Digital BW, The Print

Hi, all,

About 18 months ago, on this or the Piezo list (I forget which and 
have been unsuccessful in searching the archives), many recommended 
buying the 13 watt 5000 deg K OTT Lite for viewing prints and 
comparing against the monitor. 

http://www.ott-lite.com/secondary/secondary.asp?
WhichPage=prod&sub=PD&whichcategory=subcategory

I bought an OTT-LITE® TrueColor™ 13 Watt Task Lamp and have started 
using it but find its emitted colour a yellowy-green.  This affects 
B&W prints using MIS FSN and, as I am just setting up colour on 
another printer, colour prints as well.  I'm getting a colour profile 
made and the profiler has offered to try to profile B&W  for me 
also.  

For me the OTT  is less than satisfactory as a viewing light and I am 
finding a 'daylight' type incandescent bulb with its blue interior 
coating, much more useful, but because of the filament difficult to 
align to give even illumination.  Custom made viewing booths I have 
found using website searches are hideously expensive for an amateur.  
Has anyone (a) any suggestions or solutions to the viewing problem 
and (b) tested these OTT Lite TruColor for colour spectrum?

Here's hoping for a solution,

Colin

Colin

I was just revisiting this topic myself last night.  I actually 
looked at the Vision Saver lamp on this page:

http://www.ott-lite.com/secondary/secondary.asp?
WhichPage=prod&sub=GA&whichcategory=subcategory

I think the "GA" in the URL stands for Graphic Artists.

I didn't realise there were various models of the lamp.  Perhaps you 
should contact OTT and ask which one has the 5000K lamp in it.

For me, in the end, I decided to substitute my low voltage halogen 
lights with Solux 4700K bulbs.  I didn't dig around too much but 
found good prices at www.usalight.com.

K2

Colin - I think that finding the proper viewing light can be a problem  You
have to decide what color temperature to which you want to correct the
images first, and that can be a problem:  I have an expensive GTI
transparency/print viewer next to my monitor, and both are set to 5000 K.
The light for viewing prints or transparencies is adjustable on the viewer,
so you're able to match the monitor's output pretty closely if you want.
But with many inks (especially those from the 2200 or others that exhibit
any metamerism, a print that looks great as an image on the monitor and as a
print under the viewer's 5000K lamps will NOT look the same under tungsten
light.  

I try to decide how most people will be looking at a print and balance the
color for that situation, given the inks and paper that I'm using.  You
could try buying a cheap fluorescent fixture and getting a lamp that matches
the color to which you've set your monitor's white point if that match is
important.


Stephen Petegorsky Photography
petegorsky@...
www.spphoto.com

I've been using the Vision Saver for at least a year now- bought the 
floor stand model, 18 watts, when the series first came out. My second 
choice would be the desk clamp model. I really like to scoot the floor 
stand around and it works well peering inside printers to get to 
parking pads, etc.

I couldn't compare it head to head to a true-color, but I did find a 
local store that had the floor stand true-color set up and I twiddled 
with it for about an hour. Then I went home and ordered the 
vision-saver version. Couldn't say how much better it is- seems 
marginally so<shrug>.

The primary benefit for me is that imperfections from dust specks to 
bronzing show up well under this light- it is my default proofing 
light. I now use it as a standard light to judge images, except when 
choosing mat board to frame I put print under a diffuse skylight.

If I had to take a guess at color shift (and I'm not the best to ask), 
well I examined some uncorrected 7600 BW prints which looked sort of 
neutral in tungsten and very green in BRIGHT Colorado sunshine 
outdoors. My Ott-Lite showed the print as greenish, but not quite as 
bad as when I took it outdoors. FWIW, my eyeball opinion.

I had heard way back that Jon Cone used a light box with a variable 
output control, which he set up next to his monitor I believe. Maybe 
this is a good way to go...
Jim H. 




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "K2 Chittin" <k2lists@h...> 
wrote:

> Colin
> 
> I was just revisiting this topic myself last night.  I actually 
> looked at the Vision Saver lamp on this page:
> 
> http://www.ott-lite.com/secondary/secondary.asp?
> WhichPage=prod&sub=GA&whichcategory=subcategory
> 
> I think the "GA" in the URL stands for Graphic Artists.
> 
> I didn't realise there were various models of the lamp.  Perhaps you 
> should contact OTT and ask which one has the 5000K lamp in it.
> 
> For me, in the end, I decided to substitute my low voltage halogen 
> lights with Solux 4700K bulbs.  I didn't dig around too much but 
> found good prices at www.usalight.com.
> 
> K2

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "jim hayes" 
<jimhayes@f...> wrote:
> I've been using the Vision Saver for at least a year now- 
bought....>

First my thanks to K2  and Jim Hayes for responding.

I telephoned the manufacturer of OTT.  I said I was calling from 
Greece about the OTT light and its yellowy green hue.  The first 
person I spoke to nearly went apoplectic saying that the OTT should 
not be used outside USA/Canada; the units are designed for 110 v, the 
plugs are different and on.  I said that I step down with a 
transformer so what's the problem, and she went on about the ballast, 
lamp etc.  (The lamp is the bit I'm interested in , the one that gets 
excited by electricity: it's a 13 watt fluorescent tube running on 
12v DC.  I don't see the problem.  Incidentally I am using a wire 
wound transformer.)  I assume red lights flashed in her office 
saying "Alert Potential Lawyers Expenses" because second tier support 
also said, that the company will not warranty outside those States 
and that they would not sell if the location of the user was known to 
be foreign.

They wouldn't even discuss my concerns about light quality.  I 
did `learn' however that the Radio Shack version ships with the 
Natural Light Supplement – I checked and mine is a Vision Saver.  I 
was told that the Vision Saver tube is 6000 deg K and the TrueColor 
5,300 deg K.  I said that was helpful information and asked why it 
was not on the website.  Second level support agreed it was not 
printed but was stated in the video.  I was not successful in finding 
this link.  However, an authorized retailer http://www.lumenlight.com 
quotes both as being 5300 to 5500 deg K.  I really am none the wiser.

The company also goes to the trouble to make sure that you cannot 
swap tubes by having different connections for each model.  Bully for 
them.

If anyone who has been pleased with their products, or otherwise, for 
critical B&W and color print matching with a calibrated monitor would 
be so kind as to tell me which system they use, TrueColor or Vision 
Master, perhaps I can buy the TrueColor, if that comes to the top, 
next time I'm in the US, or the Solux 4700K  and rig those up 
probably in five months time.

Thanks for your advice,

Colin