You wrote:
> On Sat, 21 Sep 1996, Beakman wrote:
> > > David, to compare custom lab negative with a digital negative in which you
> > > do the scanning, tweaking, adjusting and outputting to disk yourself, is
> > > what they taught us in grammar school to call a *false analogy.*
> >
> > Not really, for two reasons. First, when I was thinking about a custom
> > lab making a 16x20 neg, I was thinking just a straight enlargement -- no
> > tweaking. I still can't imagine them making one for $30. I could be
> > wrong. Second, now that you bring it up, whether I do the tweaking or
> > they do the tweaking, the tweaking must get done. If I just consider my
> > out-of-pocket expense, which is what this really boils down to, a digital
> > neg which I tweak at home will *definitely* cost less than a neg that I
> > have a custom lab tweak.
>
> David, let me confess that you lost me. Or let me repeat that you're
> setting up a false equation. So let's put it this way: the average
> alternative printer makes his or her own negatives, perhaps 5 in a day in
> the darkroom. The cost is their time & the film. You can't make your own
> linotronic negatives unless you have a linotronic, which so few of us do.
>
> The cost in time may be comparable, if you count going to and from the
> service bureau (usually 4 one-way trips, unless you want to hang around
> for several hours). In addition the dollar cost for 5 linotronic
> negatives would be 5 times $20 or $30.
Yes, it is true that if you make your own film enlargements they will cost
less than having a service bureau make you digital negatives. However, if
you amortize the cost of the necessary darkroom equipment (8x10 enlarger,
etc.), and figure in the monthly cost of the space -- my apartment costs
me about $1.20 per square foot, and that's not really expensive for this
area. You might find that the hidden costs make things a little closer.
Just to be fair, I suppose I would have to include some of my computer
equipment costs in the price of my digital negatives, but since I use my
computer for many other things I would have to prorate the cost.
But, I'm now carrying this discussion off in absurd directions.... Let
me once again try to interject some practicality into my words. The
situation, *my* situation, is this: I don't have a darkroom. For this
reason my current, practical, options are to have 16x20 analog negs made
by a custom photo lab, or have a service bureau make 16x20 digital negs
for me. Give these two, and only these two, choices, it is less
expensive for *me* to have digital negs made.
How's that?
take care,
David