Vincent Oliver, over at photo-i.co.uk sat down for an video interview at the Photokina with Henry Wilhelm from Wilhelm Research and got Henry’s take on what’s exciting about pigment inkjet printers from the past couple of years. In particular, he mentions the new HP z2100 and z3100, and its self profiling ability. Then he discusses pigment based ink printers in general and their advantages over dye based inks:
- Permanence of pigment based inks.
- Water resistance.
- Quick color stability, no shifts occur after a few days, allowing for tightly controlled color management.
Pigment inks have now caught up to dye based inks in color gamut, and vibrancy, Wilhelm says. Some other points that he makes:
- Color photography in the 1870s had already used pigments. This wasn’t possible with silverhalide printing, though pigments offered a greater longevity. Now, it’s as if things have come full circle.
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As for investors and those who buy photographs, if the choice is a color silverhalide print or a color pigment inkjet print, then the color pigmented inkjet print is the winner in terms of longevity.
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Color pigment inkjet prints offer permanence, which wasn’t possible with silverhalide. This is a dramatic shift in photography.
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Photographers who work in color are making there own prints again. During the the days of black and white only, the print was often done by the photographer and was seen as an essential part of the artistic process. But when color came along and the printing process became much more elaborate and costly, those who worked in color began sending their negatives to a printer, and the direct connection between photographer and print was lost. Now, Photoshop and inkjet printers allow the photographer to do their own prints agian.
Photo-i.co.uk, great site, great forum. The video interview. The Wilhelm Research site.
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