dan_sweet

<p>I was stuck in manhattan mid blizzard in february and had no cameras with me. I went out and bought an $85 stylus epic and spent 6 hours in the streets with it.

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<p>you can see some images I made that day on <a href="http://www.danielsweet.com/ny2.htm">my website</a> and i have included one on this post.

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<p>Not travel per se--maybe more street and portraitish than you want--but still in Manhattan and quite characterisitic of what you may find there.

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<img src="http://www.danielsweet.com/photos/ny8.jpg">

I think the above poster saying "no gallery would accept a 1280 B/W print" is quite mistaken--he's prob just never seen a good one!

 

After a good 6 month leanring process involving photoshop 6, 7 an 870(great till it died) a 2000P(which was terrible) and a 1280. I can tell you i get amazing results off of the 1280.

 

I've had magazine editors ask who did my printing! I tell then i did it myself on and Epson and they always pull it out of the sleeve to look at it closer and feel it--no one believes me at first. Spend the $300 on film or ink and paper--or promo cards or putting together a new book or somehting--i'd guess that will help you more. You need to learn how to use the tools properly anyways.

Green Photo is great--

They even have a girl that speaks some basic English if your Chinese isn't too good. I've dealt with them for E-6 and B/W (only in 35mm though)and always been very pleased with their work--very professional!

"I plan to use it primarily for landscape and close-up work."

 

How close? Do you mean macro or tight head shot?

I'm also considering a new MF camera but am finding it difficult to find much in the way of actual distances for close focus.

 

Can the original poster clarify what he means by close-up work?

 

Can anybody who responded list actual close-focus distances for the cameras you reccomend?

I am really just guessing here. I have no experience with the software you mentioned. Maybe its great and maybe it has every feature that Photoshop has--I don't know. But it isn't Photoshop and thats what every professional I have met uses. I've been using Photoshop for a couple years now and I'm amazed at the new features I'm still finding. Many of which are very helpful in my digital printmaking. As someone else said above--with computers I can burn and dodge and tweak contrast and tones way better than I ever could in a wet darkroom.

 

I also own the 2450 and only shoot B/W. The "virtual traveler" has a full length review of the 2450 with some discussion of a few diff ways to use it to scan B/W negs--this helped me a ton in getting the quality in my prints that I had always thought was possible.

 

I've shown my portfolio to many magazines and have recieved multiple compliments on some of my better prints--this is from people who look at portfolio worthy prints all day.

 

So maybe your software is fine and maybe your scanning technique is great--you didn't specify so i thought i'd ask? And if not you someone else with a 2450 will prob benefit from this.

 

http://www.virtualtraveller.org/epson2450.htm

 

Hey i just read the perfection 3200 is out now so we are all obsolete again! Yeah! That lasted almost 1 year and 4 months! Bye Bye "Brief Glimpse of the afordable version of The Cutting Edge."

Well this is kind of a guess but if you really want to find some I'd

reccomended following it up...I'd try Descanso Gardens in La

Canada just north of LA about 15-20 miles. I say this as I saw

some orchids there last time i was there but I can't remember if

they are actually in the gardens or were in the plant sale that was

going on....Sorry :( But they do have a ton of awesome flowers

though so I'd call and ask. <a

href=http://www.descanso.com>Descanso Gardens</a><p> And

I'll tell you were to find the wild ones when someone tells me

where they are keeping the wild caribou down here.

<a href="http://pdn-pix.com/businessresources/incorporate.html">PDN Article on Incorporation</a>

There is a LARGE test scan of the 2450 in one of my folders. Click on my name--its shot with a holga so not the best to test razor sharpness--but this thing will give you a 500MB file from a 4x5 if you really want one. I've printed 35mm at 13x19 so it will definately handle your mf/lf scanning needs.

I had the same problem with mine--just turn off the auto thumbnail thing and manually select the area to scan. The scanner is good but the software is inane. Should it really inform me to remove the reflective mat--EVERY time i want to scan some film!!!

I'd do the 2450, the 1280, at least 512 more RAM and a trip to SE Asia.

 

I have a 2450 myself. Its great but the 8000 is obviously better. I'd make that choice based on whether or not you have any desire to travel or buy a few hundred rolls of film or generally do anything else fun that costs money.

 

The 1280 is faster, cheaper, has a higher max resolution(which doesn't really matter) , prints borderfree--which is nice if you ever want to make your own books, includes the roll-paper adapter, and is generally a better printer--less problems calibrating away that green tint. Its less $ and I think its a better machine.

 

Definately go to at least a gig on your RAM. WHile RAM is cheap it is now 3 times what it was in the middle of december. For instance it just went up 10% today. I'd wait a month or two and see if it goes down. just my .02

I really like my 2450 and haven't really had any issues other than the twain deal in full auto mode not scanning fullfram--I "solved" this by never using the full-auto mode. I'm using the firewire connection on a G3 400mhz iMac with 320MB of RAM. If you had a Mac I'd probably blame the problems you are describing to to small an amount of memory being allocated to the scanning programs--thanks to Apple for some of the worst OS memory management of all time. If its not a Mac--which i think you said its a PC? I'd spend $35-50 and drop a firewire card in one of those open PCI slots you probably have. Its way faster and firewire is nice to have anyways. I've had so many dumb issues invovling USB drivers(on both Macs and PCs) that I avoid it whenver I can. Just an option for those out there that like to solve thing by throwing money at them! ;)

I'm pretty busy but I'll get a couple full resolution scans up for you guys this weekend. Maybe 1 or 2 Velvi and i tri-X or something.

I just bought the 2450 myself, I like it alot!--I work at a computer store so I get to play with all the new stuff. I have no experience with the Minolta so I can't say much about which would be better. However, I have the 2450 on demo in my store so if anyone lives near Pasadena, CA they can bring negs by and play with it. Of course I wouldn't mind a SuperCoolScan 8000 but this is $2600 cheaper so until then....

Also check out the review at www.virtualtraveller.org for a great review of the 2450. Thats the review that swayed my purchase decision.

I know its not a dedicated film scanner but i just picked up the Epson Perfection 2450. I get those file sizes out of my 35mm so they would be no problem to attain on your medium format. I got a couple good scans off some 6x6 Velvia with it. I work at a computer store and have quite a few customers with the 8000. I have the 2450 on demo now as well as at my house and the guys i've shown it to seem pretty impressed. At $400 bucks it'll definately get you through inexpensively and you might just decide you like it. Fell free to e-mail with any questions. I can also get you good prices on anyhting--8000, 2450, whatever. Ask if i can be of any assistance.