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Friday, September 27, 2013

Sinar rePro for Latent Print photography?

A few years ago, I was experimenting with a Hasselblad camera for surveillance photography. The results were stunning. I also examined the H4D for studio use. But that was then. Now comes the Sinar rePro and it gives me a whole new set of ideas - shooting medium format for in-lab latent print photography?

Back in'09, I was testing ACR for Latent Print Analysts and made the comment that if you had $80k to spend, try the Foster+Freeman DCS 4. Re-examining the Foster+Freeman offerings some years later shows that DCS 4 is still on offer. Thus, if I had the same $80k to spend, what would I buy?

I'd take a serious look at the Sinar rePro. "The legendary precision of Sinar view cameras for analog and digital studio photography is already well known and highly valued by a great number of users around the world. Based on the same standards, the Sinar rePro is specifically designed to meet the requirements of reproduction photography. On the Sinar rePro only the essential operating elements have been implemented, the resulting simplicity of operation leads to an optimal reliability and prevents handling errors. The Sinar rePro fits seamlessly in the universal Sinar System and it provides an easy workflow with maximum accuracy." Capturing for a latent print workflow is almost identical to a reproduction workflow in terms of precision / accuracy. This adds a touch more control and, with the right digital back, a huge increase in pixels (the eXact allows for a 192MP 16bit RGB output). SWGFAST has their recommendations in terms of minimums, but why settle for minimums if you've got $80k to spend?

Plus, "The basis for the accurate image sharpness is the perfect flatness of the object to be captured and the parallel alignment of the camera. A further novelty provides valuable assistance: Sinar parallel is an excellent device for precise adjustment. The battery powered Sinar parallel is placed on the capturing table and its laser beam reflects from a mirror on the camera. Precise alignment of the camera is achieved when the laser beam exactly hits the middle of the crosshairs of Sinar parallel." Precision alignment is a key to achieving great results.

So, if money was no object, and I wanted a very high megapixel result combined with benefits of a medium format reproduction camera set-up, then I'd really like to see the results achieved of putting the Sinar rePro together with a decent light source. Hmmm ... Christmas is coming.

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