Hi all,

A few years ago I sold off my densitometers (both nice X-Rites) since they simply didn't seem to work well for what I was doing. My B&W transmission was woefully inadequate on pyro negs, and the color reflection had problems on alt prints (mainly due to color tints, paper texture, and other issues). So, I figured they were of no more use (though they helped a lot in silver gelatin).

Now, I'm going to give the PDN system a shot, and find that I either need a densitometer or a scanner! Er. I hate the idea of buying some crappy scanner that will collect dust most of the time, but don't believe in the reflection densitometer too much either. It seems to me that the scanner method would be more accurate since you to a full blur/average on the step before reading. However, we all know that cheap scanners basically suck and have there own set of issues.

So, has anyone tried both methods - any comments?

Thanks,
Adam

Hi all,

A few years ago I sold off my densitometers (both nice X-Rites) since they simply didn't seem to work well for what I was doing. My B&W transmission was woefully inadequate on pyro negs, and the color reflection had problems on alt prints (mainly due to color tints, paper texture, and other issues). So, I figured they were of no more use (though they helped a lot in silver gelatin).

Now, I'm going to give the PDN system a shot, and find that I either need a densitometer or a scanner! Er. I hate the idea of buying some crappy scanner that will collect dust most of the time, but don't believe in the reflection densitometer too much either. It seems to me that the scanner method would be more accurate since you to a full blur/average on the step before reading. However, we all know that cheap scanners basically suck and have there own set of issues.

So, has anyone tried both methods - any comments?

Thanks,
Adam

Adam,

I've always used a reflection densitometer but I know folks who use a scanner. I think you you will get more accurate readings with a reflection densitometer and if you are planning to contact print on silver gelatin then some scanners may not be able to read the DMAX patches very accurately at all.

But unless you are using a digital camera aren't you going to need a decent scanner anyway?

Don Bryant

Yes, I am going to give a shot at doing dSLR work. I just bought a Canon 8mp camera and a decent lens. I still have my wonderful canham 4x5 and 5x7 - but I'm frankly sick of spending so much time with them. It is incredibly freeing to just hunt pictures and not worry about much. I know that my print size will suffer a bit (compared to scanning the big negs) but I'm okay with that. I'm also going to _concentrate_ on gum. I do pt/pd (traditional and Ware), photogravure, cyanotype, and chrysotype. If things go my way, I'll be using digital negs from the dSLR.

My RGB relfection densitometer simply NEVER gave me similar results on a single patch from a step tablet - normally because in pt/pd I print exceptionally cool or exceptionally warm imagines - also on a paper with some tooth (crane's kid). I'll probably just pick up another densitometer.. I just kick myself for having sold both for what I will now pay for one! er!

Thanks,
-Adam