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To: long-gone who wrote (80237)	12/26/2001 2:52:46 PM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116927

You are saying that there are new companies who only make photographic prints from digital files? I think you might be a little confused in that they most likely they offer both digital output and photographic prints from files and film, but I'd be interested in checking out a company with that business model if you can point to one. There are several new companies I'm aware of that will take your digital images and output them to any number of different devices, some that use silver process and some that use non-silver. You'd be hard put to see the difference between the print from a dye-sublimation printer and one on photographic paper without putting a magnifying glass up to it. Both say Kodak on the back if you use their paper, both come in glossy or semi-matt. Fuji makes a digital machine that uses silver halide that is quite popular with the art crowd called a Pictography. There is a machine called a Lightspeed that prints to regular color paper in a darkroom but that machine runs around $300,000 before you buy the service contract (if you have to ask you can't afford it) and AFAIK only the big commercial labs and government labs have them. You won't find one in the consumer space. If you look at the companies who are trying to create these hybrids I think you'll find they are companies whom have always made their money selling photo paper and film. They have a vested interest in the continuance of the use of chemicals and light sensitive materials. They are also getting their clocks cleaned in the digital arena. The government, believe it or not, is moving very rapidly to digital. They have mandates to reduce effluents in every department of the Federal government that uses imagery. This is the part most who don't work in the biz aren't aware of, photography produces an enormous amount of liquid waste. The chemicals come with a list of warnings about ten feet long with small type. The liquids are heavy and dangerous to ship. The powders are dangerous to mix. Everything is done in light tight conditions. As for xrays, I had a long discussion six months ago with a nurse about how different her work flow is now in terms of the different filmless imaging systems her hospital is now using instead of xray films. Its just a matter of time here as well. Ask your dentist the next time you are in there when he's getting out of a wet process.