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[OM] Re: Buying advice: Which printer?

Subject: [OM] Re: Buying advice: Which printer?
From: AG Schnozz <agschnozz@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 10:43:25 -0800 (PST)
Boris lamented:
> I also interrogated the Silverschnozzed
> to the point of annoyance and was impressed when he told me
> how he changed a cartrige in the middle of a print with no
> effect on the picture on his S9000.

It is true.  About the changing cartidges bit. I wasn't annoyed
too much.  :)

I purchased the S9000 about two months after it came on the
market and Canon has introduced a "new and improved" version
every six months since. The newer ones supposably have a finer
dot-pitch (not that it matters any since the bleed takes care of
it anyway), but the main advantage is the ability to hook a
camera up to the printer directly.  That would be nice, but not
worth the price of admission.

My satisfaction with the Canon has been very high. I'm doing the
ICM thing now and printing from Olympus software. I have only
one very minor tweek in the color settings of the printer
driver, otherwise it's straight.

Regarding colorfastness:  I've tested 3rd party inks and papers
and have a combination which works extremely well for me. I
absolutely love the Ilford Galarie Classic Pearl.  How does it
hold up?  Well, let me give you a description of one of my
tests. I almost always use dud prints (yuck, that picture is
ugly) for my testing. They'll get thrown away anyway.

I take a test print, cut it in two, place one half in a folder
and store it in my file cabinet (along with 20,000 slides) in
the darkroom. The other half I take and place it either in a
south-facing window (inside the screen) or secure it outdoors to
the south wall under a the eave where rain won't get to it. I
live about 200 meters or so from the Interstate Highway where
over 30,000 vehicles pass each direction every day.  Of that 1/3
are trucks. That *SHOULD* be wicked enough of an environment for
a print test. The prints are not protected in any way and are
open to air movement both front and back.

Results:

1. Canon Glossy Photo Paper (the cheep stuff). Nearly 100% fade
of the yellow in two weeks. Other colors were definitely fading
too. This stuff is worthless--even inside an album.

2. Canon Photo Paper Pro Plus Glossy (the top-notch stuff).
Noticable yellow fading after two weeks, nearly 100% fade of the
yellow in six months.  Other colors were stable and shows barely
measurable fading in six months. (Test prints exceeding 18
months show no additional fading worth mentioning). This paper
is of the "microceramic", instant-dry variety which is
suseptable to outgas fading. Protected from air-movement
(mounted and behind glass) the prints are as good as any
printing technology.  By the way, according to my sources,
outgas fading occurs primarily through the back of the print.

3. HP papers.  Ugh. Say goodbye colors.  I terminated the test
immediately as the ink layed on top of the surface directly
exposed to the air.

4. Ilford Galarie Pearl/Glossy. Nearly exactly the same
characteristics as Canon's Photo Paper Pro Plus Glossy. This is
also a microceramic, instant-dry paper.  I really like this
paper and use it for instant prints. Placed behind glass in a
frame gives perfectly suitable long-term characteristics.

5. Ilford Galarie Classic Pearl/Glossy. I absolutely love both
papers, but give the nod towards the Pearl surface as it is a
direct knockoff of Fuji Crystal Archive and has LONG life. I got
barely discernable fading after six months of outdoor exposure.
In comparison, an archivally washed and selenium-toned B&W print
exhibits as much, if not more fading in the same exposure test. 
My only complaint with this paper is that it is susceptable to
water damage. A print secured to my deck had all of the colors
wash out after a couple of rainstorms.  (ok, they were 2" of
water in 15 minutes rainstorms). I also recommend that the
prints sit overnight before handling. The surface swells upon
reception of the ink and as the ink dries it closes up and
encapsulates the dyes inside the surface. This seals the dyes
away from ozone and also provides UV protection. In areas of
heavy ink, it takes a while for the surface to harden enough to
prevent scratching and abrasions.

What about third-party inks?  I've returned back to third-party
inks as the cost is MUCH less than the Canon inks and the color
and fade characteristics are close enough to not worry about. In
fact, I've mixed and matched Canon and other inks without any
problems. Once in a while you will get a tank that the vent hole
is slightly out of whack and the print head uses too much of
that ink--throwing the color balance way out.  In one
comparative test, using the cheeper papers I see where the Canon
inks last longer (2X-4X the fade characteristic with 3rd party
inks), but the yellow is gone long before it's a problem with
cyan or magenta anyway.

My only real complaint with the Canon printer is that it always
uses the colors when printing black.  Pages of text waste all
the inks, not just the black ink.  I've gone to setting the
print intensity to -50 to keep from blowing out $$$ on
documents.

AG


                
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