We reproduce printed images that are generally 2" x 3" or smaller (largest would be 5" x 7") and 90% are black and white. Up until now I have shot these outdoors using my CanonA1 with a Macro lens and had them processed through a magenta filter to get a very sharp black and white. I can usually overcome most textured paper problems and can even improve contrast by playing with exposure etc. I would like to move to digital imaging and have had a proposal which consists of a Kodak DCS330 w/Nikon Macro lens, ringlight & copystand, a Umax Power Look III flatbed scanner or Umax Mirage II, the core computer system (which would be a Mac G4 500mhz, and appropriate manipulation/archiving software..) and a Kodak 8660 printer. We never enlarge greater than 2 X and in no event to larger than 4 x 6 glossy. Typical problems involve moire pattern from printed images (which has not been a big issue with the camera) and moreso, the textured papers which these images are sometimes printed on...Again, I have been able to overcome that with the camera through angles/light/distance to get satisfactory results. My overall questions relate to: a.) Will the camera proposed be capable of providing comparable images (given the relatively small size?) Are there issues with the digital camera in terms of the moire pattern that may not have existed with the conventional camera? b.) How will I handle the textured paper issue with the scanner? Are there other scanners that might handle this better than those proposed and why? Will the 133 and 175 de-screen on the scan overcome most of the moire patterns for the flat paper scans. c.) Does the Kodak 8660 produce a true photo-quality image comparable to a lab and are the blacks black and the whites white? Please remember that 90%+ of our images are black and white and are used for publication in national magazines on glossy stock. All thoughts/help/suggestions will be appreciated. I have tried to read/surf/ask as much as possible and am still somewhat unsure whether to move ahead on this. My total budget is around $25,000 with some slack if necessary. We do not produce a high volume of images annually (perhaps 4,000) so cost/image difference of $1+ is not important relative to the quality of the output and facility of creating these images. P.S. We also intend to convert existing glossy stock (2,000) and 35mm negatives strips of 4 (4,000) to digital format and would appreciate suggestions here also which would provide quality and decent speed. (95%+ of these are black and white shot with T-max 100)

-- Seth Poppel (sethpoppel@aol.com), April 21, 2000