Digital Darkroom/Studio Considerations

Ive broken this down into categories. 1. Cameras 2. Computers & Accessories 3. Software CAMERAS: Hey ya need a camera! You can stick with the system you used for your 35mm work, your use this as a chance to switch. The major players are Nikon, Canon, and Olympus. If youre a Nikon shooter, the good news is that you can still use your old lens. Now using these lenses, you need to know that the requirement for focus on the film plane and that of an electronic senor are different. Your old lenses will have a factor of about 1.5 magnification. If youre a Canon shooter, unless you had upgraded to the very latest Canon system at the turn of the century, your old lenses will not fit the new bodies. The specs on the Canons are better than those of the Nikon. But were talking on a micro level were 2 to 4 second differences are a big deal to you. Olympus has been a major player and innovator in digital photography longer than Canon or Nikon and is worth a look see. Im a Nikon shooter so thats the system I know, and will recommend. But you can visit a great web site, Digital Photo Review, http://www.dpreview.com/, which compares camera models in an extremely fair way. So youll be able to look at my recommendation and still be able to compare an research other camera models. A. Nikon D300s, $2400.00. This is the latest mid-level pro camera. Get the kit so youll have a good auto-focus lens designed for digital shooting. The basic design difference between a pro and entry-level DSLR camera is body design. The pro level cameras are magnesium bodies not plastic. They are also faster, with better placement of the controls youll need when shooting. Entry-level DSLRs are designed for people who are upgrading from Point & Shot cameras and dont know the mechanics of photography. This is a DX format and is not a Full Frame sensor. A FX format which is a Full Frame sensor which is more expense. B. Canon G11, $560.00. This is a compact camera, a Point & Shoot. The DSLR is a big (heavy) camera and you may not want to carry it with you all the time. Whereas a compact camera, you can put in your bag or pocket, and keep with you always. I recommend this camera because it has manual setting, much like the DSLR cameras. I have the Panasonic LX-3, which is smaller and has a Leica lens. Panasonic stopped making this camera, and has produced the Panasonic GF-1, which has removable lenses. Very nice, small but not pocketable. Its part of a new breed of cameras being produced now. Small cameras with interchangeable lenses under $1000.00. Theyre even worth a

look see as an option to getting a mid-level pro camera, if you want to travel light. If this is a possible consideration you may also want to look at the Olympus Pen E-P1, $800.00. COMPUTERS AND ACCESSORIES: OK, here comes the Big Debate! Do you go with a Mac or a PC? First, it makes no difference. Its all about what you like. I prefer a PC. It will stand the test of time. The last new computer desktop I bought was in 2002. I will probably get a new desktop in late 2010. Pe ople I know who bought a new Mac at the same time I did have bought at least one new computer during the same time frame. But again, thats neither here nor there. (My PC bias is starting to peak out, so Ill stop!) The main thing is that you want to buy for the future, so here is where your major expense should be if you are not a geek at heart. 1. You want to get a fast computer that will be ready for 64-bit world. You want to get the fastest CPU you can afford. I would recommend a Quad Core Processor running as fast as you can afford. On average the Macs are All 64-Bit. a. If you go with a Mac (Do not get a MacBook or an iMac!), get a Mac Pro QuadCore, One 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor. 6 GB of RAM, 1 TB hard drive, bay 1, 2x NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB, two Optical Drives, 24 inch Cinema
Flat Panel display. About $2400.00

b. If you go with a PC, there are quite a few manufactures, Dell, HP are a couple of good
places to start. In general, any PC that is designed for Gaming is a good choice for imaging as well. Ill just over an HP desktop. You can use this configuration to compare other PC desktops. HP e9280t series, Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-975 processor Extreme Edition [3.33GHz, 1MB L2 + 8MB shared L3 cache], 8GB of RAM, 1TB hard Drive, 1GB ATI Radeon HD 4850 [2 DVI, HDMI and VGA adapters], HP w2338h 23-inch 16:9 Full HD Widescreen Monitor (for $50 more you can get a 25 inch monitor, it all depends on the space you have), 2 DVD drives, one is Blu-Ray). About, $1800.00.

c. Be sure to have enough ports to connect stuff to your computer. Be sure to get USB about 6 or 8 ports, a couple of Firewire ports, and a SATA port. Firewire comes on a couple of flavors. The latest is Firewire 800 (IEEE 1394b), but there are still a lot of Firewire 400 (IEEE 1394) devices out there and is slower than 800. Since youre getting a new computer Id get the 800. However, many non-pro video devices run on iLink, which is Firewire 400. d. The great thing getting a new computer is that it will have the latest Operating System,
with everything working, theoretically! You have no choice with the Mac, its going to be the latest version of OSX, Snow Leopard. On the PC side, there a few flavors of Microsofts new OS, Windows 7. I recommend, Windows 7 Pro. Be sure that the 64 bit version is installed on your computer. 2. OK, now that youve got the computer, youre going to need a couple of accessories to put it all together. a. A Scanner, or two. Because you have a large library of negatives and slides, youre going to need a film scanner. I would recommend getting a dedicated film scanner. Its much faster and sharper than a flatbed scanner that also does film. I recommend getting the

Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED, $1100. This is the latest 35mm film model. You may be able to get an older model either recertified or new at a lower price point. I would not buy a used scanner from a user, unless you know the person or institution. b. As a photographer you probably have prints, but no negs, so you should get a flatbed scanner for prints and other flat material, like album covers. Epson Perfection V600 Photo Scanner, $250.00. Or the Epson WorkForce GT-1500, $350.00. The V600, is designed for photos, and it can to transparency scanning, but the bed is 8 x 11. The Workforce is designed for general document scanning, but its bed is 8 x 14 inches. So, thats something to consider. Personally, I would forgo the photo bells & whistles for the bigger scanner surface.

c. The Printer. The Printer is what brings everything together. These days the technology for the printer is outstanding. So the question is; How big do you want to print? If 11x14 is as big as you think you want to get, then youll want a 13 x19 inkjet photo printer. If you think you would like to go up to 16 x 20, then youll want to get a 17 x 22 inch printer. I have an Epson. Its an 8 year old Stylus Pro 4000 that prints up to 17 x 22. I love it! There are a couple of things to consider when buying a print. Unlike the camera and the computer, the printer must be constantly maintained with ink and paper. So consider this: 1. The bigger the printer, the more the ink cartridges cost. Theyll hold anywhere from 110ml to 200ml of ink. My print holds eight carts, and each cost $53.00. Thats about $425. Now, you buy the cartridges as you need them, and they dont all empty at once. 2. The smaller the printer the less the carts cost. These printers use about 8 10 cartridges at a cost of around $12.00 to $20.00 each. Thats about $96.00 to $120 depending on the model printer. 3. Now heres the thing. Youll use more cartridges during a year with the smaller printer, so your cost will be MORE than the bigger printer if you print the same about of 11 x 14 prints. However, if you are not printing a lot of prints, say about 10 a month, the smaller printer will feel less expensive to maintain, because your outlay, seems less during a half year period. However, if youre selling prints, the printers ink maintenance will pay for itself. 4. Next is paper. Theres good paper and theres crap. There are different surfaces & weights too. From stuff that looks like the prints you made in the darkroom, to Fine Art watercolor rag papers, to excellent matte papers in several weights. Check out, Red River Paper, www.redriverpaper.com, and Epsons professional website, http://www.epson.com/proimaging/index.html, for more info. d. An External Hard Drive. Even though youll be getting a big hard drive with your computer. Youll need an external drive for backups. You really dont want to have all your stuff on one hard drive, because stuff happens. It really does! I recommend getting a drive that with USB and /or Firewire connectivity. To start out I would recommend a 1TB drive. You may also want to think about getting an

enclosure which will support multi-drives bays. This way your storage can grow as you needs grow. I think this may be over kill for you right now, but this way youre buying into the future. But with that said, Ive been doing this since 1992, and Ive seen a lot of very promising technologies die (Ive even owned a few!). So you can only think but so far into the future of technology insurance. e. USB Flash Drive. Get an 8 GB drive for transporting files. 3. SOFTWARE. a. OK, so theres Photoshop in a few flavors. The least expensive way to go is to get Photoshop Elements. It is easier to learn and it cost about $80 - $100 or less. Y feeling about it is , Why bother! If youre going to do this, get the big boy. There are two flavors, Photoshop Standard and Photoshop Extended. Youll be good with Photoshop Standard. Now with that said, Photoshop Extended has tools for video and 3D, as well as tools for engineering, medical imaging, and research. But dont pay for stuff you wont be using. The difference in cost is about $200! Now I have the software, and can give it to you (Mac or PC) but I believe its best to be a Registered User. You buy into the softwares R&D effort, and upgrades cost much much less. Cost for Standard, about $300, and for Extended, $400. Now, theres one more option in the Photoshop family, and thats Photoshop Lightroom. Where Photoshop is a design tool, and is for designing & processing images, Lightroom is a photographic tool created for processing photographs only. Lightroom cannot create collages or montages. You have very limited text tools and controls. If youre not going to do any design work, Lightroom may be all youll need. Its the darkroom you always dreamed about owning! Cost about $200.00 b. Next to help you with your printing, you will need software to calibrate your monitor and maybe profile your printer. This is color management software. Using the profiles that come with the paper made by the people who made your printer work very well, so printer profiling software maybe over kill at this point. But you should definitely calibrate your monitor. The X-rite i1Display LT and /or Datacolor Spyder3Pro work fine, at about $200. c. Office Suite. While there is Microsofts Office Suite, the latest being Office 2007 on the PC and Office 2008 on the Mac, there are some free alternatives. One of the best is by Sun Microsystems, OpenOffice , which can be downloaded at this web site, http://download.openoffice.org. You will need the Java Runtime, which I believe is part of the download. It supports all operating systems. Well, I think thats about it. This took a little longer than I thought, but I wanted to be as complete as possible, and I didnt want to just put a list together without you really understanding your options. Plus, I was doing this in between some other stuff and I wanted to be sure you were getting the biggest bang for your buck.