Response to Is film now just a digital storage medium?

How does the process work with an 8x10 negative for contact prints on Azo? Or for contact printing on any other paper? Or contact printing using platinum/palladium, albumen, cyanotype, carbon or so many other creative processes? Or with polaroid originals for polaroid transfers? As for the 'masses' wanting digital, Cd's or computer images, don't hold your breath. Sitting around waiting for a damn computer to come on, download, display on crappy cheap screens, print out on printers used once every 3 weeks with the constant cost of head cleaning & drying cartridges, computer glitches, power fluctuations, balky CD drives, kids jelly smeared hands trying to put in a CD and all the other damnable computer related problems... looking at a photo that comes back from the processor in the supermarket, on Fuji Crystal Archive, while you shop, is a lot easier. Not to mention the fact that this is a B&W list, not one for the fake B&W printed on color paper. Computers are nice, but a real pain in the butt. Looking at photos, especially photo quality in real prints from excellent printers, is NOT a computer project. Try as they might, the best digital B&W is not where the best real negatives & prints in B&W are right now. Don't think they will be there in the forseeable future either. Just opened a show of "Scenic Utah" at the city Museum Gallery in Brigham City, Utah & a few digital prints are really nice. But put next to fine Ilfochromes in color or next to 12x20 platinums & 8x20 and 8x10 contact prints on Azo and Forte, there is no comparison as far as total tonal range, sharpness & fine detail. Computers are fine for "as good as" statements when you compare. But "as good as" gets you Madonna, not Marilyn Monroe and no matter how you slice it, "as good as" in Madonna is definately not marilyn. In digital prints, "as good as" is a substitute for the real thing, not the real thing. If you want the real thing in pixelography, use it for its own sake & explore its possibilities & quit trying to imitate real photographs. It is a creative medium in its own right & will only get better, especially if you push its strengths & quit trying to force it into a copycat only medium.

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