Digital BW, The Print

I received printed and unprinted sample sheets of the Sihl Iridium  
Satin paper (SIS - my acronym) yesterday from Steve.  Steve's prints  
were made with his R1800 and MIS K4 inks.  I made some test prints on  
the blank sample sheets using MIS K4 inks in my Epson 2400.  Dmax was  
essentially the same from both printers with the MIS K4 PK  (1800:  
2.30, 2400: 2.32) on this paper.  Data below were obtained using the  
i1 Spectrophotometer and Quickread to measure patches from a printed  
step wedge on Steve's sample print.  Good neutrality and the paper is  
a slightly off-white color, compared to Epson Premium Semimatte which  
is a bright white paper.  SIS surface looks almost the same as the  
semimatte - very smooth, soft satin sheen with no distracting  
reflections.  Nice heavy paper, but since the sheets were cut from  
the end of a 24 inch roll there was some latent curl.  This is a  
beautiful paper with a smooth surface that looks more like air dried  
silver than any other ink-jet paper I've seen so far and it is a  
perfect match for the K4 inks (and probably K3 as well).   I hope we  
can find a vendor for SIS that will supply sheets as well as rolls.

Carl

Sihl Iridium Satin

100% Black patch reading:  C 2.30, M 2.30, Y 2.28, V 2.30
  50% Black patch reading:  C 0.65, M 0.67, Y 0.68, V 0.66
  25% Black patch reading:  C 0.25, M 0.26, Y 0.26, V 0.25
    0% Black patch reading:  C 0.03, M 0.03, Y 0.02, V 0.03

From: "Steven Karafyllakis" <stevekphoto@...>
Date: Sat Jan 28, 2006  2:42 am
Subject: Sihl Iridium Satin-first impressions



Hello All;

I received the Sihl Iridium I mentioned a few days ago, and have
been testing it since, though work obligations have kept me from
really diving in to the extent I'd like. But a first report,
followed hopefully by hard numbers and further opinions and comments
from Shilesh Jani, Carl Schofield, and Paul Roark, to whom I've sent
samples.

First, a disclaimer: I have no afiliation or self-interest in either
of the companies ( Allsquare and Sihl) making and disrtibuting this
paper, beyond my desire to expand and improve our list of available
materials whenever possible.

The Iridium Satin (it is available in gloss but I don't have any)
has a weight of 280gsm or 11ml, a nice weight for RC paper. My first
impression (once I got it uncurled-more about that later) is that it
didn't look too much like an RC paper: It is a bit creamy in color
and not extremely bright, almost as though it has no OBAs-but I
haven't been able to verify that impression. I have mixed feelings
about the lack of relative brightness; put next to Epson RC papers
it looks a bit dull, but put on bright white rag matteboard, it
matches so much better that the border no longer jumps out at you.
The overall look is reminiscent of the old Ilfrord MGFB II, which
was also a bit creamier than later FB papers.

I've been told it is acid free, but I haven't found any evidence on
the Sihl website to support this. I'm sure Paul Roark will apply his
PH testing pen, that should give us some idea.

Iridium has a fairly smooth surface that has an almost random but
very fine texture that looks a lot like fiber-base paper. It is not,
however, as glossy as Ilford MGFB IV, though it is a tiny bit
glossier than Epson semi-matte. To-date, it is the most pleasing,
least machine-like RC paper surface I've seen, though I imagine if
you're sold on matte, it's still too shiny.

At first I simply printed it using my semi-matte QTR curve, on the
R1800 with MIS K4 inks. The ink tone was a bit warmer than on the
Epson SM, and it printed darker across the board at exactly the same
settings. In spite of which it held and delineated shadow detail
nicely, and a slight gamma adjustment brightened it up a bit and
produced a smooth pleasing ramp and corresponding image.

My impression of its Dmax with that particular curve was that it is
at least as good as the Epson semi-matte; Later when I reworked the
curve a bit I got noticeably better dmax, but having no
densitometer, well.. you know. We'll have to wait for reports from
Paul, Carl or Shilesh on that score. I found I could increase the K
boost a lot: all the way to 100% without visible mottling, and if
there was a reduction in dmax due to over-inking, it wasn't readily
visible. However the shadow detail suffered a bit, so I backed off-
to 90%!

Last night Clayton & I did some comparison prints on Iridium, Crane
Silver Rag, and VFA, on the 2400 with Epson K3 inks. The one thing
I'm very sure of, is that the surface and sheen of the Iridium beats
all hell out of the Crane- I do hope Crane can do something about
that, because otherwise it is a very impressive paper
Quickly though: with default ABW settings (except for the 'gamma'
setting being on 'lightest') the Iridium had at least as good a dmax
as the Silver Rag, with equal or better shadow detail, and better
highlight retention. It tended to print a bit cooler than SR and
noticeably cooler than VFA. VFA had the lowest dmax of the three,
but had a luminosity and a richness that more than made up for it. I
should point out, however, that Clayton's test images were optimized
for the VFA.

I also ran a couple pieces through the R200 with MIS dye inks. I
used the color control setting and 'Epson Vivid' (totally not
neccessary) and with only a slight adjustment in brightness got a
well balanced excellent looking print with rather mind-boggling
saturation. It made the Epson Ultra-premium Glossy I also tried look
like a Junior High School chemistry class experiment in ink-jet
coating. I've not given it a good test with pigments yet.

Now the bad news: a) It is not available in sheets. the Allsquare
rep tells me that Sihl will cut a roll down for $20.00 per cut. If
you have a 24'x100' roll cut ot a 11" roll and a 13" roll, that
brings the price for both rolls to 115.00, or about 58 cents a
square foot. Still quite reasonable by any standards.

b) The other problem (more nuisance than anything) is that being
heavier and more like FB paper than most RC papers, it comes of the
roll with a pretty mean curl. Enouh of a curl that simply getting it
under a paper cutter and into a desktop printer is hard. I've been
reverse rolling it on an empty core tube and leaving it that way
until I'm ready to cut it up. That works reasonably well, though
having sheets would be so much better.

So far I like the paper enough to continue working with it, fine
tune my curves to match it, and form a final opinion over the next
two weeks. In the meantime perhaps one or all of the above mention
list members can tell us more.

Regards to all;

Steve karafyllakis



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