On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 19:28:58 +0100, tony sayer
wrote:

In article , Laurence Payne
lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom.? writes

I had a good mate - sadly now deceased - who got a great deal of pleasure
out of home colour printing. Just because something is difficult to
achieve well doesn't make it thankless - quite the reverse, often.

So did I. (Only he's still breathing, last time I looked.) He too
took great pleasure in the technical process. Eventually he realised
he was spending a LOT of time and money to be almost as good as the
machine at the camera shop :-) I had less money to burn and stuck
to black & white. Until digital came along I don't think I'd ever
shot in colour. Now the process is trivial and I enjoy making
photographs.

There's some audiophile analogies in there somewhere :-)

The problem with the colour process is the number of stages and the
requirement for keeping the whole lot at the right temperatures etc all
in all dictates a home lab setup, unlike monochrome where it can all be
done in the bathroom

Many years ago I bought a Cibachrome kit, with drum, box of filters
for the enlarger, thermometers, chemicals and so on. I must have made
a hundred test prints trying for a decent colour balance - which I
never managed to get to my satisfaction. Add to that the lousy
contrast range and you have expensive misery.

Digital photography is incalculably better than that. From picture
taken to people the far side of the world looking at it in a couple of
minutes - no contest.

I still have a 35mm camera which appears to be getting more expensive
by the day on ebay - quite inexplicable.

d

--
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com