Hi--

>Good to talk to you again. So it's a Catch 22 in re: to dupe film contrast and sharpness. Are dupe emulsions as advanced as modern transparency films, in their respective areas?

It seems that they could use the sharpening of recent E-6 films, which
was notably lacking until Velvia appeared.

>Also, I can't resist to slip in another question/topic. Lens flare. Am I correct in assuming that an excellent quality lens, say a Nikkor 20/2.8, can shoot directly into the sun, stopped down, and produce a fairly clean sun star pattern, w/minimal bleeding/milkiness/loss of contrast in the area immediately surrounding the sun?
>Regards,
>Jim Toomey

As I recall, it is a fairly clean image, with some diaphram reflections,
and the disk of the sun lost in a bright area. When I shoot into the
sun with the 20mm f2.8, I partially obscure the sun with a tree branch,
and then I can get the star pattern cleanly - though this works for many
short lenses.... If the sun is just out of the image area, a finger
extended forward and placed over the sun is sufficient to remove it.
David Ruether