film recording service

[johndc]

I suppose maybe this is a digital darkroom question, but since the end product

I'm looking for is silver film, and because I'm more familiar with the people

who use this forum, I'll ask it here. I hope this doesn't ruffle any feathers.

 

I'm looking for a lab that offers film recording onto B&W film. The reason? I

have about 20 images shot with my DSLR that I would like to print onto FB paper

(specifically Forte Polywarmtone in Selectol Soft).

 

Anyone have any recommendations?

 

Thanks.

[pete_andrews10]

Commercial film recording apparatus is usually pretty low-res kit. Typically giving you the sort of resolution you'd get by shooting the image from a computer CRT monitor with a film camera. In fact that's basically what a film recorder does.

 

Sorry John, but I can't see this route giving you a negative of a quality that would warrant printing onto FB paper.

 

I suspect you might get better quality by having a large digital print made, and then making a copy negative of the print. - That's unless somebody out there knows of a truly high-res film recording service (at truly high-res prices no doubt).

[robert himmelright]

I dont know if they're good or not, but dr5.com who I trust greatly offers film recording. Also www.bestlab.com and www.elevator.ca ? offer fiber printing directly from digital files, no neg.

[ronald_moravec1]

Google "Light Valve Technology". The are labs that convert your digi neg to a real neg. It is not cheap.

 

Elevator Digital will also print on FB from your digi neg.

[william_john_smith1]

Here is an example of what you can get from a film recorder. 35 mm film in and out.<P>

"2K" - 2048 pixels x 1364 pixels (approx 8 Mb) = @ 186 dpi<BR>

 

"4K" - 4096 pixels x 2728 pixels (approx 32 Mb) = @ 372 dpi<BR>

 

 

"8K" - 8192 pixels x 5456 pixels ( approx 128 Mb) = @ 744 dpi<P>This is from one of my

local labs in San Francisco.

[joseph_wisniewski]

I would recommend using full sized negatives and contact printing them onto your silver paper. You can print them yourself using an inkjet printer and transparent or translucent film, or have a service bureau print them on a 4000 dpi image setter.

 

Good resources include the original reference, Dan Burkholder's book on digital negatives. This is heavy on image setters, but also includes inkjet negatives:

 

http://www.danburkholder.com/

 

The more modern Mark Nelson's "Precision Digital Negative" system, which includes more current printers:

 

http://www.precisiondigitalnegatives.com/

 

Brad Hinkel's website, with an excellent step by step on doing a silver print (download the "chapter 4" sample) and curves for the Epson 2200, 2400, and 4000.

 

http://www.digital-negatives.com/

 

And the Hybrid Photography forum, full of people who do this kind of thing.

 

http://www.hybridphoto.com/forums/

[mawz]

Another option is to find a lab with a Durst Lambda enlarger which can print digital directly to photographic paper.

[mike_smith41]

Pastel Imaging in Troy, MI will burn you a 4x5 neg on TMax for around $35.00 from a digital file of at least 300 dpi @4x5. Google for the contact number. Excellent, easily printing 16x20 to FB paper. West Coast imaging also will do it, much more $, but superb quality.

[joseph_wisniewski]

Mike, of course there'd be a place like that in Michigan. We're a hotbed for the art, craft, and science of photography.

 

Seriously, I'll add Pastel to my resources list. Thanks.

[a._valerio]

"Commercial film recording apparatus is usually pretty low-res kit. Typically giving you the sort of resolution you'd get by shooting the image from a computer CRT monitor with a film camera."

 

What?! I thought the whole point of this process was to be able to work with a digital image in the darkroom. I'm sorry, but I can't believe that a typical film recorder nothing more than a toy that gives such low quality. This thread caught my interest because I am planning to have some stuff converted for the first time...with the intention of being able to work with the images in the darkroom.

[joseph_wisniewski]

They're not that bad. The poster who said this must have been thinking about 10 or 20 years ago, when there were a couple of low cost film recorders on the market that worked that way, for business folk who wanted to create a lot of slide presentations fast and cheap.

 

Modern film recorders use the same type of laser scanning that you see in high end digital enlargers, and as Will "Fresh Prince" Smith pointed out have resolutions up to 40 or 50mp, easily outresolving your digital camera by a factor of two or more.

[mehmet kismet]

Last year I tried "panopticon lab" http://www.panopt.com to get 4"x5" negatives from my files. They were three files from my scanned negatives (with an Imacon 949) of different sizes, 35mm and 4"x5". The result was so perfect that after this trial I decided to buy an used LVT recorder for my own works. Actually I am a fine art photographer and darkroom printer since more than 40 years, and I print my 4x5" original negatives with my enlarger. The results I have from the negatives output from my LVT recorder( a Dice Rhino+) are indistinguishables from the original ones. This recorder is capable to ouptut at 80res max. (2032dpi).

As I don't know which DSLR you have, I can guess only that for exemple with a 10MP camera(roughly 2700x3700pixels, you will have a negative size of approximatively 3,4cm x 4,6cm which will give you a very sharp print up to 30x40cm, and a sharp print up to 40x50cm.

 

For a film recorder, the only way to go is a LVT recorder, definitively not a recorder using a CRT tube from which you take a picture with a camera. The LVT recorder burns the film (4x5" or 8x10") wrapped around a drum (like in a drum scanner) pixel by pixel.

 

I live in Turkey, otherwise I could give you a service on outputting on film.

 

Panopticon Lab service was excellent for me, and the responsible in this lab. Mr. Boris Samarov is a knowleagable and kind person.