Adventurous Printing With Epson And GoPro

Well, you can't fault the logic of it. Buy an Epson inkjet printer and get a miniature adventure camera. The best of both worlds.

Go out and video yourself skateboarding over a cliff with a jet pack, wings, and a motorcycle attached - underwater - as you do...and when you are sitting at home safe and dry and comfortable...in your cast with the traction weights pulling your hip straight again, you can get the lady from Silver Chain to make some great A3+ prints of you.

Okay, that's more cynicism than Epson intended when they bundled the R3000 printer with a GoPro Silver edition action camera in a special offer, and you will probably do no worse that take pictures of the kids falling off the trampoline onto the concrete.

The printer is great - I have one and it hasn't failed in anything I ask it to do - gloss, lustre, or matte - the prints are what I expect to see and the thing is quite economical with ink. We use one to make shop advertising posters and it is as good as the commercially printed material the manufacturers send us. Plus we get to do it on the spot. Thoroughly recommended.

The GoPro cameras are the doyen of this sort of machine. Whether you are recording carnage on Russian roads or swimming carnivals back home, it produces sharp, spectacular footage of whatever passes in front of the wide-angle lens. There are any number of accessories to latch these to people, vehicles, and objects and you can work Wifi and remote operation in case you don't want to be attached to it when it hits the rock face...

Nurse! Time for my sponge bath!

Oh Myyyy....I FInd Out

Well, that'll teach me.

And isn't it always the case - the things that you find out for yourself are the ones that stick with you.

I have been using an iMac and a Macbook Pro for several years, resetting the colour video cards inside the computers with a Datacolor Spyder 2 Express each month, and printing out on Ilford and Epson paper. All good and I've been happy.

Then recently the Spyder 2 Express started to go weird and I replaced it with a Spyder 4 Express. Slightly different routine for the operation, but equally simple to do. I tuned up the home and the work computers last week and carried on blithely.

Today Dom handed me some files that were taken at last night's shop party. I banged them into the Macbook Pro and then out to the shop Epson R3000 so that some of the reps could have  paper prints. Ilford Smooth Pearl 6 x 4 paper.

Wow. Better than before. Accurate colours and NO colour cast. I think the Spyder 4 Express has done something really good for the system. What, exactly, I cannot say. And this on a standard paper.

Note: I also brought back some Fujifilm printing paper from Japan to test it. Only one print so far on what amounts to a super-quality glossy but again it looks as if printing has gotten to a whole new level of accuracy...with no especial efforts on my part.

These are standard goods straight off the shelf here in the shop - with the exception of the Fujifilm paper. I know the business of colour management and printing is said to be hard but this seems easy. Perhaps it is all just hear-say...?

Clear the Decks! Rig For Borders! Evenly-spaced Borders!

We've trundled out a special rack and sign at the front of the shop - you'll see it as soon as you walk in the door. It's a big cardboard dump bin that we are going to refill each week - with something new each time.

We're talking overstock here, and bargains, and combo deals. Good stuff, and the kind of equipment and material that you need, but at a great bargain price. You get 'em courtesy of our new shop fit and the fact that we are running out of space to rack things up. If we sell it we don't have to stack it.

This week's score is 200 sheets of Ilford paper for the price of 100. You buy an A4 box of 100 Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl for $ 85 and we throw in a free box of 100 sheets of the same paper in the 6" x 4" size.

Print big for yourself and then make some postcards to keep the family and friends happy. You win either way as Ilford Smooth Pearl  is one of the best general-purpose inkjet papers made.

Special goes for a week. Don't miss out.

Big Boxes O Bargains This Week With Ilford Paper

Those of you, and us, who use Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl paper for a standard image carrier will be gratified by the March Madness Sale that is going on this week here at the shop.

In addition to big discounts on cameras, lenses and equipment, we have dropped the Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl paper considerably. Thus:

A4................ 1oo-sheet box........................................$ 59

A3+.............. 25 +10 sheet box..................................$ 47

A2.................25 sheet box...........................................$ 82

This is a super-cheap way to get good printing paper. Already the boxes are flying out the door and this is just the first day.

Please note that while we call it the March Madness Sale we ain't going to be crazy for the entire month. Sanity will prevail after this coming Saturday, so get in THIS WEEK if you hope to score a bargain.

After Saturday we will chew through the straps and escape.

Solving A Printing Problem - Banding

Recently a client mentioned that they were getting a bit of banding on their prints and wanted to know what could have caused it - and indeed what they could do to fix the problem.

My experience is that there can sometimes be micro-clogs in the heads of the inkjet printers that stop the full spray from going through. Sometimes it is a distinct banding, sometimes just a vague lack of definition and/or depth of colour. it is most often seen in dark areas of the print.

The Epson printers have a wonderful set of tools to deal with this. If you suspect the effect in a print, you go into the printer menu and ask for a nozzle check. It will fire the entire set through in a small test pattern and if you see segments of colour missing your suspicions are confirmed.

What to do? Ask the printer for a head clean - it will shake and flush the heads with a bit of ink and then you can re-test. Most times the problem will be gone in one go. You can ask for 3 power cleans in a row, but you have to wait a little between each one so that you do not damage the head.

Most times, if you print one little print each week that exercises all the colours, you never see settling or clogging of ink. Please note that inks do have use-by dates and it is wise to heed them. they do not go mouldy, like the cheese in the fridge, but they can settle out particles.

Please note that is you are getting banding on panoramic photos taken with some of the newer mirror-less cameras you need to set your shutter speed a little slower and move the camera around more smoothly.

If you are getting banding on street photos you are to be congratulated. See attached photos.

Uncle Dick

How Do You Go Bust Baking Bread ?

I watched the rise of the franchise boutique bakery here in Perth - the Brumby's and Baker's Delight and such - and applauded it all the way. At least I applauded with the hand that wasn't holding the jam doughnut. They have achieved a success that is richly deserved - because they make a good product that everybody likes and uses. No-one ever complains about jam doughnuts. Jam doughnuts are a standard of the industry.

I would have thought that the Ilford company was in much the same position as the bakeries - and I am speaking about the division of their firm that manufactures paper for inkjet printing. Dance how you wish, their Galerie Smooth Pearl and Smooth Gloss have been the standard of the industry for as long as I have been inkjetting. One thought of them as classic cash cows, wandering through the paper paddocks and yielding profit for the company whenever they were milked...

Such would appear not to be the case. the paper division of Ilford has gone bust. They are casting about in Switzerland looking for a buyer or some other solution to the financial crisis. Out here in the boonies we are gathering all the supplies of the classic papers that we can to ensure that our clients can continue to print. We also hope for a buyer solution, but of course we will also be looking at other brands.

I wonder if they have the same accountant as Eastman Kodak? Or the South Sea Bubble...

Uncle Dick

Shake It Up, Baby

A client last week asked a question about the use-by dates on the inkjet inks cartridges - how come they were there and how much notice should he take of them. As I use Epson printers myself, I could give him an off-the cuff answer. I was wearing a short sleeve shirt at the time.

The inks do age and might make for less-than-perfect printing if they are well beyond the date. Whether it would be particulation or evaporation I cannot say - I just would not use one well past the date.

Remember to shake it up, Baby, when you put a fresh cartridge into the machine.

I would also make sure that some little amount of printing was done each week - even just an A4 sheet of a multicoloured test shot would exercise the machinery and ensure that the ink flow though the heads was normal. Each Epson machine has provision on-board to do ink flow analysis and head cleaning and some of the bigger ones can do a very vigorous cleaning indeed. But it uses up ink and the maintenance tank capacity if you are doing it a lot - better to just print each week and keep the problem at bay.

If you are in the habit of stocking up big be sure to look at the dates on the boxes at home and use up the oldest first.

Oh, and paper. Far as I can see paper doesn't expire but if you store it badly you can get some odd results later on. Keep the flat sheets flat and they will stay...flat.

First Tests On Promaster Paper

We reported the arrival of the new Promaster inkjet printing paper last week. When the place settled down on Friday we cranked two sheets of the Ultra Premium Metallic paper through the shop Epson 3880 to see what it was like.

Metallic paper is a bit of a fooler - you look at the surface straight out of the packet and it looks sort of dull - the silvery sheen can seem  a little grey in normal light. it is an illusion - turn the part to the light source and it flashes back.

So - the image size had to be adjusted in the printing program as these papers are the US Letter size - 8 1/2 by 11 inches. No real problem with Epson as there is a menu section that has all these sizes in a list - pick one and it will know what you want. As an aside, I was amazed that there should be such a variety of sizes all around a general theme...but then I reflected that there were no real sizes standards in the 1830-1890 period and studios just did whatever they thought was right...

Back to the paper. The images chosen were a southwestern water scene in colour and a Singapore cityscape in monochrome. both detailed and contrasty - they needed snap.

The recommendation on the net from Promaster re. Epson printers is that the high-speed option be turned off with this paper. It took about double the time for the printing but both images were delightful. Sharp, contrasty, good blacks and the highlights threw back the silver instantly. Glossy to the max - rather like the flashiest Epson papers.

We will open other sample packets and try other images on different surfaces. As it is, this one looks like a letter-sized winner.

Revolutionary Promaster Paper Here Now

Puff. Puff. Pant. Gasp.

Just stocked the shelves with the new Promaster inkjet and darkroom papers. There are a LOT of new papers there - and a new size as well.

Lett's start with the darkroom paper for analog users. Promaster make packets of Glossy and Luster  paper in 8" x 10" size - there are 25 sheets of paper in each packet. The packets are marked for a new wider range emulsion. The paper is shipped out of Connecticut so it may be Kodak ( but probably isn't ) or Oriental. The packets have been kept plain so be sure you read the label on the bottom - the two types look very similar.

In the inkjet papers there has also been a commendable plainness in packaging but they have put colour coding on the boxes to let you differentiate between fine-art surfaces or materials and plainer photographic paper. The following types are in stock:

1. Glossy
2. Pearl
3. Bright White Cotton
4. Soft Gloss Dual-sided
5. Glossy canvas
6. Metallic

The intriguing thing about these new papers - apart from them being new - is that their size is US Letter. This means that it is 8 1/2" x 11 "......or 215.9 mm x 279.4 mm. I looked into the printing section for my Epson driver and found that it does indeed include this size and the preplanning images can be shuffled about to see where the margins will occur. It will mean a little different proportions for my general work, but not by much. If I elect to shoot my images using a 4/5 ratio it becomes even easier.

Okay - why? Why do we get a different paper size like this when we are generally used to seeing the European A system - A4, A3, A3+ etc. Because there is a large part of North America that does not work in metric measurements. Squeak or sneer about this as you will, but there it is. So they can cut good quality paper at a very competitive price specifically for the market. If your images will fit here, this is a good substrate.

One final note - remember that these papers have 6 sides but you are generally restricted to printing on just one - in the case of the dual-sided glossy you can also do it on the back with equal success.

Money Coming Back To You From Epson

New Epson cash back promotion for you today - If you need to print up to A2 on thin or thick stock - with the finest of inkjet ink - the Epson Stylus Pro 3880 model attracts a cashback payment from the Epson people of $ 250.

This promotion will run until the end of September 2013. You buy from us and claim your reward from Epson on-line.

If you don't quite need as large a size, but want all the benefits of the Epson ink set and their expertise in easy colour printing, may I suggest that you get an Epson Stylus Photo R3000 right now. This will print to A3+, do rolls and CD discs, and also open for thick stock. It will print through a wifi network if there is someone in your house young enough to know how to connect it, and from regular USB or ethernet if you are old enough to remember Nixon...

There is a cashback from Epson of $ 200 for purchase of a printer and if you choose to purchase a printer AND a set of replacement inks, you can increase that cashback to $ 400. But you have to get your skates on - this promotion finishes at the end of this current month.

My own experience with these printers has been very positive - as it has been with Epson papers, Epson scanners, etc. I use the R3000 regularly for the paper output from my Hot Rod Honey series and for wedding pictures. It really does do the business of translating what is on my computer screen to a print in hand with a minimum of fuss.

Not To Panic - with Ilford

We have been seeing a number of photographers here in the last few weeks looking for inkjet printing paper. Several were worried when the looked for Ilford Galerie Smooth pearl paper in the familiar red box.

They could see that there was an Ilford box that said Smooth pearl, but it was a more complex design and had the word "Prestige" at the top. They worried that their old favourite paper had vanished.

Panic not. the new Smooth Pearl is every bit as good as the old Smooth Pearl and has the advantage that it is just a little thicker - 310 gsm vs 290 gsm. Same great surface and compatibility with Canon and Epson inks and same great results - really a standard of the industry.

So print away, kids - and if you need the paper profiles make sure to go to the Ilford website.