down in the darkroom

[Paul Stenquist]

I spent some time today down in the darkroom printing 6x7 negs. I don't 
think that I ever want to give that up when I go digital. There's 
something magic about waving your hands over a print to dodge the 
highlights, then watching it come to life in the soup.

Before going to the darkroom i shot some tabletop things for stock  in 
my studio (tools on a workbench. Hey it's money.). As I worked I 
thought how easy it would be with digital, but Pentax digital isn't 
there yet. I would need at least 10 megapixels to come close to the 
resolution I can achieve with 6x7, and even then I would only come 
close. Yes, digital is on my horizon, but ti's a way off. My clients 
wouldn't be happy with 20 meg files, so I have to wait.

It's somewhat amusing to see where the list has gone in the last few 
months. Digital has been around for a long time, but film wasn't dead 
here until Pentax released a digital camera. Then -- POOF-- it was dead 
overnight. But in reality, it's no more dead than it was two months 
ago, it's just that Pentax users are more aware of it. Yes, I'll be 
fully digital one of these days, but not until I can produce high res 
files right out of the camera.