reservoir of linkage and output possibilities (automation processes, by the way, that have become normal in digital photography have also been a part of analog photography for quite some time now).

If we disregard for a moment the further possibilities of altering the data record acquired in this way, high-quality equipment then supplies us with a computed image with the highest density, pure and without grain. The viewing and control level shifts more and more from the viewfinder or an instant chemical image (which naturally cannot correspond one hundred percent with the image to be taken) to the monitor and the instant digital image, which at the same time represents the result. This means that individual translation procedures are shortened or even optimized because they are controllable in all of their details without having to wait for the completion of miscellaneous developing procedures. [2] At the digital enlargement level, the automated laser process, which reduces manual handling to a few simple movements, creates extremely stable exposure conditions which cannot be achieved using an analog method, above all in large formats. Besides the

traditional output on paper, today, however, there are many image output methods which have opened up—or at least straightened—the border zones to printing processes or other digital distribution methods, each of which can be created from the original data record without having to revert to additional refraction methods such as an internegative or other copies. The possibilities of digital interaction with other media, however, undermine the independent status of the photographic medium and reinforce tendencies that were already laid out in the analog medium, but which for the most part still had to be applied externally (retouching, montage, etc); in the digital mode the production of the image and its possible variation take place on the same production level.

This comparison shows us that at least until the negative or the data record has been produced, comparable—if different—translation logics occurs that qualitatively can only be played off against each other with difficulty. The decisive point of their difference lies in the area of recording and furthermore the handling of negatives or data records, which in the digital can open up new spaces and close old ones due