[Leica] Re: EverColor Luminage

[Jim Brick <jimbrick@photoaccess.com>]

Bill Nordstrom is the originator of Evercolor. He was located in Eldorado
Hills (near Sacramento) CA. Photographic Arts, Inc. (John Wawrzonek) and
Evercolor merged, and moved the operation to the east coast (Worcester,
MA), including Bill ( http://www.evercolor.com ). At some point, Bill left
Evercolor and founded Laser Light Photographics in Aptos, CA, (40 miles
from here - Silicon Valley) and uses a LaserJet 5000, (by Cymbolic
Sciences, Inc.,  http://www.colourconcepts.com/lightjet.htm ) There is a
lot of difference between the original Evercolor process and the LaserJet
process. The original Evercolor process, besides being devastatingly
expensive, produced full size separation films (a 20x24 print requires
20x24 film). These films (CMYK films) were then contact printed via a
pigment transfer process to produce the very very archival and super sharp
Evercolor print. It's more of a printing process than a photographic
process. The LaserJet 5000 process prints on photographic paper using
lasers. ZBE has a new machine to compete with the LaserJet, called the
Chromira ( http://www.zbe.com/chromira.htm#open ). It uses leds rather than
a laser. The output is stunning.

All of these processes start with a drum scan.

Jim


At 04:17 PM 12/14/98 -0500, you wrote:
>On Mon, 14 Dec 1998, Gary D. Whalen wrote:
>
>>Can anyone tell me exactly what an Evercolor print costs?   By the way I
>don't
>>believe that this is an exclusive production method.  I believe that it is
>all
>>in the equipment which is available to anyone that has the $$$$.
>
>Gary,
>
>I can't say anything about the cost.  According to the EverColor reps at
>Mountain Light gallery, the Luminage prints made by Evercolor are made on a
>LightJet laser printer using an archival-quality Fuji paper.  The paper can
>also be used in an optical enlarger, so it's not exclusive to EverColor or
>to a digital process.  However, there are fewer than a dozen of the
>LightJet printers in existance (a colleage of mine whose company has one in
>Los Angeles corroborates this statement), and EverColor's printer is
>specially stabilized against vibration and was modified (by EverColor) to
>reduce or eliminate stray light reflections in the inside of the printer.
>
>Still according to the EverColor reps, EverColor pays particular attention
>to the developing chemistry and calibrates the printer for each paper
>emulsion batch.  They buy the 50" wide, 200' rolls of print paper in large
>quantities of the same emulsion to achieve consistent results.  The printer
>itself is 8 feet wide, 8 feet long and 6 feet high.
>
>I don't know if any other labs are doing as much as EverColor is to ensure
>consistent premium-quality results but the prints I saw were simply
>stunning.
>
>Doug Herr
>Sacramento