1/30/2006

Crane's Museo Silver Rag

I asked David at Crane papers for an eta for the Museo Silver Rag paper which I guess I've been raving about. Here is the happy (for me) reply:

Hi Dave,
Thanks for all the kind words. We are having the official launch of this product at the PMA show Feb 26-Mar 1 in Orlando. The paper will start shipping immediately following the show...only 4 weeks to go!
Best regards,
David

Here are some more specs from the PDF that David sent me:

SPECIFICATIONS
Museo® Silver Rag™ is made to archival standards:
• gloss finish
• 100% cotton
• internally buffered
• no optical brighteners
• pH: 7.9-8.5
• weight: 300 gsm
• thickness: 0.015” (380 μm)
• designed for pigmented inkjet inks (bold is mine)
• brightness: 90
• robust, damage-free packaging for
large sheets

I'm trying to time my paper buying now so that there's not much of the old RC type papers left and when this paper comes to market. I suppose it seems strange to get that excited about a paper - but this ink / printer / paper combination is as close to air-dried fiber darkroom print as I've seen. I can't claim to have seen every possible ink / printer / paper combination - nor can anyone, so I think it's fair for me to make this extremely positive appraisal. In other words, I'm using photo black K3 inks with the 4800. Who knows what the results will be with dye-based inks, or other ink formulations.

4 comments:

Dave Beckerman said...

It's the razor blade model. We'll give you the holder. You buy lots of blades. The thing that annoyed me about 7960 and other HPs was the tri-ink cartridge - one channel empties and you need to buy the entire cartridge.

As far as the silver rag paper, I would guess that it will be expensive. But they've got me convinced.

Dave Beckerman said...

The irony is that inkjet technology is always going to be more expensive than "traditional" halide type prints because in one case you are dealing with cheap chemicals, and the latent image is already on the paper; and in with the inkjet you need to apply the image to the paper.

There was an article in the Times a few months ago about how the number of people who are doing their own inkjet photographic prints has leveled off; and the number who are simply dropping their digital images off to be printed via a photo-chemical process is increasing.

Dave Beckerman said...

p.s. the next set of cartridges i'll get for the 4800 will be 220 ml. the only way to get even close to economic prints is to invest in hardware that takes lots of ink at once.

i did go through the various non-epson inks and i know that people out there Barrett have good success with them; but my own experience has been that i end up paying in time and clogs and heartache unless i use the manufacturers' inks. your results may vary.

Anonymous said...

> Craig, and everyone, I've had
> some good luck experimenting
> with certain COSTCO labs.
> Believe it or not, they have
> worked with a company (Dry Creek
> Photo) to calibrate many of
> their Noritsu and other digital
> printers.

I used to print 12x18 with Costco using Dry Creek profiles. Until I received my new Epson 2400. The Costco prints look muddy by comparison and the loss of shadow detail is downright depressing. I'm reprinting my portfolios right now using the Epson. Never again will I depend on Costco for prints where I expect to receive significant quality.