lot of people are happy with 8 X 10 digicam shots, but photo snobs wouldn't call them "high quality". Medium format looks wayyy better when you go beyond 8 X 10

-- benoit (foo@bar.com), February 14, 2000.

You can also "stitch" digital frames together to get a larger equivalent "original." My gut feel is that this begins to get rather intensive as to your own effort and the impact on your computer use of memory and speed, especially if you are actually going to stop at 8x10. I would guess it is easier to get scans of selected larger negatives than it is to use stitching software. You will probably need to make your own trade-offs including time and cost. Will it take you more time to stitch or to get pictures to and files from your scanning source? Scanned color negatives require more work to correct out the "orange" tint. Either approach should allow you to get satisfactory prints larger than 8x10 as well. Don't necessarily limit yourself to a smaller printer. For example, there is little difference in cost of purchase or consumables between an Epson 750 or 1200. You can print small on a large printer, but you can't print large on a small printer. But there are commercial operations that will do it for you.

An option you didn't mention: If you truly are stopping at 8x10, then 35mm can add significant photographic flexibility over either digital or medium format within comparable expenditures.

-- Craig Gillette (cgillette@thegrid.net), February 15, 2000.