Selling the 'blad for a 20D?

[kellmeister]

Well the time has come. I'm thinking of selling my hasselblad for a 20D.

I just dismantled my b/w darkroom and am looking at either purchasing a 4870 flatbed and scanning film or buying a 20D and converting over to an all digital workflow for fine art prints. I'm just wondering if anyone has experience in scanning medium format film vs. shooting all digital.

I expect, of course, a loss in quality by going to the 20D, although I usually only print my medium format prints up to 11x11. I understand scanning is not actually the most fun thing in the world and the portability of digital might appeal to my shooting style, plus the experimenation factor. Anyone else have experience with MF and digital?

[mbze430]

What a coincident that you happened to ask. I was at a photo store today, and they happened to have a Imacon scanner there. tried out a few 120 and 220 slides....WOW. I thought I was impressed by my Minolta 5400 Elite II, but the Imacon is just amazing. The price is way out of my price range, so if you are a large or MF shooter you probably laready have enough cash flow to get a Imacon scanner.

They had the Epson 4870 as a "comparison"...the Epson doesn't even come CLOSE....It would probably take the Epson 3-4 multi scan to get some of the shadow details out.

[kellmeister]

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of.

What's the use of shooting medium format if I can only afford to get a flatbed scanner for it anyway. :cry: Actually I only have one lens, a 150mm, as I'm a telephoto guy.

[tim]

I think prints at 11x11 from a 20D should look almost perfect. You need to consider color reproduction in film vs digital if you print a lot of photos to sell. I print 20D photos at A1 size (for myself, not for sale) and i'm very happy with them :)

[mbze430]

Is that a sonnar lens? I would buy it if you can give me a good deal :)

[kellmeister]

Thanks guys for the observations. I probably will hold on to the 150mm for a little while longer until I figure out if the 20D is worth the switch. The instant feedback of digital would be great to have. I'm still waiting on my slides to get processed from a trip to London I took 3 weeks ago...

[Alan Neilson]

well of course your other choice is to get a digital back for your blad! mine you that is a serious amount of money as well!