Sihl Iridium Satin-first impressions
2006-01-28 by Steven Karafyllakis
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