Digital Photography Survives the Test of Time?

Printer suppliers are fighting a battle to keep their products viable
while Wal Mart and others push down the costs per print of digital
photos.

Note, digital photo prints outlast silver halide-derived prints?

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E-COMMERCE/MEDIA

In Digital Age,
A Clash Over
Fading Photos

By WILLIAM M. BULKELEY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
April*1,*2005;*Page*B1


The boom in digital photography has sparked a backbiting squabble over
the longevity of pictures made on home printers.

The clash pits printer makers eager to market their own lines of
expensive specialty photo paper against big paper purveyors like
retailer Staples Inc. and photo giant Eastman Kodak Co., neither of
which makes inkjet printers of their own.

As more people use digital cameras, many are making homemade prints. Yet
many shutterbugs could end up disappointed by the shelf life of their
photos.

Wilhelm Imaging Research, a testing lab in Grinnell, Iowa, that was
hired by Hewlett-Packard Co., Seiko Epson Corp. and several other
printer makers, recently publicly criticized Staples' top-of-the-line
photo paper as a "disaster," saying photos printed on it fade rapidly
from exposure to ozone pollution.

Meanwhile, Kodak last year claimed prints made on its special paper with
printers manufactured by H-P and Epson would last more than 100 years.
Scientists from H-P and Epson -- which market their own photo paper --
disputed Kodak's claim. "Eastman Kodak uses significantly lower test
criteria than industry-accepted practices to achieve this rating," Epson
scientists wrote in a paper published on its Web site.

The hostilities underscore how important paper remains in the age of
digital photography. The market for inkjet photo paper will grow 23% to
$1.2 billion this year, up from $972 million in 2004, estimates Cathy
Martin, an analyst for Infotrends, a market-research concern based in
Weymouth, Mass.

For Kodak, the king of traditional film-based photo paper, gaining
market share in ink-jet paper is important to its efforts to adjust to
the era of digital photography. And at a time when big retailers such as
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are luring consumers to print digital pictures in
their stores, printer makers are trying to hold on to their lucrative
market of selling photo paper and ink cartridges to consumers. Printer
manufacturers reap most of their profits from such "consumable" supplies.

Kodak says it suspects the complaints from printer makers about its
paper reflect their desire to boost revenue by selling their own paper.
"The competitors aren't very happy about the fact that we have the
solution" in the form of a photo paper that will work with all printers,
says Rowan Lawson, head of home printing systems at Kodak, which started
selling its Ultima photo paper a year ago.

Printer makers, meanwhile, are irked by the claims of Staples and Kodak
that their papers work fine with any printer, in part because they
realize that consumers are likely to blame the printer itself for any
problems. Printer makers say they have spent years and millions of
dollars fine-tuning paper that works specifically with their own ink.
"When you put paper out there to be used with multiple brands, it's
difficult to say you'll get any specific results," says John Lamb,
marketing manager for printers at Canon Inc., which sells its own paper.

From a consumers' point of view, digital photo fading shouldn't be a big
problem -- provided the consumer kept a digital copy of the picture on a
CD or online photo-storage site. But with software standards, Web sites
and storage devices constantly changing, a print on paper may be the
best way to assure that your great-grandchildren see what their
ancestors looked like.

For ultimate longevity, archivists recommend subzero refrigeration of
prints. Prints last much longer when stored in photo albums or even
shoeboxes than those displayed on walls, where they are affected by
light, pollution, smoke and moisture.

Rebecca Ludens, a Kalamazoo, Mich., homemaker who writes about photo
scrapbooks for About.com, an online information service, says that photo
longevity is a big concern for the nation's 31 million
scrapbook-keepers. "They're hoping the pictures will last more than
decades," she says.

Kodak claims prints on its papers -- whether made with traditional
silver-halide technology or on inkjet printers -- can be displayed for
100 years without fading. The company says color photos kept in albums
will last 200 years or more.

Kodak bases its claims on assumptions that its prints will be displayed
at 120 "lux," a measure of brightness that is equivalent of a softly-lit
living room. Moreover, Kodak assumes the prints will be partially
protected from ultraviolet light by a special plastic filtered frame.
The company says its testing is based on real-world light levels as
determined in a study it did of 48 homes around the world. It says it
has been using the same light level for 30 years in these tests and
wanted to keep the digital-printout tests comparable to those it did of
traditional silver-halide prints.

Most other makers of all kinds of photographic paper based their
longevity claims on photographs displayed on a wall under clear glass,
at 450 lux, the equivalent to a brightly-lit corporate office. "In our
testing we go to the brighter room because that will have a more
negative impact," says Tom Miller, an ink expert at Canon.

That standard has been promoted by Wilhelm Imaging, a testing facility
that H-P, Epson and other major photo companies have hired to forecast
print longevity by running accelerated tests under very bright lights.
Kodak and Staples have not contracted with Wilhelm Imaging for its
services.

Henry Wilhelm, the firm's president, disputes Kodak's claims about photo
longevity because of its testing standards. Although Mr. Wilhelm is only
now testing Kodak paper in a Hewlett-Packard printer, he says his tests
on traditional silver-halide Kodak prints show they only last about 19
years without fading. In contrast, he says, Epson inkjet prints made on
Epson photo paper will last 200 years, and top-quality H-P ink on that
company's photo paper will last 108 years. Mr. Wilhelm, who has studied
photo longevity for more than 20 years and serves as a consultant to
photo archive companies such as Corbis, says he isn't biased by who pays
him. He says he often conducts studies without being paid and requires
clients who cite his data to fully disclose the results.

Epson says its paper is formulated to accept its pigment based-inks,
which are less susceptible to pollutants than dye-based inks used by
other print makers. H-P says its paper is designed to absorb ink and
then seal itself to prevent contamination.

At Kodak, Douglas Bugner, head of inkjet technology, says Wilhelm
Imaging overemphasizes the problem of fading due to light, and
underemphasizes other issues. In particular, he says, Wilhelm hasn't
done rigorous tests of many papers for susceptibility to ozone and other
pollutants. "It's disappointing they've thrown stones at Kodak" over
light-fastness, says Dr. Bugner, who adds that Wilhelm hasn't done the
work Kodak has to understand how warmth can affect images over time,
even in dark storage. Kodak maintains its paper holds up well to heat.

Wilhelm Imaging has also challenged quality claims that Staples makes
about its "Photo Supreme" brand paper, which the company promotes "for
cherished memories." Mr. Wilhelm says Staples' best paper fades rapidly
due to ground-level ozone pollution. At ozone levels comparable to "L.A.
in summer, Staples paper is a complete disaster," Mr. Wilhelm says.

Devin Eagle, manager of Staples's branded products, says it is aware of
the potential issue of ozone pollution, and its tests show that its
papers don't have a problem. He says Staples regularly hires scientists
at New York state's Rochester Institute of Technology in Kodak's home
town to test the quality of its paper and inks. Nabil Nasr, director of
RIT's Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies, which performed the
studies, says it's up to Staples to release results of his studies of
the impact of ozone on Staples paper.

Write to William M. Bulkeley at

poldy writes:

Note, digital photo prints outlast silver halide-derived prints?

Nobody really knows at this point. Time will tell.

As more people use digital cameras, many are making homemade prints. Yet
many shutterbugs could end up disappointed by the shelf life of their
photos.

Most people don't make prints, anyway. And more and more go to labs to
have them made, and lab prints (which use the same processes whether the
print is electronic or film-based in origin) are better-looking,
cheaper, and more durable than home prints.

... printer makers are trying to hold on to their lucrative
market of selling photo paper and ink cartridges to consumers.

This is not a good strategy over the long term.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

Mxsmanic wrote:

poldy writes:


Note, digital photo prints outlast silver halide-derived prints?


Nobody really knows at this point. Time will tell.


As more people use digital cameras, many are making homemade prints. Yet
many shutterbugs could end up disappointed by the shelf life of their
photos.


Most people don't make prints, anyway. And more and more go to labs to
have them made, and lab prints (which use the same processes whether the
print is electronic or film-based in origin) are better-looking,
cheaper, and more durable than home prints.


... printer makers are trying to hold on to their lucrative
market of selling photo paper and ink cartridges to consumers.


This is not a good strategy over the long term.



Actually the big companies are trying to diversify so that however you
apply color to paper they are there.

In article ,
Mxsmanic wrote:

... printer makers are trying to hold on to their lucrative
market of selling photo paper and ink cartridges to consumers.

This is not a good strategy over the long term.

A company like HP has no choice. The printing business (including
consumables) is what gets them most of their profits.

And it will take a long time - so far sliver halide prints from the
beginning of photography are still around. Heh, and to stretch a point,
so are asphalt negatives....
--
wf.

Mxsmanic wrote:

poldy writes:

Note, digital photo prints outlast silver halide-derived prints?

Nobody really knows at this point. Time will tell.

poldy writes:

A company like HP has no choice. The printing business (including
consumables) is what gets them most of their profits.

It's their fault that they are in that position, though. Carly Fiorina
is responsible for many of their problems today.

The consumables in the printing business represent an _extremely_
precarious business model, because that model will collapse unless the
consumables are dramatically overpriced. Consumers just aren't going to
pay those kinds of prices over the long term ... not when they can get
better results for less from any photo lab, even for their digital
shots.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
poldy writes:

Note, digital photo prints outlast silver halide-derived prints?

Nobody really knows at this point. Time will tell.

As more people use digital cameras, many are making homemade prints. Yet
many shutterbugs could end up disappointed by the shelf life of their
photos.

Most people don't make prints, anyway. And more and more go to labs to
have them made, and lab prints (which use the same processes whether the
print is electronic or film-based in origin) are better-looking,
cheaper, and more durable than home prints.

In fact the 'lab prints' for digital images increasingly use advanced ink
jet
printers like the Giclée PrintMakerFA from ColorSpan. This works with a drum
on which the paper is mounted. Eight variable-height print heads generate
continuous tone prints with a visual resolution of 1800 dpi. Light and
medium
cyan and magenta inks are used in addition to the standard CMYK inks.
The maximum print size is 90 x 120 centimeters and you an print on just
about any surface, everything from rice paper to leather.

The inks used are recokoned to be good for at least 75 years before
appreciable
fading is seen which is better than most photgraphic papers can achieve

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
poldy writes:

Note, digital photo prints outlast silver halide-derived prints?

Nobody really knows at this point. Time will tell.

As more people use digital cameras, many are making homemade prints. Yet
many shutterbugs could end up disappointed by the shelf life of their
photos.

Most people don't make prints, anyway. And more and more go to labs to
have them made, and lab prints (which use the same processes whether the
print is electronic or film-based in origin) are better-looking,
cheaper, and more durable than home prints.

In fact the 'lab prints' for digital images increasingly use advanced ink
jet
printers like the Giclée PrintMakerFA from ColorSpan. This works with a drum
on which the paper is mounted. Eight variable-height print heads generate
continuous tone prints with a visual resolution of 1800 dpi. Light and
medium
cyan and magenta inks are used in addition to the standard CMYK inks.
The maximum print size is 90 x 120 centimeters and you an print on just
about any surface, everything from rice paper to leather.

The inks used are recokoned to be good for at least 75 years before
appreciable
fading is seen which is better than most photgraphic papers can achieve

Keith W writes:

In fact the 'lab prints' for digital images increasingly use advanced ink
jet printers like the Giclée PrintMakerFA from ColorSpan.

Most of them are using Fuji Frontier printers, which use standard
chemical processes.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
Keith W writes:

In fact the 'lab prints' for digital images increasingly use advanced ink
jet printers like the Giclée PrintMakerFA from ColorSpan.

Most of them are using Fuji Frontier printers, which use standard
chemical processes.


Not quite

The Frontier printer uses RGB lasers to expose the photographic paper,
and they then process the prints in a modified RA4 chemistry using
CP-48S chemicals and for best effects Fuji Crystal Archive paper.

Fuji have recently introduced the Fuji Pictrography 4500 which
uses Laser Exposure * Thermal Development * Dye * Transfer Process
which they claim to have better performance.

Keith