Digital BW, The Print

Hey Martin,

Thanks for taking the time to post such a long and detailed review.  As
always, I appreciate your experience and your sharing of your opinions and
testing results with us.  The Selenium PiezoTones sound pretty "cool"  (that
being a neat, nice, different, pick your own adjective...) (wINK).

Oh...and this is not to slight Robert Morrison, who's testing of the inks
and papers is also appreciated too.

Regards,

Steadman
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Martin Wesley [mailto:mwesley250@...]
  Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 1:58 PM
  To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
  Subject: [Digital BW] Revised Selenium PiezoTones Review


  Due to a typo and a mistake regarding Dmax in my initial post, I am
  reposting this information to clear up any misunderstandings (and correct
my
  grammar. <G>).

  Revised Selenium PiezoTones Review (Cross posted)

  I received sample bottles of ConeTech's new selenium hue PiezoTone ink
about
  three weeks ago for Beta testing and have been using them steadily with a
  CIS in an Epson 1280 for the past two weeks.

  As far as my own personal tastes go, this is the best grayscale ink set I
  have seen and I prefer it to anything else I have tried. The hue and the
  chromatic complexity of the prints I have been making over the past few
days
  is indeed right in the range that we commonly associate with selenium
toned
  silver fiber prints. They have slightly cool highlights and a touch of
  magenta in the midtones and shadows. I have toned silver prints on Ilford,
  Kodak and Oriental hanging on my living room wall and, while the Selenium
PT
  prints are not an exact match to any of them, they fit right in. Only
their
  matte surface gives them away as not being air dried silver fiber and
mixed
  with matte surface silver fiber would be undetectable as inkjet.

  I would not call the Selenium PT inks "neutral" and probably would not
like
  them so much if they were. The standard selenium toned silver fiber print
  that we tend to think of as neutral is in fact not neutral at all. The
  nature of the specific emulsion, the color of the paper base and the
manner
  in which the toning was done results in a print that is subtly varies in
hue
  as well as tone. This variation that I call chromatic complexity is what
  makes silver prints so wonderful and so alive. Even book publishers know
  that a true monotone does not adequately represent a photograph and
quality
  books are done using 2 to 4 inks of different hue to simulate what is
  happening in a silver print.

  My primary paper is Hahnemuhle Photo Rag and the Selenium PT works
  beautifully with this paper. I think the tone on EAM may be a bit better
  though. This is my standard proofing paper but the difference in tone may
  pull me back in that direction although Photo Rag is probably more
archival,
  has a nicer texture and brighter white, there seems to be less warming on
  the EAM and the initial hue is just a bit more pleasing.

  I also tried prints on Hahnemühle German Etching and William Turner, Crane
  Museo, Legion Photo Matte and Eclipse Satine. The finished look of the
print
  varies a great deal with the paper you use and this is good news since it
  means you can get a lot of different looks just by switching paper. The
very
  white Legion Photo Matte and Eclipse Satine (Jon can we please, please
have
  a paper profile for Eclipse!?!?) show more blue and greater variation in
hue
  overall. The neutral paper base lets all the complex tones in the inks
show
  through. The Legion Photo Matte is too bright for my taste but the Eclipse
  looks very interesting. It seems to do much better with the Selenium PT
than
  it did with the original Piezo inks. I tried the Orwell profile but it was
  not quite right in the lower tones. On the German Etching and Wil. Turner
  the prints were excellent but the cream-colored paper base cancels out a
  good deal of the coolness in the highlights giving a more neutral look.
  Museo is very pleasant with this ink set. Some of the coolness is lost but
  it still a very nice alternative to Photo Rag and EAM.

  The Dmax of the Selenium PT is identical to the Warm Neutral. Which is to
  say very high. On EAM I recorded values in the 1.71 range and on Photo Rag
  at 1.80. These were taken from wedges printed using the Piezo driver. The
  Photo Rag density is getting very close to silver print Dmax. So close
that
  the difference does not jump out at you like it does when the inkjet print
  Dmax is down at 1.6. Since it appears that the black of the Selenium PT is
  the same as the Warm-Neutral it should be possible to obtain even higher
  Dmax values using other drivers. With the Warm-Neutral I was getting Dmax
  values in the 1.88 to 1.90 range and values of 1.94 have been reported.

  Regarding fading I have no data and I don't know how it will compare to
  other ink sets. Jon has said it is undergoing RIT testing and did well on
  in-house Xenon fade testing. I do notice some warming. It takes about 12
to
  24 hours for the prints to "settle" and achieve Dmax and initial color.
This
  is similar to what I saw with the WN-PT. The change is not very large and
  you can accurately assess your prints out of the printer reasonably well
  once they are dry. After a few days the Photo Rag prints did show some
  visible warm shifting but it seems slight and not objectionable. The EAM
  showed much less warm shifting. This is pretty much in keeping with the
  other ink sets I have tried.

  Metamerism seems very slight and not at all unpleasant. In tungsten and
  halogen light the prints are warmer as you would expect and the magenta
  predominates a bit. In fluorescent, daylight and mixed tungsten/daylight
the
  prints are more neutral. Looks great under all light sources that I tried.

  Like the WN-PiezoTones I experienced no clogging problems or green casts.
  The CIS started right up immediately after vacuum loading and 4 nozzle
  cleanings, and has passed every nozzle check since.

  At this point my favorite inks for use with the Piezo driver are
  Selenium-PiezoTone, Warm Neutral-PiezoTone, MIS-FS and MIS-FS Neutral in
  that order. For me and my own tastes, I think the PiezoTones are the
better
  way to go. I especially recommend the Selenium-PT to people who are
  transitioning from traditional silver fiber printing to inkjet. While you
  will still need to get used to the matte surface of the papers, you will
not
  have to go through a big hue adjustment.

  All in all the Selenium-PiezoTone inks represent a really stunning
addition
  to what is available for inkjet printing. With the reduced price of the
  Piezo driver and these new inks, I strongly suggest you give them a try.
We
  each have our own likes and preferences but I will be very surprised if
this
  does not become a top contender for the most popular ink set.

  Martin Wesley

  http://www.borderless-photos.de/guests.html




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