Digital BW, The Print

Hello All;

I received the Sihl Iridium I mentioned a few days ago, and have 
been testing it since, though work obligations have kept me from 
really diving in to the extent I'd like. But a first report, 
followed hopefully by hard numbers and further opinions and comments 
from Shilesh Jani, Carl Schofield, and Paul Roark, to whom I've sent 
samples.

First, a disclaimer: I have no afiliation or self-interest in either 
of the companies ( Allsquare and Sihl) making and disrtibuting this 
paper, beyond my desire to expand and improve our list of available 
materials whenever possible.

The Iridium Satin (it is available in gloss but I don't have any) 
has a weight of 280gsm or 11ml, a nice weight for RC paper. My first 
impression (once I got it uncurled-more about that later) is that it 
didn't look too much like an RC paper: It is a bit creamy in color 
and not extremely bright, almost as though it has no OBAs-but I 
haven't been able to verify that impression. I have mixed feelings 
about the lack of relative brightness; put next to Epson RC papers 
it looks a bit dull, but put on bright white rag matteboard, it 
matches so much better that the border no longer jumps out at you. 
The overall look is reminiscent of the old Ilfrord MGFB II, which 
was also a bit creamier than later FB papers. 

 I've been told it is acid free, but I haven't found any evidence on 
the Sihl website to support this. I'm sure Paul Roark will apply his 
PH testing pen, that should give us some idea. 

Iridium has a fairly smooth surface that has an almost random but 
very fine texture that looks a lot like fiber-base paper. It is not, 
however, as glossy as Ilford MGFB IV, though it is a tiny bit 
glossier than Epson semi-matte. To-date, it is the most pleasing,  
least machine-like RC paper surface I've seen, though I imagine if 
you're sold on matte, it's still too shiny. 

At first I simply printed it using my semi-matte QTR curve, on the 
R1800 with MIS K4 inks. The ink tone was a bit warmer than on the 
Epson SM, and it printed darker across the board at exactly the same 
settings. In spite of which it held and delineated shadow detail 
nicely, and a slight gamma adjustment brightened it up a bit and 
produced a smooth pleasing ramp and corresponding image. 

My impression of its Dmax with that particular curve was that it is 
at least as good as the Epson semi-matte; Later when I reworked the 
curve a bit I got noticeably better dmax, but having no 
densitometer, well.. you know. We'll have to wait for reports from 
Paul, Carl or Shilesh on that score. I found I could increase the K 
boost a lot: all the way to 100% without visible mottling, and if 
there was a reduction in dmax due to over-inking, it wasn't readily 
visible. However the shadow detail suffered a bit, so I backed off-
to 90%!

Last night Clayton & I did some comparison prints on Iridium, Crane 
Silver Rag, and VFA, on the 2400 with Epson K3 inks. The one thing 
I'm very sure of, is that the surface and sheen of the Iridium beats 
all hell out of the Crane- I do hope Crane can do something about 
that, because otherwise it is a very impressive paper
Quickly though: with default ABW settings (except for the 'gamma' 
setting being on 'lightest') the Iridium had at least as good a dmax 
as the Silver Rag, with equal or better shadow detail, and better 
highlight retention. It tended to print a bit cooler than SR and 
noticeably cooler than VFA. VFA had the lowest dmax of the three, 
but had a luminosity and a richness that more than made up for it. I 
should point out, however, that Clayton's test images were optimized 
for the VFA.

I also ran a couple pieces through the R200 with MIS dye inks. I 
used the color control setting and 'Epson Vivid' (totally not 
neccessary) and with only a slight adjustment in brightness got a 
well balanced excellent looking print with rather mind-boggling 
saturation. It made the Epson Ultra-premium Glossy I also tried look 
like a Junior High School chemistry class experiment in ink-jet 
coating. I've not given it a good test with pigments yet.

Now the bad news: a) It is not available in sheets. the Allsquare 
rep tells me that Sihl will cut a roll down for $20.00 per cut. If 
you have a 24'x100' roll cut ot a 11" roll and a 13" roll, that 
brings the price for both rolls to 115.00, or about 58 cents a 
square foot. Still quite reasonable by any standards.
 
b) The other problem (more nuisance than anything) is that being 
heavier and more like FB paper than most RC papers, it comes of the 
roll with a pretty mean curl. Enouh of a curl that simply getting it 
under a paper cutter and into a desktop printer is hard. I've been 
reverse rolling it on an empty core tube and leaving it that way 
until I'm ready to cut it up. That works reasonably well, though 
having sheets would be so much better.

So far I like the paper enough to continue working with it, fine 
tune my curves to match it, and form a final opinion over the next 
two weeks. In the meantime perhaps one or all of the above mention 
list members can tell us more.

Regards to all;

Steve karafyllakis