Siggraph

["John Nollendorfs" <sinar1@binary.net>]

> I wish I would have been able to take the three hour session in Jon Cone's
> studio, a very impressive setup. Because of commitment to staying with
> friends I could not do so. I missed John Nollendorf who was scheduled to
> come the next day.
> 
> Ursula Freer

So Ursula beat me to the punch on her impressions of Siggraph!

I would have to agree with her assessment of the bulk of Siggraph--most
aimed at 3-D animation environment. In fact, I spent very little time
touring the exhibits, Takichi and I did run over to the Roland booth to
check out their printer and talk to the sales person. Unfortunately, he was
not very informed about technical aspects of the printer, so Takichi was not
able to get his questions answered about the comparative size of ink dots
that the Roland produces. We did find out, that the chassis is assembled by
Roland, using Epson print heads.

The Print Workshop:
Unfortunately, it suffered from some organizational problems. They did have
a large space, with oodles of Macs and PC's set up, color calibrated and a
good work-flow. But. . . .they did not have all the printers they promised
(3 Epson 9000's, 3 Epson 5000's, 1 DigitAll (Mutoh) 42",3 colorspan units, 3
Encad large format printers)

What they did have there were: 1 Epson 9000, 2 Epson 5000, 2 Epson 3000, 3
Colorspan units (2 drum Giclee makers & 72" displaymaker). 

Access to printers: 
By Thursday, the large format print que was full-up and no more files were
being taken. A big dissappointment for me, who wanted to try my own file on
at least two different printers to help me decide on which to buy
(especially the 9000)!


Access to workshop area: 
Access was limited to the "conference Select" pass $150. Having paid that
amount, I was expecting to at least get a print or two made! BUT. . . I did
meet with Jon Cone one-on-one for about 1/2 hour. Which was quite
informative and fruitful. But when the question came down "which large
format printer would you recommend?",  He said "For the best quality, get an
Iris", but when I balked at the price, he said "you can get used units for
$10-15 thou". Then I balked at the maintenance: $4-6 thou/year. Then his
reply was quite coached with "The technology is changing so fast . . ." 

Epson 9000: Saw the printer in action being driven by a Pico Arts "Bureau
2000" rip (the Firey hardware rip was sitting on the floor unused. Takichi
was quite concerned by the swaying motion 1 1/2-2 inch lateral motion the
unit was exhibiting. I don't know if this was caused by an improperly
assembled stand, or a lack of engineering. I figure a couple of
criss-crossed lateral braces across the back could have taken care of the
problem. Never had heard of the "Bureau 2000" (windows based) rip, heard it
had problems initially. The prints I saw laying around were made with poor
quality files, so it was hard to judge the quality of the printer. The one
print displayed of good quality was of a computer graphic image, so it was
impossible to judge the "photographic" qualities.

Ink jet inks: Jon Cone was very enthusiastic  about all the new dye-based
ink products out there, and a bit close to the chest about new ones on the
horizon. He did concurr with my assesment of the pigmented inks having the
"pre-faded look".

Color management: ColorBlind was in it's glory. If I understood it, they
used it to calibrate all the monitors and ran profiles for all the printers.
They claimed that the prints comming out were "in the ball park". I was not
in a position to compare the out-put with a screen image. Jon Cone was
sincere in his support of ColorBlind as being the best profiling and
management software out there. 

Bottom Line: 
As a place to go for 2-D print, I think the workshop could have been great
if better organized. To attend Siggraph to view the trade show only would
have been nearly a total waste. I was attending the workshop with the
intention of getting a print made of one of my files to evaluate the
qualities of the various printers--totally dissappointed because unless you
put a print in que early in the week, you couldn't get one made. If the
organizers would have told me that up front, I would have attended earlier!
Instead it was described as "first-come, first serve sign-up each day".
Redeeming my $150 investment was the opportunity to meet with Jon Cone, some
of his staff, and Manny from ColorBlind.

I did meet with Takichi, a contributor to the list , and we spent a
wonderful day picking peoples minds on technical stuff, and a couple hours
touring some Photo galleries in the LaBrea area.

John Nollendorfs
JN photography
Lincoln, NE
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