Ilford FP4 Plus 125 (120 roll medium format 6x6)

[Major Nikon]

[juxtaposed]

1. WOOF! Nice image, I like 6x6.

[kentauros]

2. No blue and gold there!

Great image, and exposure

[Major Nikon]

4. Here's the amount of detail available from this scan

I could also have it drummed scanned to 10x the resolution as this:

[alfredo]

3. Nice image.

[Major Nikon]

5. Another B&W dog in B&W

I guess I should mention both of these dogs are rescue dogs. The first one was actually rescued twice, once by by in-laws and then a 2nd time by us when my in-laws could no longer care for her. When we first got her she was very much overweight and didn't have much energy (she's also about 10 years old). We put her on a diet and now she's back to a normal weight and is back to running around and playing with my other dog. The 2nd dog is my beloved border collie that I've had for a few years. I got her from a breeder that kept her, but could no longer care for her when she was 4 years old. Both dogs are very gentle and loving, but the 2nd one has a strong herding instinct and likes to sneak up behind strangers and try to herd them.

[sir pball]

6. TBH and IMO it's an expensive, unwieldy exercise better done digitally..

6x6 BW should be mildly enlarged or even contact printed onto fixed-contrast fiber base paper. Anything less loses the soul of BW, the grain, the creamy gradations and subtle tonality...color is one thing but 1s and 0s can never, ever, do it for me in monochrome quite like a really good print.

One more thing…DELTA 100 4 LYFE!

[Major Nikon]

7. My goal with this is to do most of my work in traditional enlargements

I can certainly tell the difference between a digital and analog enlargement. I'm not sure how many could, but even if they didn't there will be subtle differences which will show in the final product which people will detect, even if they don't know what it is.

I think the larger media always has an advantage over smaller. So even if you are simply scanning the negatives, the level of detail will be far greater than anything 35mm digital has to offer. Another nice thing about 6x6 is I don't have to choose on the fly whether I want horizontal or vertical. I can crop for either one or leave it as square and regardless of which I choose I still have more detail available.

This certainly isn't going to replace my DSLR, but it does give me a lot more to play with.

[sir pball]

8. I find even drum scans of BW to be lacking something..

I've sent some 35mm out for drum scans and had the images professionally printed on really quality rag paper, and while they come out resembling halide prints , there's still something sterile about them…the grain definitely creeps me out, between the scanner and the printer it's been reproduced almost TOO well. Delta 3200 is downright offensive in that respect. I haven't shot BW film in ages precisely because I don't have a wet darkroom. If it works for you though, enjoy!

It is a lovely shot BTW.

[Major Nikon]

9. I may set up a darkroom

Right now for no more than I plan on doing it makes sense just to have them developed and printed somewhere else and thankfully there's still labs out there that will do this, although it's pretty expensive from what I've seen so far.

[sir pball]

10. I'd love a darkroom

Alas I missed out on the few years when colleges and shops were literally giving enlargers away; they're back to being sporadically and expensively available on eBay. Sigh…