What a beautiful evening. The sun gently touches the horizon; an ocean breeze keeps the mosquitoes away. The fish are jumping, almost inviting a watching Osprey to a late afternoon hunt. Not even 20 feet away, a passing hiker could have found me targeting the bird with my Nikon F5. But this fellow might have asked himself: Why is that photographer constantly switching his camera? Well, a closer look would have revealed the fact, that I was switching my analog F5 with my digital D1. I just couldn't decide.

The last few years revolutionized the world of photography. Everybody feels the urge to get a digital camera. The advantages are in plain view: Plenty of megapixels and no need to develop the film. Just go home, print the image and have it on your wall the very same evening. Technology makes everything very easy.

If you are in the snapshot business, you're fine. Get your image and beam it on to a low cost consumer photo printer and your borderless 4x6 prints are good enough to get mom and dad excited. Let's now assume you want more. Let's talk about professional larger prints. Like 11x17 or 13x19 sizes. The workflow in the 'good ol' days' was slow and you had to rely on professional lab technicians. You took your film to a lab and you got (mostly) professional prints in return.

In the digital world, this doesn't make a lot of sense. You want to be in control. You don't want to wait. You want to do it yourself: Shoot the image, edit and print it. And, of course, you want to put it in a nice frame.

After my little Osprey experience, I decided to 'go' digital. I didn't like the differences between my F5 and the D1. Those cameras are kind of similar, after all, the D1 derived from the F5. One thing did confuse me above all others: the cropping factor. Some articles refer to this as a 'magnification factor'. My 500mm f/4 magically grows into a 750mm f/4. Wow. But this is unfortunately not true. In the digital world, a lot of thinks you read and hear are not true or greatly exaggerated. More later. The chip size (which actually converts the light to a digital image) of Nikon's D1 is 23.7x15.6 mm, whereas the size of an analog image is 36x24 mm. With the same lens on both cameras, the image in a D1 is captured on a smaller area - you don't need to be a brain surgeon to understand, there will be less picture available. (See picture 1). This is really confusing if you switch between analog and digital cameras. And think about different control elements or media. I put more than 150 images on a 256 MB CF card. One would need quite some roll to collect this amount of images on film.

Picture 1: Simmulates the cropping factor of a D1.

Going digital also requires you to transfer the images to a computer. Decent entry- level computers run between US$ 1,500 and US$ 2,000. Of course, there are cheaper computers on the market.. But believe me, you don't want to start into you digital life with a US$ 699 computer from the retailer around the corner. You don't believe me? Wait until you start and work with Nikon Capture, Digital Pro and Photoshop.

You will also need a good monitor. Don't try to use the cheap flat screen that came with your US$ 699 retail computer. There are great 19" monitors for about US$ 400; 22" monitors are about twice as much. And - it should be a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube). Flat screen monitors are not yet good enough for professional 'digital' darkrooms.

So - are you sitting in front of your computer? Did you buy an Intel based system or a Mac? It doesn't matter - the software is as good (or bad) on both systems.

Talking about software. You need a program to edit your images. Most people use Adobe Photoshop. You will also need an image assessment management for sorting, archiving and maintaining your images, something like DigitalPro or Iview MediaPro. Depending on your computer skills, you need books, Internet to access the different bulletin boards (you will need others people help) and you are going to need time. A lot of time.
Don't forget, you are going to do what all those professionals did in the lab. You are going to run your very own dark room. You will not have to use any chemicals (other than maybe pain killers), but you will have to gather the same know-how.

Are you ready to print your image? Not so fast my young apprentice. Did I mention color profiles? No? Well I didn't want to scare you. But if you print your image right away, chances are, the colors will not match those on your screen. They may be in the neighborhood, but you sure don't want to guess the outcome of your work. Did you ever notice the wall of TV sets at your local retail store? 20 TVs running and almost every set has its own coloring, a little different, even among same brands. The same happens to computer monitors and printers. Sooner or later, you need to calibrate your monitor. Depending on the depth of your pocket, you can use colorimeters or spectrophotometer. Those systems will create a color profile and your computer uses this profile to adjust the monitor. Every device (like scanners or printers) will have to be calibrated. Better printers (I am using an Epson 2200) will come with 'canned' profiles. Those profiles have been created at the manufacturers lab and are usually quite accurate. But you will have to use the manufacturers recommended paper and ink. If you don't like that, you have to calibrate your printer yourself (i.e. with the EyeOne Photo, US$ 1,500). Under special circumstances, you can get a customized (only for a certain paper and ink type) profile for US$ 99 from Chromix.

Am I going to buy the EyeOne Photo to calibrate my printer myself? After all, the 'canned profiles' are pretty good. But not perfect. Let my try one more thing Even when it means my wife is finally filing for divorce. Because I haven't had the time to talk to her. After all, I haven't had the time to do anything. But I do have my digital dark room under control. But it's not yet perfect...

"To be continued..."