dSLR Dad

Landscape photographer Michael Reichmann, creator of The Luminous Landscape, is offering twenty exceptional prints for sale at a deep discount to help out a friend in need:

Alexis Malkin is a dear life-long friend of my wife and mine. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area. It was recently discovered that she had an aggressive brain tumor, which was surgically removed in March, 2008. During April she began an intensive combination treatment of radiation and chemo therapy. Now in May, she continues the long road to recovery.

Regrettably, Alexis is one of those Americans who finds herself without sufficient heath insurance to cover ongoing treatment costs. Unable to resume work, she requires the support of her family and friends. My wife Teya and I have therefore created this special print offer to do our part in helping finance Alexis’ ongoing medical care.

The offer is for a 13″ X 19″ Print on Ilford Galerie GFS barita paper (which is a fantastic paper), printed on an Epson Stylus Pro 3800 Printer with K3 pigment inks. Prints will be signed and dated, and will be mailed to anywhere in the world via first class mail. Each print sells for US $125, which includes postage and handling. These same prints normally fetch $350 at his gallery. He is donating 100% of the proceeds to go towards a fund to help finance Alexis’ medical needs. You can find out more on the Alexis Fund Raising Print Sale page.

This is a really great deal for you dSLR Dads who are just starting our or, like me, looking to upgrade your many year-old setup. Canon is offering multiple rebates to those who purchase both an EOS dSLR and the Canon Pixma Pro9500 Printer. The Pro9500 is Canon’s desktop 13 inch wide-format inkjet which uses the Lucia Pigment-based ink set. It will print a maximum size sheet of 13 by 23 inches up to 1.2mm (47 mil) thick. It produces some really excellent color and black-and-white prints. You can check out Vincent Oliver’s review over at photo-i here. I do suggest bypassing the Canon fine art papers and instead pick up some Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk Fine-Art Inkjet Paper (available at Amazon and B&H Photo).

To get the deal, you need to purchase both the Canon Pixma Pro9500 printer (available at Amazon and B&H Photo) and one of the following EOS dSLRs at the same time by April 19, 2008:

• Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III (Amazon, B&H Photo)
• Canon EOS 1D Mark III (Amazon, B&H Photo)
• Canon EOS 5D (Amazon, B&H Photo)
• Canon EOS 5D with EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens (Amazon, B&H Photo)
• Canon EOS 40D (Amazon, B&H Photo)
• EOS 40D with EF 28-135mm IS USM Lens (Amazon, B&H Photo)

To make it easier, I have set up a separate Amazon page and well as a B&H Photo Wishlist.

Baryta: The New ‘It’ in Fine Art Printing

Michael Reichmann of The Luminous Landscape has a three-way comparison of the latest Baryta inkjet papers. These are new fiber-based, non-matte, high dMax papers for fine art pigment printing.

The newest buzz word in inkjet printing paper is Baryta. While it may be new to the 21st Century digital printing world it actually has its roots in high quality B&W printing papers from our past.

Baryta is barium-sulphite or barium-hydroxide, a clay-like material that is applied to a fiber paper substrate. On traditional papers with light sensitive emulsions it acts to whiten the paper, produces a high degree of reflectivity, and as well provides a ground for the emulsion. Some of the finest photographic papers that we used to use, such as Multigrade IV FB and Ilfobrom Galerie FB, were Baryta based.

Now, on a new breed of papers designed for inkjet printing with pigment-based inks (all current professional printers and inks from Epson, HP and Canon) Baryta is being used not to hold a chemical emulsion but to provide a smooth reflective coating. (more…)

At the 2008 Macworld Conference & Expo, HP unveiled the Photosmart Pro B8850 Photo Printer. The HP B8850 prints on a wide range of photo and Digital Fine Art media up to 0.7 mm thick (versus 1.5mm of the B9180). Not too big of a deal, as you can still use some of the new, fantastic Baryta fine art papers like Ilford’s Galerie Gold Fibre Silk (Amazon, B&H Photo). The B8850 also uses the same print heads and ink cartridges of the HP Photosmart Pro B9180 Printer. It does not, however, include the B9180’s Ethernet port or LCD display. But, at around $500, this is a great value for a 13×19 inch, pigment ink, fine-art inkjet printer.  Perfect for any dSLR Dad. (more…)

This 13 inch R1800 Successor promises improved color output and faster speeds.

Today, Epson has announced the R1900 Large Format, pigment ink-based photo printer. This 13 inch wide, 8 color Printer is an update to the popular Stylus Photo R1800 Inkjet. Epson has has replaced the blue ink found in the R1800 with orange and also reformulated the Red, Magenta, and Yellow inks. The gloss optimizer was also enhanced.

Other improvements include:

• Colorimetric calibration of the MicroPiezo(r) print head applied at the factory. This will greatly improve the quality of the color profiles from one printer to the next.
• A second USB port for two computers to connect (a desktop and laptop perhaps).
• A new coating applied to the print head to help prolong life (and hopefully decrease the number of cleaning cycles if left unattended for long periods of time).

Epson has made some quality improvements to their entry level 13″ wide color photographic printer. Please keep in mind, that since the R1900 lacks the extra light black inks of the 2400 that it is not going to perform spectacularly in the greyscale department. But hey, you’ve got to accept some compromises at this $550 price point.

The following is an unedited Press Release: (more…)

FUJIFILM ANNOUNCES WIDE FORMAT INJET PRINTING AVAILABLE AT SAM’S CLUB STORES THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY

Sam’s Club Members Can Now Print Poster-Sized Images On-Demand,
in Minutes, Hours or Days

VALHALLA, N.Y., December 18, 2007 – Fujifilm U.S.A., Inc., today announced that poster printing and signage services are now available at more than 580 Sam’s Club locations throughout the United States. The solution combines an EPSON/FUJIFILM Epson Stylus Pro 7800, Ultrachrome 24″ wide format inkjet printer, (more…)

The following is part of a much larger dSLR Dad Holiday Gift Guide:

Red River Paper is a great company in Dallas, TX that supplies very good quality inkjet papers factory direct. For this holiday season, why not pick up one of their inkjet paper or greeting card sample packs. Each pack includes a two sheets of each paper. Red River also offers free ICC color profiles are available for the most popular papers on some printers.

You can find out more information about their inkjet paper kits here.
You can order the Greeting Card sample kit here.

Update 12/20/2007 - All orders through 12/30/2007 receive a 10% discount.

ColorVision has updated their Spyder3 line of color management devices with the release of the SPYDER3PRO and the SPYDER3Print. The SPYDER3PRO Colorimeter is designed to deliver more precise control over white point and gamma, and has easy-to-use features including a new Display Assistant that stores and easily retrieves all user device-specific information on each display to save time during recalibration.

The SPYDER3Print enables photographers to output gallery-quality color or black and white prints and makes storing and creating profiles easy through its simple wizard-driven program. This way, you can create your own profiles (which normally cost $100 each) for a multitude of papers with greater control. This way, you could use Epson’s Exhibition Fiber Paper on the Canon Imageprograf IPF5000 Printer (Which, by-the-way, is a now available at a $1100 discount).

A Comparison Chart of all four of the Spyder 3 products (more…)

The Canon Imageprograf IPF5000 Printer was replaced by the $1,900 Imageprograf IPF5100 earlier this fall. Both printers are 17″ Wide, 12-Color Pigment Ink (archival quality around 200 years) that take both roll and sheet paper. It also has automatic switching of Black Inks between Gloss and Matte Paper.

What makes the IPF5000 such a great deal this week? Since Amazon has it priced at $790, it’s only a $100 more than the 13″ Canon Pro9500 Printer! You can buy it at either the dSLR Dad Amazon storefront (post comments to let me know what you think) or regular Amazon. As always, these links help to support this site. And I would like to thank all of you who have done so this Holiday season. (more…)

The following is part of a much larger dSLR Dad Holiday Gift Guide:

I’ve been searching for books to add to the dSLR Dad Media Shelf that everyone would enjoy. So, I decided to start with my own bookshelf here at home. Mastering Digital Black and White: A Photographer’s Guide to High Quality Black-and-White Imaging and Printing (Digital Process and Print) by Amadou Diallo is a fantastic book. He does a great job of leading you through the digital darkroom process of black and white photography. (more…)