[filmscanners] Re: Digital Darkroom Computer Builders?

["" <gannet@intnet.net>]

It's interesting (to me at least) that my question has gotten more
responses on this list than anywhere else it was placed.  This is a
techie group.  Ok, so we knew that already. :)

On Mon, 21 Oct 2002 11:21:00 +0200, Anthony wrote:
>For a good image-processing system, you need to add a zero to the RAM and
>disk space, and add at least 2-5 inches to the monitor size and make it a
>high-end monitor (I prefer Sony).  Configuring multiple disks as a RAID
>would be even better, since the defective memory management of Photoshop
>often must be compensated by fast disks.

This has been my experience as well.  I'm rarely processor bound, even
with a "measly" Athlon 1.2.  I am constantly memory bound with 512 MB.
With 160 GB I'm still in pretty good shape, but I'm already having to
"manage" my files to keep disk usage down.  I hate that, and always
have.

Current "high end" consumer machines are "adequate" for image
processing, and not more than that.  The fact that most of us are
getting by with those (or less) is beside the point.  Plenty of great
photos were taken with Exactas; does that mean that's the best you can
do, and anything over that is fluff and eyewash?  I think not.

I find it interesting, and surprising, that many of the responses I've
gotten have been basically shrugs, "there's no market", "my Dell is
just fine", etc.  This from a group (photographers) known for being
agonizingly geeky over technical minutiae that has practical effect
only at the margins.

In any case, it looks like the answer is no, there are no specialist
vendors, other than perhaps the DV/3D guys.  It would be nice to speak
with those who have actually worked with (and integrated!) the
different cards, tablets, video drivers, scanners, etc., but I'm going
to have to tough it out and do it myself.  Which is not terrible, I'm
not boo-hoo-hooing.  It just seems, well, silly for each of us to
*have* to figure this out on our own, or live with suboptimal systems.

We don't coat our own plates anymore, do we?

Thanks to all for the responses.  Keep 'em coming, I think this is a
worthwhile discussion.  And, to keep this somewhat on-topic, the thing
that is really driving this for me is wanting to scan to larger and
larger file sizes and be able to deal with the resulting files before
I turn old and gray.  To me, at least, this is very much a scanning
issue.

Gannet
St. Petersburg, Florida

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