I do levels/contrast/sharpness adjustments in Adobe Photoshop and output to an Epson 1280 ink jet color printer. The 13x19s from this printer are gorgeous.

Digital?
Why don't I go fully digital? I have an EOS-10D that I recently bought for work. It's great, but there's a big gap in features and pricing between the Canon EOS 10D and the 1D; and a SLR system is much heavier than my Leica M7 rangefinder system. I'm getting 20 megapixel quality from my Provia 100F scans, it'll take some convincing to get me to spend $8000 for a camera that will be $500 in two year's time. So I'm waiting until they have something equivalent to my EOS-3 in focusing speed and build quality at the $2000 mark. It'll eventually come and I'm patient.

I don't see giving up my classic cameras. You can simulate the grain of Tri-X digitally, but it's just a simulacrum. And the joy of using a 60 year old camera, knowing that in 60 years it'll still be working can't be beat.

Film Developing in the Twin Cities

Although I use A&I Film Labs in Los Angeles for most of my work (B&H has inexpensive pre-paid mailers for A&I), there are some local options in the Twin Cities, mostly in Minneapolis:

Pro Color
909 Hennepin Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55403
612.673.9191

Color Unlimited
1112 N 5th St
Minneapolis, MN 55411
612.341.8012

Film Developing in Japan

The quality of film developing in Japan tends to be very high across the board. Most smaller places are using the Fuji Pictorio (aka Fuji Frontier) digital minilab. This means you can get prints from digital files quite easily and quite inexpensively (about ¥40 for a standard 4x6 or 'L' size). Camera no Kimuraya is one chain that is pretty good for consumer prints.

For professional developing, you can use Horiuchi Color which is one of the main professional labs:

Horiuchi Color
http://www.horiuchi-color.co.jp

Horiuchi has branch offices all across major cities in Japan. If you're in Tokyo, you can have your film developed at the Bic Camera at the west exit of JR Shinjuku Station. Bic sends their film out to Horiuchi, has it returned the same day, charges the same price, but gives you a 10% "point" credit for purchases.

Bic Camera
Halc 2nd Floor
JR Shinjuku Station

Film Scanners

I scan my 35mm film through a Nikon CoolScan LS4000 scanner. It's an excellent scanner with fantastic shadow/highlight depth ability. It's leagues ahead of the Minolta DualScan I was using previously. The only problem with the Nikon is that the CCD has almost no depth of field. The slightest curvature of the film renders the edges fuzzy. This is very annoying to me.

Medium format scanners. There are current a number of interesting medium format flatbed type scanners on the market. I'm keeping an eye on them as I'd like to buy one soon. The most interesting appears to be the Epson F-3200 (PhotoFactory). I tried one at the Epson showroom and it had excellent sharpness and resolution, much higher than the comparison Epson 4870. Epson has recently announced the Epson 4880. I'll be buying one in January after my next move to Kyoto, so hopefully the Epson Photofactory 4800 will be out!

For more info:

• F-3200 (Epson Japan)
• GT-X800 (Epson Japan)