|
Everything in Las Vegas is gigantic and glittery. The Las Vegas Convention Center is the third largest in the U.S., and 10 of the 10 largest hotels in the U.S. line "The Strip" in Las Vegas. In that setting, the 2003 PMA show (Photo Marketing Association) was right at home. It was big, and it was exciting. Geared to the photo retail market with seminars on such things as "The Role of the Independent in the Minilab Marketplace," this mammoth show attracts a much wider audience, and many of the Who's Who of photography--and especially digital imaging--usually show up.
I can't cover it all in this report, so I'll just hit some of the high points in terms of new-product announcements with my usual emphasis on digital printing and imaging.
CAPTURE & SCAN
Let me get the camera stuff out of the way first. I didn't see everything, and other people's reports will cover this in more detail, but here are a few of things that caught my eye... FUJIFILM had two new items: (1) a prototype single-shot digital camera back (645 format, 5,048 x 7,648 pixels), availability and pricing to be announced; and (2) its new FinePix F700 digital camera, which is the first 6.2 MP camera in the consumer arena. It's a tiny and totally new hybrid product that uses their new SR CCD chip with 3.1 million large pixels and 3.1 million small pixels. As the Product Manager told me, " a combination of small and large pixels reproduce a wider dynamic range and make it closer to film, which has small and large film crystals." $599, available this summer. Canon was showing the new EOS 10D (for digital), which replaces the D60, and with just about everything improved over the D60 including a new magnesium-alloy body. It uses a 6.3 MP CMOS sensor with a lens factor of 1.6. Street price expected to be $1,499, available by the time you read this. For Kodak, I had already mentioned their new DCS Pro 14N digital camera in my last report, but it was on display and is shipping for about $5,000. It's one of the first with a full-frame, 35mm-size sensor (CMOS) and no lens magnification factor. Kodak was also showing the world's first digital camera with an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display: the Easyshare LS633. www.fujifilm.com, www.cusa.canon.com, www.kodak.com
For scanning, Danish maker Imacon was showing its newest entry-level scanner, the Flextight 343, which has replaced the Flextight Photo model. Using the same unique "virtual drum" design as the other models, the 343 scans 35mm up to 6x18cm film originals with a Dmax of 4.3 and an optical resolution of 3200 dpi. It's about $5,000 and available now. Their other new item is the Ixpress digital camera back (see photo). It's a high-end, single-shot capture system with the theme of "Unlimited Photography." What that means is that you can shoot tethered or untethered with a specially formatted portable Image Bank (hard drive) that stores up to 1,150 96-MB files before needing to download. And, with a burst rate of 1.5 seconds, you can shoot 1,000 images in a row with no pause or delay. Fits most medium format cameras and also 35mm. Available now for $15,995 complete. www.imacon-usa.com
A few feet way was Creo, makers of high-end, large-format flatbed scanners. This is what used to be called Scitex, then, Creo-Scitex, but now it's just Creo. We're talking super high quality here with prices to match. They were showing three professional scanners: iQsmart2 (optical 4,300 dpi), iQsmart3 (optical 5,500 dpi), and EverSmart Supreme (optical 5,600 dpi). All scanners use the exclusive XY Stitch scanning technology that produces incredible detail (you have to see it to believe it) from 35mm to 8x10 transparencies and flat art. Prices are, respectively, $12K, $20K, and $45K. www.creo.com.
INK & MEDIA
I was expecting a lot of consumables (ink and media) news at the show, and I wasn't disappointed.
Tony Martin, president of Lyson (U.S.) gave me an overview of their latest. First, they have what they call a "bulk feed attachment" for the EPSON 2200. Others call this a CIS or bulk ink system, but whatever it's called, Lyson is claiming savings upwards of 70% on ink costs versus cartridges. Second up was the first complete third-party inkset for EPSON 7600 and 9600 wide-format inkjet printers. Martin says that the inks "provide a wider color gamut for better, more intense color reproduction." There are several options including: Fotonic dye inks, Lysonic archival dye inks, Lysonic Quad black inks, and something totally new: Cave Paint inks. Cave Paint? Yep, in a cute marketing move, Lyson is introducing Cave Paint pigment inkjet inks in carts or bulk for various printers including EPSON, Roland, Mimaki, and Mutoh. The tagline is: "20,000 years in R&D." Gotta love it.
And finally, Lyson has partnered with Stone Editions to create an album system for the production of photographic portfolios, books, and wedding albums. Based on the proprietary Stonehinge binding system, you use digital album pages converted from Lyson's double-sided PhotoVelvet paper that feed through most common photo inkjet printers to create ready-to-bind portfolio pages. The albums come with a cloth binding in several color choices. www.lyson.com, www.stoneeditions.com
One thing I've noticed at this type of trade show is the entrepreneurial activity and sharing going on in some of the smaller booths that you would never see in the larger mega-exhibits. For example, at MediaStreet.com's booth, you had not only Norm Levy showing his wares, but in another corner you had Neal Kublan and his DiDi frames and also John Edmund's talking about his new products. One at a time:
MediaStreet.com's Niagara II bulk ink system is now shipping for all EPSON desktop printers including the new 960, but the real news is that Levy will soon be releasing the Niagara III. The difference? The III won't be prefilled with MediaStreet inks. That way, dealers like inkjetgoodies.com or inkjetART.com can sell the systems with all types of inks. www.mediastreet.com
Remember my mentioning and writing about Digi-Frames (see page 278 of my book)? Well, Neal Kublan, who helped develop the concept, has gone off on his own with his new DiDi (Digital Image Displays, Inc.) frames (see photo). He believes that electronic displays will coexist with paper prints in the future, but he thinks that "we're probably two years away from price points really dropping" and making that a reality. He's also excited about the new OLED screens that will soon be coming. DiDi frames will be available at major electronics retailers and at MediaStreet.com.
I think we're going to be hearing a lot more about John Edmunds and his Futures (Wales) Ltd. company. John is the prolific inventor of such things as the new infusion coating that could change the inkjet media landscape. He sat down with me and showed me samples of his latest work. First, there's the revolutionary infusion coating process that makes its first appearance in the new Bockingford Inkjet paper (you'll be able to read a complete review of this new paper by Andy Darlow and me on this website soon). Instead of adding the inkjet receptor coating after the paper is made, the coating formulation is impregnated in the paper during the papermaking process. It's a completely different way of doing it, and Bockingford Inkjet is only the start. Edmunds showed me samples of impregnated and inkjet-printable fabrics for wall coverings, book bindings, window blinds, even neckties! Then there's Futures Inkjet Film, which is an extruded, polyolefin white film. Completely waterproof and tear resistant, it should be available in small rolls in matte or gloss in a couple of months, says Edmunds. And finally, Edmunds has his own line of "permanent dye-based inks" coming. Tentatively called "Prism" inks, Edmunds is claiming 60+ years, and if he's right, there won't be anything like them on the market.
Jon Cone was turning more than a few heads with his major facelift for B&W lovers: the new PiezographyBW system that is now ICC compliant and available on a wider variety of printers. First, PiezographyBW is no longer a proprietary software system; it's now based on standard ICC profiles, and it prints directly through the OEM printer drivers. However, says R&D Director Bill Bergh, "we've worked long and hard to make a new system where you can print quad black with the same quality we had before with a custom driver." Second--and this was a real surprise--PiezographyBW now also supports Canon printers. Why Canon? As Cone explains, "Many of our long-term Epson PiezographyBW users may find it hard to believe we could choose Canon as a leading-technology-base for our new system, but the Canons are four to eight times faster; you can print an 8x10 in only 60 seconds on a Canon S series printer. Also, "Canon's user-replaceable printhead can be rinsed out under clear water in the sink to remove any ink or paper fiber residue, and the user can purchase an additional printhead [after the printer's original warranty period], fill it with color inks, and easily switch between B&W and color inksets in the same printer." Is Cone giving up on EPSONs? No. He says that his company now plans to completely reincarnate their PiezograhyBW for EPSON, too. An upgrade for more than 4,000 users of the original system is planned for April of this year (2003).
On the inks side, Cone was showing his newly reformulated PiezoTone inks, which now come in four different tone sets: Warm Neutral, Cool Neutral, Selenium Tone, and Carbon Sepia. Select a hue set, choose one of three blacks (Museum Black, Portfolio Black, and Black Black), and bingo, you're printing what I like to call "multi-monochromatics." www.inkjetmall.com
Probably the biggest news for inkjet printing media was the appearance at the show of two old-timers with their new digital printing papers: Arches and Crescent.
Arches, is, of course, one of the world's most-loved fine-art papers and the French paper mill that's been making paper since the 15th century. The news is that they're now launching Arches Infinity, a museum-quality, digital photo and fine art inkjet paper. Product manager Jeffrey Neumann (see photo) explained that it's 100% cotton and mould-made in France with a proprietary inkjet receptor coating. It's been optimized for pigmented inks, but it will also work with dye-based ones. It comes in two weights (230 gsm and 355 gsm), two finishes (smooth and textured), and a variety of cut and roll sizes starting at 8.5 x 11 inches. And here's the kicker: there are no optical brighteners. "In the archival paper world, OBAs are a no-no," explains Neumann. (OBA stands for "Optical Brightening Agent") "So, we've created a museum-quality sheet that's as bright white as you can make it without adding optical brighteners." In terms of permanence, Arches is doing extensive testing both internally and with Henry Wilhelm, and in comparative tests with all the other major fine art papers, "we tested as well, or better in some categories, as any of them," Neumann said. "We're very confident that it's going to be very, very permanent." Infinity Digital Art and Photo, which Neumann calls "the most important new product development for Arches in over 100 years," will be available ONLY in North America starting April 1. Free downloadable profiles will be available (along with other information) at www.archesinfinity.com. Distributors: www.canson-us.com www.legionpaper.com
Crescent is the well-known U.S. cardboard and mat company, but they've now entered the digital age with a line of digital art paper called Crescent Digital. There are three different finishes (satin, velvet, and watercolor) in various cut sheet and roll sizes. It's all 100% cotton rag, acid free, pH neutral, in weights ranging from 250 gsm to 310 gsm. There's also a "Digital Board" that's pretty amazing. It's 800 gsm (!) or 60 pt/mil. in 33x41" sheets only. You're basically printing on mat board, and it'll only work on printers that can accept 1.4 mm stock, as some EPSONs can. www.crescentcardboard.com
Hahnemuhle was another one of those creative booths with different things happening. The German paper company didn't have anything brand new, but they were printing on their newer 460-gsm Photo Rag, which I mentioned in the last report here. Photo restorer and publisher Joshua Greene was also there printing some of his wonderful vintage images on an HP 5500 large format with the new co-branded HP Photo Rag by Hahnemuhle. Then, one of Hahnemuhle's distributors, Pavel Repisky from Atlantic Papers, pulled me aside and showed me his new invention: the ultimate paper/print storage container and dryer (see photo). Remember flat files for storing prints? Well, Repisky has flipped the concept up on its side, literally. It has 15 curved slots that can accommodate up to 1,000 sheets of up to 36 x 48" paper. It doesn't yet have a name so I volunteered one: "The Curve." And finally, I ran into Gregory Schern in the same booth. Schern is the CEO of inkjetgoodies.com (and a reseller of the Hahnemuhle brand) and the one who bought out the stock of the Eclipse Satine paper when the BrightCube company went under. Schern says that he still has about a one-year's supply of the Eclipse 190 gsm, but the nicer 360 gsm is all gone, and it's not coming back. Since I had heard rumors that he might be resurrecting the paper on his own, he said no when I asked him about that. "There are a lot of good replacements out there from Hahnemuhle and others, so I don't need to do it myself." www.hahnemuhle.com, www.archiveimages.com, www.atlanticpapers.com, www.inkjetgoodies.com
I missed fellow list moderator Diana York at the booth of boutique U.S. papermaker Hawk Mountain but still learned about their latest papers. Nighthawk is a hefty 500 gsm, 30 mil, 100% cotton paper with a new type of inkjet coating. It's sort of a soft-white color, and it's completely OBA-free. The other new paper is Kestrel Bright White. It's 310 gsm, 100% cotton, 26 mils, but it does have OBAs to make it very white. Comes in 17 x 22" sheets or on rolls. Hawk Mountain will also distribute the new light-weight printable fabrics by John Edmunds described above. www.hawkmtnartpapers.com
RIPs & COLOR MANAGEMENT
ErgoSoft was announcing the release of StudioPrint, its RIP software for digital image reproduction. This is a stand-alone application that's a subset of its better-known PosterPrint RIP (v10 also announced at the show), and that's optimized for photography and fine-art reproduction. Co-founder Peter Supry demoed the software for me, and it looks like a powerful production tool that combines ink restriction and printer linearization all in one step. It also has quad-black support for monochromatic printing as well as tri-black support for six-color printers. StudioPrint supports many piezoelectric inkjets like EPSON, Roland, and Mimaki and is currently available only for the Windows platform. StudioPrint is non-PostScript and priced at $2,300 for large-format and $1,300 for small format, which they define as anything at 24" and below. www.ergosoftus.com
Only a few aisles over was Gary Rogers of R9 Corporation. He demoed his new Pixel Pixasso RIP for me (mentioned here in Digital News on Feb. 28). This is a stand-alone RIP that includes both ICC color management and ICQ multi-density monochromatic modules to drive the new EPSON 2200, 7600, and 9600 seven-color printers (as well as other supported printers). The whole enchilada is available now for $1,495 for large-format or only $495 for under 24" printers. It's non-PostScript, but a PostScript module is also available (although Rogers admitted that photographers rarely buy it, and he also said that if anyone wanted either color or B&W but not both, he would knock a couple hundred dollars off the $1,495 price.) The full version is Windows only, although the Image Export BW plug-in (an updated version of the famous one once associated with Jon Cone) is both Windows and Mac and will soon be re-available for just under $200. Other new products include the BW Pro RIP, BW Pro Lite RIP, and, of course, the new Sundance Septone inks for B&W (described in the same earlier news release), which are getting ready to ship. www.R9corp.com
On the color management front, Monaco was showing its new package: MonacoPROFILER Gold Edition. It's a spectrophotometer-based system that fits somewhere between it existing MonacoPROOF and MonacoPROFILER, which they've renamed "Platinum Edition." The Gold edition offers expanded profile editing with fine-tune editing for neutrals and grays, selective color editing, and expert black generation control. It goes for $2,950, and the top-level Platinum goes for $4,250. www.monacosys.com
GretagMacbeth was announcing two new color management packages for photographers with digital workflows. First, there's the new Eye-One Display that lets photographers or other creatives calibrate and profile their computer displays. It uses a four-filter colorimeter, attaches to either a CRT or LCD display, and it comes with Eye-One Match 2.0 color management software. It's $249.
The Eye-One Photo lets photographers calibrate and profile both their displays and RGB (only) desktop printers. This includes the Eye-One Pro spectral color measuring device, mounting hardware for displays, and software. It's $1,495 including the 40-channel spectrophotometer. One cool thing I found out about this package is the ability to work with and take ambient lighting conditions into account. With the included diffusion filter that fits onto the spectro head, you can measure the ambient light and apply that to the generated ICC profiles. So, if you know, for example, that prints are going to be displayed in a gallery under a certain type of lighting, you can measure that environment and adjust the printer profiles accordingly. www.gretagmacbeth.com
PRINTERS
Besides the ubiquitous digital printing kiosks and digital minilabs (including "dry" printers that use inkjet instead of wet chemistry) that were everywhere, probably the most interesting thing I noticed is that Canon is now officially REALLY in the inkjet printer game. Their newly announced (at this show) duo of the i950 (8.5 x 11 inches) and i9100 (13 x 19 inches) printers are plain awesome if you're looking for top-quality inkjet printing on the desktop. The i9100 ($499) has replaced the S9000 and includes these improvements: borderless printing on 13 x 19", increased resolution to 4800 x 1200 dpi, the highest nozzle count ever with 3,072 nozzles, ability to select 5x7 size in the printer software (plus new 5x7 paper), and the same 6-color, dye-based, individual and transparent ink tanks as before.
When you realize that these Canon printers are faster (4x6" in 30 secs.; 8.5 x 11" in about a minute) than similar EPSONs, and with easily replaced printheads, you start to see why one well-respected printmaker at the show confided to me that the Canon is now the hot new inkjet printer for photographers. I've got to admit, these reasons plus the amazing printed samples I picked up make it pretty clear that Epson finally has a serious competitor in this class. If only Canon had a pigmented-ink printer, right? Well, the word is... they're working on it. www.cusa.canon.com
The only news from Epson at the show (besides their already announced Stylus Photo 960 printer now shipping with the CD-printing function and the new Perfection 3200 flatbed scanner in Pro and Photo models) was their three new double-sided papers: EPSON UltraSmooth Fine Art Paper, EPSON Premium Double-Sided Photo Paper, and EPSON Double-Sided Ink Jet Paper. All three papers will be compatible with Epson's dye and pigment inks, and they'll be available in late spring. www.epson.com
I had heard a lot about the new Kodak Professional 8500 Digital Photo Printer, so I went to see it. It looks like they've finally figured out how to make a dye-sub printer for the photography market. It's fairly compact, blazing fast (75 secs. for an 8x10), and the image quality is very good. And all for at or under $1,000. They're clearly positioning against inkjets, going so far as to say in their advertising "Thermal printing: the professional's alternative to inkjet technology." While there are advantages (speed, image quality, easy of use), there are also disadvantages: limited sizes, limited paper choices, initial cost. They also have the 8660 for slightly larger prints and for high-production environments, and then there is the ML-500 Digital Photo Print System that can push out 270 8x10s per hour, which works out to one print every 13 seconds! www.kodak.com
But if you need that kind of speed, you might as well go whole hog and consider what I saw at the HP booth: the HP Indigo Photo c9100 digital photofinishing printer for central labs. This huge machine will do 10,000 prints (4 x 6") per hour! It's a chemical-free process using pigment-based inks and HP's proprietary ElectroInk technology. The cost? A mere half million or so. But, sitting next to it was something that really caught my eye: the HP Indigo Press 3000. This is one of the new digital presses that will soon wipe out offset printing as we know it. It's all digital and all print-on-demand. You need a full-color calendar printed? One, 50, 5,000? No problem. www.hp.com
One very interesting thing they do at this show is the DIMA Shoot Outs (DIMA is a subset of PMA). There's a separate Camera and Printer Shoot Out, with members submitting either captured images or samples printed from the same target files. Each entry is then prominently displayed and numbered so that trade attendees of the PMA show can then vote on their best picks based on overall quality and accuracy of color. This is one of the few places where comparisons can be made among vendors in a controlled environment. It was very instructive to walk down the aisles analyzing and comparing the entries, and I highly recommend it to anyone at future PMA shows. For the complete results of the 2003 DIMA Shoot Outs, click on the respective Word document link: DIMA-PrinterShootOut03.doc (for printers) and DIMA-CameraShootOut03.doc (for cameras).
Everywhere I looked during the PMA show, I saw the word "digital." A final story brought home the impact of the word to me... At the big HP party at the top of the Mandalay Bay hotel on Monday night, I found myself standing next to none other than Ansel Adam's grandson, Matthew Adams (who is the president of the Ansel Adams Gallery in both Yosemite National Park and Monterey, CA). When I asked him if his granddad would've adopted digital, he didn't hesitate. "Of course," he said. "Ansel would have LOVED working digitally."
2003 SHOW DETAILS:
PMA Annual Convention and Trade Show
Las Vegas Convention Center
Las Vegas, Nevada USA
March 2-5, 2003
2004 DATES: February 12-15, 2004
www.www.pmai.org
Your faithful reporter,
Harald Johnson
Harald Johnson is the author of the book Mastering Digital Printing. He can be reached at harald@dpandi.com.
|
