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Thread: John Higbie Invents! Watch This (Pt/Pd laser printer)

  1. #1
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    John Higbie Invents! Watch This (Pt/Pd laser printer)

    Tin Can

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    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: John Higbie Invents! Watch This

    platinum scanning-laser printer
    Tin Can

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    Re: John Higbie Invents! Watch This (Pt/Pd laser printer)

    Very interesting, but obviously way to expensive for a hobbyist. It's not clear from his site what he is doing with this machine. I can't tell if he's offering a printing service, or just doing this for his own stuff.

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    Re: John Higbie Invents! Watch This (Pt/Pd laser printer)

    I edited the title to be more substantive.

    He offers a printing service, not cheap (scroll down):

    https://artifact-foto.com/info/

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    Re: John Higbie Invents! Watch This (Pt/Pd laser printer)

    Quote Originally Posted by Oren Grad View Post
    I edited the title to be more substantive.

    He offers a printing service, not cheap (scroll down):

    https://artifact-foto.com/info/
    Thanks for the link. I was looking at a different site https://www.alternativephotography.com/john-higbie/

    It's certainly expensive, but any platinum/palladium is going to be expensive no matter how you do it. Way beyond my reach, but still fascinating none the less.

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    Re: John Higbie Invents! Watch This (Pt/Pd laser printer)

    The premium he charges compared to laser printing to FB silver paper (for example, at Digital Silver Imaging) is far beyond the incremental cost of the Pt/Pd materials compared to silver. But AFAIK it's a unique service at this point, and from a commercial perspective it probably makes sense for him to target the high end of the market.

    I'm familiar with the look-and-feel of Pt/Pd prints made by contact printing sheet film negatives as well as inkjet internegs. I am curious as to how these compare, but unfortunately can't remotely justify the cost of a print to find out.

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    Re: John Higbie Invents! Watch This (Pt/Pd laser printer)

    That's pretty cool!
    It appears someone could cut out one layer of variables printing directly to the sensitized paper rather than dealing with internegatives. I think it would still require someone skilled in pt/pd printing to coat the paper with robot consistency.

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    Re: John Higbie Invents! Watch This (Pt/Pd laser printer)

    Quote Originally Posted by Oren Grad View Post
    The premium he charges compared to laser printing to FB silver paper (for example, at Digital Silver Imaging) is far beyond the incremental cost of the Pt/Pd materials compared to silver. But AFAIK it's a unique service at this point, and from a commercial perspective it probably makes sense for him to target the high end of the market.

    I'm familiar with the look-and-feel of Pt/Pd prints made by contact printing sheet film negatives as well as inkjet internegs. I am curious as to how these compare, but unfortunately can't remotely justify the cost of a print to find out.
    It's not really fair to compare it to what Digital Silver Imaging does, since they're using industrially made 48" wide rolls of Ilford paper. The machine they run it on probably cost in the millions. The setup costs are going to be relatively low, so the primary cost drivers are image size and machine amortization. This is reflected in their pricing, which roughly follows image size.

    On the other hand, these Platinum/Paladium prints still need to be hand coated, and they can only do one at a time on the machine. They will have very high setup cost, and this is also reflected in their pricing, where the larger sizes are only marginally more expensive than the smaller ones. I don't know what it cost him to build that machine, but if you factor in the real costs of time and materials it could easily be over 100 grand. It is a unique and ingenious service, however, and the prices don't seem out of line with that in mind. Still though, far too rich for my blood.

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    bob carnie's Avatar
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    Re: John Higbie Invents! Watch This (Pt/Pd laser printer)

    Quote Originally Posted by Tin Can View Post
    Salto in conjunction with a Japanese company have been doing laser pt pt prints for a long time now. This looks very much like how I do my silver gelatin prints on the Durst 76 Lambda, I also make film. Very interesting though Tin Can so thanks for posting

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    Re: John Higbie Invents! Watch This (Pt/Pd laser printer)

    Quote Originally Posted by sharktooth View Post
    It's not really fair to compare it to what Digital Silver Imaging does, since they're using industrially made 48" wide rolls of Ilford paper. The machine they run it on probably cost in the millions. The setup costs are going to be relatively low, so the primary cost drivers are image size and machine amortization. This is reflected in their pricing, which roughly follows image size.

    On the other hand, these Platinum/Paladium prints still need to be hand coated, and they can only do one at a time on the machine. They will have very high setup cost, and this is also reflected in their pricing, where the larger sizes are only marginally more expensive than the smaller ones. I don't know what it cost him to build that machine, but if you factor in the real costs of time and materials it could easily be over 100 grand. It is a unique and ingenious service, however, and the prices don't seem out of line with that in mind. Still though, far too rich for my blood.
    My lab was fwiw the first lab in the world doing silver gelatin murals via laser , the machine Digital Silver Has was purchased used via a kickstarter campaign, the Durst 76 that I use was purchased in 2001 for $225 K plus all the processing machines to make it viable . I was using Agfa Classic in 2002 , Ilford and Metro Imaging launched their silver paper using a Lambda like mine in 2006 - Digital Silver uses the Ilford Paper. I need to change the wiki page one day on this very little known or cared about fact.

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