Chromira or Lightjet

[Dave Jeffery]

I couldn't find any recent posts regarding Chromira print quality vs. Lightjet prints.

One post suggested that the each printer produces slightly different color gamuts and the colors needed would determine the choice of printer?

There is also some debate as to the input resolution that is optimal for each printer.

Some say that 250ppi is sufficient for the Chromira rather that 300 ppi. Some people feel that 200ppi is enough for the Lightjets as opposed to 304.8ppi?

My idea is to have a number of archival size scans of 4x5 transparencies made to be able to produce high quality prints up to 32 x 40, so trying to determine the optimal printer input file size will help with scanning service choices.

All opinions are appreciated.

[naturephoto1]

Hi Dave,

Bill Nordstrom (Laser Light Photographics and founder of EverColor Fine Art) has been my printer for more than 12 1/2 years. He has an in-house Chromira and was responsible for getting the LightJet for EverColor. We can see no difference between the 2 outputs. The LightJet can print faster and take up to a 50" roll of paper. The Chromira can only take a 30" roll of paper.

We print off of the Chromira at present and Bill is contracted to a Commercial lab if we need the output size from the LightJet. We try to limit pieces to 30" X 37 1/2" for printing off of the Chromira rather than printing 32" X 40" off of the LightJet. We get a big price increase for a 12% sq in output for my clients (that is because of going to a different source for machine). I would frame the images in the same size mat (40" X 48") and frame to work from 40" X 60" mat boards anyway.

Rich

[David A. Goldfarb]

At West Coast Imaging they say that the colors seem purer with the Chromira than with the LightJet, both on Fuji Crystal Archive. I've compared printing the same file on both machines, and it's hard to say--maybe.

My own sense from looking at my own prints and other peoples prints from Chromira is that Chromira prints are more likely to show grain aliasing in large areas of solid color like open sky, but the other side of this may be that Chromira prints could be a tiny bit sharper, and maybe there is a way of working around this.

Chromira's LEDs aren't strong enough to print to Ilfochrome, which LightJet and Lambda can do, if that's of interest to you.

[Ben Chase]

I've printed extensively with the Chromira and several times with the Lightjet.

Honestly - The differences are minimal, though I have a slight preference for the Chromira just based on experience. I don't think you will be disappointed with either.

[Dave Jeffery]

Thanks everyone! Much appreciated.