william_john_smith

I have 35 years worth of negatives filed somewhat like Joe S. I also scan each sheet on a 636

Epson flatbed scanner with slide adaptor so I then have a digital proof sheet. Can print it out

if need be.

Agfapan Apx 100 & 400 is available in 100' rolls from Photo

Warehouse<BR>www.ultrafineonline.com<BR>I just bought 10 rolls with an expiration date

of 2010<P>Why do you want to change from Efke if it gives you the look you want? Seems

like a no brainer to me.

By 2007 Apple will have the whole lineup on dual core 64 bit processors from Intel, but every

Intel mac sold now will NEVER have Vista support unless there is some virtual machine type

program ala VirtualPC. Apple considers Vista legacy software and Apple doesn't support

legacy software.

With few exceptions all the B&W on my site are taken with either a M4, 6 or 7.<P><a

href="http://www.greenlion.net/">http://www.greenlion.net/</a>

that "<I>100 ISO digital is virtually grain-free."</I><BR>Being that grain is a result of

chemical reaction in film it would seem that a camera that uses a sensor and not film would

be100% grain free.

I can only speak for one developer/film combination: Agfapan 100 with Rodinal. I have

been using the same combination for over 25 years in both the wet and scanner

darkrooms without changing a thing, same development times etc. I use Vuescan with

Nikon LS9000, been using Nikon scanners since the first one came out. The Nikon

software is not even worth taking out of the shipping package in MNSHO. <BR>Vuescan

has a setting of "Reversal BW" for slide film which i have used with some success. I have

found in my case that scanning the negative as a slide with no color changes and then

doing all the changes in Photoshop works best for me. Vuescan will also produce a RAW

scan, I use that sometimes.

<BR>I did develop and scan a couple of rolls of Tri-X for a friend and they came out fine.

Self portraits have been made since the first cave person grabed a hunk of charcoal and went

to the wall of the cave, so what is the big deal?

Connected my new 9000 to OSX 10.4.5 Saturday without a hitch. Of course I never opened

NIkon Scan or whatever it is called. Vuescan recognized the 9000 as soon as I opened it.

First scan within 15 minutes out of the box. I know a couple of people using OSX and

5/9000 with never a problem. The trick is to leave Nikon Scan in the box me thinks.

At your stage I would go with Photoshop Elements. BTW, PSE 4 is Windoze only so if you are

using a Macintosh you need PSE 3. If you decide to move to Photoshop then what you

learned with PSE will translated over well. IMO, PSE is all about 90% of online photographers

need.<P>

Lightroom is not intended to replace Photoshop, but to work with it. I using the beta now,

looks good but Apple's Aperture is ahead of the game at this point. Both are geared though

the working pro who shoots lots of image, and can afford them, don't even think about

either one yet.

For the last thirty-five years I have been using the Al Kaplan storage method, thought it was

my method but I see where Mr. Kaplan has a year or two more time owning a Lecia so he

gets the credit. Hope you copyright the name Al. The one problem with it is that I have on

occasion suffered a senior moment and forget where I set the camera down. My bag is a

canvas

grocery type, just toss whatever in and move on out.

There is only one "Quadtone RIP" and that is made by Roy Harrington.

/www.quadtonerip.com/html/QTRoverview.html<P>The price is $50 and IMO the best deal

there is.

<I>From what I've seen, neither are likely to appeal to anyone proficient with Photoshop, but

are targeted to those who have yet to face that challenge.</I><P>Neither program is meant

to replace Photoshop but to work with it. In fact if one doesn't know Photoshop one best not

go anywhere near

Aperture. Both programs are designed for the professional level photographer shooting

thoursands of images at a setting and not the

Photo Elements user.<P>As far as which is better, as pointed our elsewhere both are in beta

and it is too early to tell. I have found in both great things but I will have to wait for latter

versions to decide the outcome, at least for me.

"<I>One thing many people don't like about apeture as it put your files in a closed

package

library and it's hard to get to them unless you're in apeture. </I><P>There seems to be a

lot of misinformation about how Aperture stores images - a little deeper investigation into

the .aplibrary reveals that it's not as bad as some are fearing.<BR>

While it is true that Aperture creates its own package with a .aplibrary extension (by

default in your Pictures directory), it is not true that the raw images themselves are stored

in a proprietary format.<BR>

If you use "Show Package Contents" on the .aplibrary, you will find folders and .approject

files which correspond to your library layout. Further examination of the .approject file

reveals that it is also a package.<BR>

Using "Show Package Contents" on the .approject opens a Finder window with a handful of

XML files for the project, along with a folder which contains a subfolder for each Master

Image loaded into that project. Opening the subfolder for an image reveals more XML files

(for versioning information) <B>along with the original, untouched, image imported from

your camera.</B><P>

Bottom line: Aperture does NOT prevent you from retrieving images from it's library

directly from the file system. Aperture does not have to be open to do this!

I should have been a little clearer on this: "Process this film in total darkness. After

development is

50 percent completed, a KODAK No. 3 Safelight Filter / dark green may be used with a 15-

watt bulb, no closer to the film than 1.2 meters (4 feet)." It is dim but your eyes will get used

to the darkness after awhile, as mine did when I was in school learning this method, which I

never used again, in Rochester before the beginning

of time. But then again it does take awhile to get the hang of reading negs in the dim light. I

would suggest just learning to load in the dark and get your methods down practicing with a

used roll of film.