Museo Silver Rag Paper

[thomas_sullivan]

Has Museo's new Silver Rag been released to the stores yet?

Been "chomping at the bit" to give this stuff a try.

[william_john_smith]

I'm working on my second roll. Great stuff. Closest that I have seen to silver. I'm using it

with a

MIS B&W ink-set in a Epson 4000. BTW, Museo's canned profiles are right on.

[ira_wunder]

Venders have been geeting stocked at this time. I got my first samples a few weeks ago, and as a custom and exhibition printer who besides offering digital prints maintains a complete B%W facility, we were dissapointed tremdously at the new Silver Rag. Most of our exhibition fiber silver gelitan prints have always been a glossy fiber dried mat. Wether it was air dried or face down on the dryer belt through the rotary dryer. F surface Kodak, 111 surface Agfa, G surface Ilford dried in this fashion was considered a salon finish. That's what I was expecting as the last word in replacing a silver gelitan and what I got was not even close. It dosen't feel like a darkroom paper, dosen't have the look of a darkroom paper, and it has an uneven fiber base. It's as if they didn't ever talk to a darkroom person to find out what we would need to replace it. You might like the way the ink looks on it, but I don't consider this the end all replacement paper. I think Orientals fiber is the nearst thing to a darkroom paper if they knock of some of the gloss surface. I know that a lot of people out there are going to think I'm nuts, but for the 2 years in developemnet that went into this, I haven't seen one darkroom person who likes it.

[ace_fury]

<I>I haven't seen one darkroom person who likes it.</I><P>You have now. 35 years in the

darkroom. The only thing I'm concerned about is the FINAL print behind glass and Silver Rag

works.

[william_john_smith]

Make that two. True the paper looks like cheap cardboard before printing but the end result

is very nice. I don't know anyone who takes a print out of the print to check the back etc.

Framed it is by far the best inkject paper I have seen. Some people stay in the darkroom too

long. LOL

[steve_swinehart]

"I know that a lot of people out there are going to think I'm nuts..."

 

Yep. (Couldn't help myself, when I see a setup this good,I gotta go for it.)

[Brad_]

Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don't...

[robert goldstein]

I'm waiting for test samples of one of my own images on Museo Silver Rag from West Coast Imaging. The same image will also be printed on a Chromira with true Fuji matte color photo paper. I have communicated directly with some of the folks at WCI, and they are very high on Museo Silver Rag, of course, but they have an interest in selling it.

[rich815]

Robert, pls be sure to share your thoughts here, or email me. I anxiously await to hear what you think. BTW, does anyone know of any plans to sell this stuff in smaller sheet sizes like letter/A4, 11x17 or 13x19? I hear its only available in rolls, no? Also, anyone try it with their Epson 2200 doing either BO printing or with QTR?

[william_carter1]

I have tried it and like it somewhat (and I am a former darkroom printer). However, for reasons that I don't have time to get into now, I prefer Innova's new F-Type Gloss paper, which is similar to Museo Rag, but better. (Try Jim Doyle at shadesofpaper.com for either of these papers). There's a ton of info about both papers on the Yahoo "Digital Black and White: The Print" group.

[thomas_sullivan]

thanks for the comments. That Yahoo site, or one of the epson type ones, seems to indicate that the rolls have been out for awhile and the individual sheets will be arriving shortly. Me thinks they should do it the other way round......heh.....but who am I.

 

Anyhow, the comparisons to traditional chemical fiber paper are of no concern to me. Inkjet papers and inks, thanks mostly to epson's K3 inks (IMHO), have made their own mark in the world. They are looking really good these days. Now, comparisons between the inkjet papers............yeah, that I like hearing about.

 

The one thing I ain't thrilled about on my epson 4800 is having to waste so much ink to switch from photo black to matte black. The Museo Silver Rag allows me to stay with photo black and still use a more moderately priced Luster paper without wasting ink. Seems to now, most of the "art" paper's research has been in the matte arena. I never quite understood that what with luster, semigloss, and even glossy having the higher d-max.........and that's what I really want........nice unblown whites and at the same time deep detailed shadows. At least, that's the goal.....and why I want to see how this stuff looks for myself.

[robert goldstein]

I finally received my prints back from West Coast Imaging, and here are my impressions of

the Crane Museo Silver Rag/9800 vs Fuji Crystal Archive/Chromira. The Museo prints are

unquestionably softer and warmer than the Crystal Archive Matte and Glossy. Also, the

Chromira blacks are much blacker and the whites whiter.

 

Bear in mind that I have no personal experience with printmaking, either traditional or

digital, but in my view, the Chromira wins by a mile.

 

Here is the image that I used for the test. It is B&W with a light sepia tone in AdobeRGB

colorspace

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/4264620

[robert goldstein]

As an addendum, I want to say how pleased I am with the service and results from WCI.

They are definitely a first rate operation.

[kipling]

beautiful image robert

[ecre8]

I have been printing on the Museo silver Rag paper for about a year. I have an Epson 9800 printer. The prints are stunning, beautiful, Brilliant, Thick and shiny. When I showed the prints at the Palm Springs photo festival, several of the reviewers commented that My B&W work looked like platinum prints. Wow, that says alot. Yes, I am happy with the prints. But I have always had a problem with the paper. On about a fourth to one third of the prints I have made there have been defects in the surface. These defects look are small round spots that have a slightly more texture and slightly less gloss. The problem spots look just like the spots I used to see once in a while an old style "real silver" fiber based darkroom prints, when a small spatter of water would get on the surface of the print and then re-dry. So, I cannot call a print finished until I carefully examine a print under a bright light to check for these defects. I have been thru about 6 rolls of the Museo silver rag, so far and all have had the same defects! My only solution to the problem is to check the paper before I make a final print and if I see a defect in the surface, I cut it off and set aside to use as a test sheet. I have tried to e:mail the Crane company about the problem but got no response. Does anybody have an e:mail address I could use to contact a problem solving person at the Crane (Musio Silver Rag) company?