Crane Museo Silver Rag -- user report

[John Brownlow]

I finally got a 24" x 50' roll of the new Crane Museo Silver Rag paper, anticipation of which has prevented me from sleeping properly the last few nights (especially after Tim Atherton sent me a sample print). My previous standard paper has been Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, using the Piezography system for BW.

So I swapped over the black inks on the 7800 (zzzz...), loaded up the paper, and fired out a test print (BW). This image, in fact:

johnbrownlow.com/wildthings/XII/large-2.html



Being something of a pessimist (or realist) when it comes to supposed photographic holy grails, I knew that the new paper would almost certainly not live up to my expectations, so prepared myself for mild to severe disappointment.

Boy, was I ever wrong.

The prints are absolutely astounding. Without handling the print I would be completely unable to tell it from an unglazed glossy silver (fibre) print, except that it looks quite a lot better than I ever got my silver prints. The depth of the blacks is mindboggling, and the perceived sharpness much, much higher than Photo Rag.

The increase in dynamic range is so huge that what was formerly a rather soft, low-contrast print on HPR is now too contrasty and I need to open up the midrange to get the most out of the paper.

I haven't tried color printing yet but for BW it completely knocked my socks off.

(This is using the Epson driver with the profile from the Crane site).

[Michael Mutmansky]

John,

What inkset are you using? Did you remove the aftermarket inks and use the Epson inks for the test?

I'm interested in hearing from anyone on how the older 4000 and 7600 perform with the paper, and also comparisons between this paper and the new Hahnemuhle and Innova papers, as I understand they are intended to be similar offerings.

---Michael

[paulr]

i'm assuming this paper surface still doesn't work with carbon pigment quadtone inks (piezo) ... any word on this?

[John Brownlow]

I am using the K3 Ultrachromes in the Epson 7800 for this. Photo black ink.

[John Brownlow]

Oh, also I am printing from an RGB file rather than using Advanced Black & White, as the proof preview is much more accurate. I add a toning curves layer to the neutral gray file with points which map

127R --> 130R
127B --> 124B

just to warm it up a tad.

[Don Wallace]

John, are you saying that prints produced on this material and using this technology are superior to prints from the traditional darkroom?

[Mike Chini]

Excellent work, John. Number 9 is my favorite...

Have you noticed any curling or warping of the paper? Any feeding problems (HPR is notorious)?

Thanks for the report!

[Michael Mutmansky]

John,

Thanks for the info. Have you used or tried QTR with your printer? It works wonders with the older K2 printers compared to the out-of-the-box B&W printing, but I have also seen the K3 printers look great in their own right for B&W.

I'm expecting to do some comparison tests on all of these papers soon, once the pipeline has filled with suitable supply. Shouldn't be long now, hopefully.

---Michael

[tim atherton]

Epson K3 photo/glossy black only. The matte blacks don't work with it (rub off, generally). Neither to the earlier K2 inks (generally bronzing and lots of gloss differential)

I've heard mixed reports about the Innova (which I think is also known as DaVinci) and this is Hahnemuhle's second try at something like this - the first was awful. The innova uses OBA's (which I generally dislike for a number of reasons) and as such is brighter/cooler. I don't know anyone who has actually seen the Hahnemuhle - it may be a while before it hits the shelves?

Oh and the Innova is an alpha cellulose base rather than cotton rag (as are some of their other papers - all of which are actually quite nice).

One nice thing about the Crane is the selling point "the paper I use is made by the same folks who make paper for the US Mint for the dollar bill...." :-)

I happen to have nearly always liked a slightly warmer/creamier base on silver gelatin paper - and the Crane fits that. The Innova has a slightly different texture and with the whiter base offers a different option - which is great.

From what I've heard from other testers (I've only tested the Crane), both papers are really close in terms of blacks, tonal range,. mid-tones, detail, "depth" etc.

FWIW - unless it happens to be a print/neg that would really sing as a platinum print, I find almost everything I've re-printed on the Crane Silver Rag makes most of my old inkjet prints (on photo rag, Epson Velvet, Crane Museo Max and goodness knows what else) look rather flat and dull - dead.

I think in the next little while we will see several new papers like his with small incremental improvements in certain areas - like a choice of surfaces for example

[John Brownlow]

Don, they are for me but that has been true with inkjet prints for a while for me, because I am not a darkroom hero. However this paper brings the 'look' much much closer to that of silver gelatin print. The Dmax is probably better and I am guessing the sharpness is as good if not slightly better. There might still be good reasons to prefer a silver print, though.