vitoa

And this 'wish' camera is a kit with 8-800mm, f/0.8, 100g, 5cm long, macro, ultrasharp, linear, ...

 

:-)

 

(if I missed the point and this is a serious thread, I sincerely apologize)

You do not want to use mode->grayscale because you do not have any control. And result is (in most of the cases) bad. No contrast, bad dark areas which are hard or impossible to reproduce, ...

Color to B/W. There are 12.583 ways how to do that. :-)

And Mode->Grayscale is the one you don't want to use!

 

I would suggest RAW, C1 and then

- conversion in C1 to Grayscale or

- conversion in C1 to RGB and use the-one-and-only Russel Brown's way to convert to B/W :-)

 

Anyway ... this is THE most innovative way I've seen so far.

 

Well ... here is the link:

http://www.russellbrown.com/tips/moviesps/ColortoB&W.mov

 

Some of the other tutorials are quite good, too.

Brandon, can you tell more about that price? Was it with original inks, 110 or 220ml, which paper? Thanks.

David, a profile will not help you much. They should be build on the specific lab, with their paper and their chemistry. There is a difference output with Fuji, Kodak, Tetenal, ... and some of them even use combinations (i.e. Kodak paper and Tetenal chemistry).

Fast printing brings many problems. One of the biggest is that number of 'better' papers (semigloss, perl, high-gloss, ...) is reduced due to drying problems. Pizza rollers or even rubber rollers tend to leave marks on surface, which is not dry enough. Second problem on my list is paper handling.

 

And a second thought about bigger colorspace - most of the printers drivers operate in sRGB mode. Which is small. :-)

 

In my experience more printheads bring more problem. And the calculation of 5th, 6th, ... color in CMYK proces is quite problematic. TIL one paper can take is almost a constant. So we are back on the drying problem.

 

Anyhow - we will see ...

There are many aspects of this question. Since the answer _could_ be very long, I'll try to keep it short and simple.<br> <br>

 

<b>Quality (resolution issues)</b><br>

It's very hard to talk about quality. One can not measure sharpness. So it's more or less personal decision. Many of the devices (lasers and printers) I've seen were not set up correctly - CRT or laser were producing some strange artifacts witch were easier seen on technical images (color charts, letters, lines, ...) and printers were producing banding due to misaligned heads. My opinion is that resolution is not the problem with new machines - both lasers and inkjets - if they are properly maintained.<br><br>

 

<b>Quality (color issues)</b><br>

Color management is definitely entering the photo market. The biggest printers (service providers) have already realized the benefit of CM. Smaller are slowly following. The lack of knowledge is the biggest problem. With both providers and users. What works (in most of the cases) is sRGB workflow. AdobeRGB and other have more problems. Main reason is, that CM is not installed properly. And picture in AdobeRGB are outputed in sRGB mode, which is mostly used on minilabs. <br><br>

 

Not many users know, that there are 2 main modes on majority of the machines - sRGB and direct mode (also called print mode, ...). The main difference is that in PD mode minilab has much bigger color gamut in cyan and blue.<br><br>

 

<img src="http://www.tavija.si/oslarije/Fuji_RGBvsPD_m.jpg" align=center hspace=5 vspace=5><br>

<i>Bigger color space is from PD mode, smaller is sRGB. Machine is the same Fuji.</i><br><br>

 

Surprising is the fact, that some combination of inkjet printer and paper has even bigger color gamut then laser.<br><br>

 

<img src="http://www.tavija.si/oslarije/Fuji_vs_Epson_m.jpg" align=center hspace=5 vspace=5><br>

<i>Bigger color space is from Epson 2100/2200, Lyson CIS Photochrome (pigmented inks) on Best/EFI photo semimat paper with Best/EFI RIP, smaller is PD mode on Fuji. Don't compare this with sRGB from above :-)</i><br><br>

 

<b>Price</b><br>

Of course the price from laser and small inkjet printer are not comparable. But bulk feed systems for some printers can lower the cost of output enormously. Some of the solution do not work, but some work excellent. I have lot's of experience with Lyson and I can tell - it works. And color gamut is even bigger then the 'original' one. Especially in green area. But the price per 1ml is about 10 times lower. And some combinations are even much cheaper then conventional photo development with minilab.<br><br>

 

<b>Future</b><br>

Well this is the best part. This debate is similar to "what is the future of digital cameras in professional business" about 5 years ago. My prediction is that in next few years you will find inkjet printers in all minilabs. Some steps in this direction were already made by all major companies - both inkjet and minilab manufacturer.<br><br>

 

 

Well - I failed! I was not short. But at least I hope it was interesting :-)