SO, YOU WANT TO GO DIGITAL!

By Eric Weatherill (Area 11)

(Note: I am talking about QUALITY printing, comparable with Cibachrome. At the moment digital cameras are not up to it, unless you have won the Lottery. Use your SLR to take slides or negatives, then scan those into the computer to produce your prints.)

It is so wonderful! No messy chemicals. No fiddling with paper in the dark. Unbelievable control and versatility. The printing world is yours to enjoy. You just press a few buttons and HEY PRESTO!!

What is the catch???

There are actually several:-
1. Are you computer literate? If you do not know what that means, ask your grand-children. They will delight in educating you. Buy THEM the gear and bribe them to do it all for you.
2. Have you already got a modern computer less than three years old. Anything older is so ancient in computer life that it is unlikely to be able to support the software involved or have enough memory to use it.
3. How is your bank balance? If you want to be able to make prints of equal definition and quality to your dark-room products, you have to be prepared to spend enough money to set you up with a Nikon F5 and a battery of lenses, and then expect that in 3-5 years it will all be classed as antique. Cameras are outdated quickly enough, but they are 'tortoises' compared with the computer ‘hares’.
4. Have you a short fuse? Do you throw things when frustrated? DON'T EVEN TRY IT? You are going to need patience and persistence.
5. Have you a tolerant or co-operative spouse? Once you are hooked you will be spending more time computing than co-habiting.

So, you are still interested? What do you need?

1. A computer. Not just any old rubbish. It must have plenty of hard-disk space and lots of memory. My own computer is three years old, I have had to buy an extra external hard disk and raise the memory from 16 Mb to 64Mb to have the minimum chance of success. Buying a new one now I would aim at a 6Gb+ hard disk and a minimum of 128Mb RAM memory, expandable to double that. (That's £1500+ +.)
2. A scanner to feed the digital information into the computer. A flat-bed scanner at £69 will NOT DO! The minimum is around £350 and the maximum is sky-high. The Nikon Coolscan III has a lot of features including ICE which will minimise the effects of surface scratches etc. at around £610, the Minolta Dimage Scan Dual also has excellent optical resolution at only £350.
3. A storage device for holding the file of information for each print. A Zip Drive is the minimum (£90 + cartridges), Writeable C D's are rapidly entering the market at around £250+.
4. A photo-quality ink-jet printer. The Epson Stylo Photo 700 (A4 size at £220) and its bigger brother the Stylo Photo EX (A3 size at £370) are the market leaders, streets above any others.
5. A soft-ware program. The world standard is Adobe Photoshop 5 at £500, but there are many cheaper options. It is almost certain that your scanner and printer will come complete with some free software, probably Photoshop LE, which is a limited version of Photoshop 5. Once registered, Adobe will up-grade it to Photoshop 5 for under £200. Adobe PhotoDeluxe 2 at £48 is a cheaper option and there are several others.

Materials.

All you now require are paper and ink. That isn't as simple as it sounds. There are a host of firms offering paper in a wide variety, each one better than all the others. Start using the paper and ink recommended by the maker of the printer. Ink Jet Paper is cheap, but is just like typing paper and only fit for proofs. You have to use Photo Quality Glossy Paper to get good results. Many papers are quite thin and may wrinkle when wet with ink, especially black. Heavier papers are available, but do cost a little more. Prices vary from about 25p to over £1 per sheet. Tetenal High Glossy Paper is water resistant and quick drying.

Inks are expensive.

A colour cartridge for the Epson 700, full price costs £17 and will do somewhere around 20 prints A4 size. Jessops prices are a little cheaper and their own substitute inks are of fair quality and even cheaper. Try MX2 in Guernsey. They advertise films etc. in photo mags, but also have a computer sales line 01481 53526 and will send you their price list which is the cheapest I have found. They also have heavy-weight Epson Photo Glossy Paper, which I have not found in local shops.

Finally.

As you can see, this is a very big step to take unless you already have a suitable computer and are half way there. Before taking it, consult friends who are ahead of you. They will be delighted to show off their prowess. There are several new magazines which can provide information - and confuse you with it. Be careful when taking the recommendations of salespersons. In photo shops they are going to push their own limited stock of equipment. In computer stores they will try to blind you with 'science' and hype, offering dozens of alternatives.

As a last resort, or to discuss any points, try e-mail to EWeatheril@aol.com (note the single 'l'), but remember I am no expert, I have just taken one step more than you.

Good printing