Dan C <leicaman@sympatico.ca> wrote/replied to: >On the other hand, a negative made from a photo would not be expected to >give you the same degree of "enlargability", in fact, I doubt that you can >enlarge much beyond the size of the print from which the negative was made. > >dan c. It will depend on the quality of the copy negative. Using a proper copy camera and setup one can get copy negs that will enlarge quite well. Quality will depend on the quality of the print of course. The copy neg will always be inferior but again can yield pleasing enlargements. Many old black and whites were either contact prints or low magnification prints from large negative so that quite a bit of detail can be retained in a copy neg. I must say though that a 35mm copy negative should not even be considered. I would go for a 4 by 5 copy negative. In fact I used to do this in a lab with Nikkor copy lenses on a huge copy camera and sometimes using 8 by 10 copy negs. I have made murals from copy negs of 16 by 20 originals that looked incredible. These were in colour too which is more difficult to copy. It can be done, but getting it done today it might be difficult to find someone with the right equipment and know how to do it. Jim Davis Nature Photography http://www.kjsl.com/~jbdavis/
