From: Burkhardt Kiegeland (burkhardt@einsundsein.org)
Date: 10/25/03-02:38:45 PM Z
Dear list,
I did some tests recently trying the new agfajet copyfilm for making
digital negs
for alternative processes. The material is easily available in Europe
for a remarkably lower price than Pictorio.
My printer is an Epson Photo 1290. I donīt know if this machine is the
same as the 1280 in the US. Possibly it is like the 1270. My inks are
the MIS pigmented archival color inks.
Comparing with Pictorio I found that the agfajet copyfilm has the
same somewhat limited capacity to hold pigmented inks. This means, you
will easily wipe off part of the ink layer even if it has dried down
for a couple of hours. As a protection I simply did cover the printed
area by a sheet of Mylar. I donīt know about Mylarīs blocking of UV,
but the exposure time ist just a neclectable bit slower than without
Mylar.
For getting a digital negative of sufficient contrast and density I
first tried the various curves for colorized negs as they were provided
by Dan Burkholder and others. This curves however turned out not to
deliver sufficient contrast especially in the upper middletones and
highlights.
So I switched to print using all 6 colors and got finally very
acceptable results. The curve is quite similar to the one I used in the
past for peparing imagesetter negs. Here are the figures:
Input Output
14 71
24 102
52 132
76 153
102 173
128 190
153 202
178 216
203 228
228 238
241 247
253 255
My inks, as I said, is MIS archival. The printer setting for my 1290 is
simply Epson Backlight Film and 1440 dpi. No changes for saturation or
contrast. The negs are crisp and full of detail.
My exposure unit fits exactly to the design published by Nadeau in is
books. Exposure time is in the range of 60- 70s. Developer is potassium
oxalat. Paper is Arches Platine.
I would be interested to learn the experience of other practitioners
using the agfajet copyfilm.
Burkhardt Kiegeland
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : 11/05/03-09:22:18 AM Z CST