Good morning and hello

[chorleyjeff]

Hello everyone. Short intro. from Jeff at Chorley in Lancashire, England.
My photo interest goes back about 50 years to when I got a Retina 1A followed by a Hanimex rangefinder then A Rollei Auto. I mixed my own chemicals and enlarged in the kitchen.
Then came motorbikes, drink, marriage and children so only picked up doing photography with some serious intent in 1992 when I got a Minolta 5000.
I am a photo club member. I am mainly interested in photographing urban and rural landscapesand and close ups of flowers and plants. I don't do well in competions. Maybe I should start photographing small furry animals and birds!
Current stable is Minolta 7000 and 700si with Minolta 28-135, 100-300 and Sigma 105 macro lenses. Also Bronica ETRSi with 75 and 50mm lenses. Darkroom has Meopta colour enlarger with Nova tanks. Do my own B/W and C41/RA4 processing and have been messing about with scans from an Epson 4180 photo and prints from an Epson.
Took the plunge yesterday and got an Alpha 100. Will now have to jettison some gear - but the question is what? Doing some tests to see if I can get decent 12" x 16" prints from my Minoltas rather than using the Bronica as now in which case the Bronica goes.
I shall now concentrate on getting to know the digital process so that I can make decent prints and EPIs. I guess I may pester the gurus on this forum quite frequently in the next few weeks as I get to grips with new technology. Especially colour processing through the camera, PS and printer combination.
I shall also start to contribute pictures on forums and see how it goes.
All this should fit in well with a course I start later this month on nature and close up photography.
Cheers
Jeff

[David Kilpatrick]

Jeff, it remains difficult even with a Meopta enlarger and Nova tanks to make really clean 12 x 16s from 35mm negs. The biggest problem is the scale of any dust or microreticulation, grain and other effects you can rarely avoid with wet processing. The 35mm format may be up to it, but the scale of the problems is magnified.

I've been making 20 x 16/A2 prints from the A100 using the Epson 3800 and Epson's Velvet Fine Art which is an amazing paper. I would say these exceed the quality of any darkroom print I made from 35mm, and I would reckon 6 x 7cm neg would be needed to do such good prints so easily.

Enjoy the Alpha 100, it's a much better camera than you would think (nothing comes close at the price).

David