raj surati Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 HP has asked us what sort of articles, reviews, contests or other programs we could do on photo.net to raise the awareness of their higher end products ... e.g. there largeformat designjet printers and some of the higher end smartphoto printers. Does anyone have any suggestions for prizes that woudl be attractive to folks? Is there any comparisons you woudl like to see and if so which ones and would anyone want to work on that. Any suggestion at all woudl be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conraderb Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 Maybe they shoudl send one of their printers to Bob Atkins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barefoot Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 No disrespect to Bob but I think Brad Evans would be a better choice of reviewer especially large format/bw/colour Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drew carson Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 what about a contest (photo or otherwise) to win a high-end HP printer or HP gift certificate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zee Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 Unfortunately, my experience with HP products (and customer support) has been less than stellar and as a result, I avoid their products like the plague. Many of my colleagues and clients feel the same. I don't mean to be a spoilsport, just offering an opinion on some people's indifference toward HP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
constance_cook Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 And my experiences have been just the opposite -- excellent on both counts. Right now, I have 5 HP printers, 4 of them PhotoSmarts and never any trouble with any of them. They're all the university uses. Conni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtk Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 One HP killer is the ink, which in Designjet series is much vulnurable to moisture (don't show your HP print to anybody who might sneeze). Not an issue with Epson. HP needs to fix this technically. As well there are said to be paper limits with HP that Epson doesn't suffer...HP needs to set this straight, eliminating this commonly discussed idea as mere urban legend or HP-certifying the papers of other manufacturers (not an issue with Epson, which works well with virtually all "photo" and art papers). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobatkins Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 HP have loaned me (as photo.net editor) both printers and digicams, and I've reviewed them for photo.net. If they wanted a specialist printer review, I'd be happy to coordinate with someone with more experience in writing a review for the site. I'm happy with the usual consumer items, but I have no experience with the big commercial stuff and wouldn't be a good reviewer. Then again I'm not sure how many photo.net participants are interetsed in 42" printers costing $20,000! Of course there are smaller and cheaper DesignJet printers costing under $1000. I wonder which ones HP wants to promote? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdcarma Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 Cool. More forcefed ads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobatkins Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 As Michael sort of implies, they could always raise the awareness of their products by advertising on photo.net... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
constance_cook Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 The new Vivera inks are water resistant. They don't require a spray fixative unless you just want to use one. The new PhotoSmarts use these inks and some are available for older models (7960). Conni Conni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul - Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 Do any other manufacturers ask photo.net to "raise the awareness" of their products? Maybe I'm misinterpreting this, but to me it smacks of Popular Photography's positive "reviews" of new products in order to please the advertisers (assuming HP is offering something to this site in return). Part of photo.net's appeal to me is its objectivity, that the site isn't in anybody's pocket, and that actual user-reviews/experiences of photo.netters is what influences increased sales of new products. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_leck Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 Is HP asking for free advertising? They could buy photo.net and not notice the change missing from their petty cash drawer. Try an objective test review of a DesignJet with the comparable Epson model. Be sure to factor in cost of ownership and annualized failure rates. Include projected print life and third-party support of papers, RIPS, and ink systems. Include a survey of 'big names' and who's using what. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoneguy Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 I'll test one of the 42" printers...Just send it on over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disneyry Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 I'm with Drew. High-end prizes for a contest would get them noticed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtk Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 IMO HP's most attractive product would be Designjet 130, Vs Epson 4800...IF Designjet 130 worked as reliably with a wide variety of NON-HP papers (especially Moab's) and IF it did it's admittedly beautiful B&W work (as good as 4800) with non-running inks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad_ Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 How about a photonet fund-raising raffle. With donated HP printers and consumables as prizes. $5 a ticket. HP and photonet jointly create online ads to promote the event. www.citysnaps.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly_flanigan1 Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 Some of us that run print shops use many thousands of dollars worth of ink each year; and run bulk fed printers. Getting ink at a reasonable price is a must to stay competitive. Controlling paper, ink and rework costs is an old thing going back a decade or two with inkjet. Crackng the custom printers lockouts, using non factory inksets is common. Figuring what the printer costs in dollars per square foot of output is what a print shop needs to know; REAL hardcore actual numbers with full coverage. Often printer marketers obfuscate ink costs to get one to buy that new fancy large format printer; that has ink only available from guess who. <BR><BR> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobatkins Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 <em>How about a photonet fund-raising raffle</em> <p> Illegal. Photo.net is a for-profit business, not a not-for-profit charity. Last I looked, internet gambling was illegal. <p> I suppose if photo.net moved from Boston to the Caymen Islands... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimstrutz Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Cool, photo.netting on the beach. Sounds good from where I'm sitting. So, I wonder who's raking in all those mega-bucks from photo.net? For profit business, huh. ...right. I think I'm about due for my annual donation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lex_jenkins Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Ditto Conni's observations. I have copies of some of her prints. They're so good I thought they were "real" photos on light sensitive paper. They look and feel like the real deal. I haven't used 'em as drink coasters but there's no problem with smudging or smearing from normal handling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basscheffers Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 <i>Is HP asking for free advertising?</i> <p> The question could also be: is photo.net simply doing reviews to attract more visitors and sell more ads? <p> Both can be answered with yes. But with favourable reviews of HP products on photo.net, HP is more likely to actually spend money on advertising. And more people will click on 3rd party ads for HP gear on photo.net, making the site more money. <p> Why do you think dead-tree photography magazines never give anything a bad review? The worst you'll get is "not as good as, but much cheaper". <p> It's how publishing has worked for over a century, the web is no different... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank_dzambic Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 A contest to win an HP printer? Yes...... How about whoever has the highest rated picture in their gallery at the end of the week wins! (sorry) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjmeade Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 A place for HP to start would be the videos tab. Have them put together some short clips on printing from digital or digital workflow. That would be one way to raise their profile, without simply swamping the place with advertising. and may offer some help. There may be some areas under the Learn tab where they could add new material. Cheers. P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin_campbell Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 I have a Photosmart 8750 which I've been using for several months. I bought it as an experiment to see what quality of results I could achieve with an inexpensive, commodity inkjet printer working with scanned 120 negatives. After the first image appeared on HP Premium Photo Plus paper I realized that I would be closing the printing side of my darkroom. All it took was an example of one of my own images to convince me of the quality possible with this printer, what if HP offered such a program through Photo net? As for some of the other points raised frequently in the context of HP printers, I would offer the following opinions: RIPs - why do I need/want one of these other than to overcome limitations of the printer or its supplied driver? The fact that I get stunning results from the first sheet seems more telling. Paper types - my goal is maximum dynamic range and print sharpness, with a good resistance to fading. Perceived Dmax, I have found, is strongly enhanced by the use of papers with a semi/glossy finish. Specular reflections have less of an overall dulling effect than diffuse reflections associated with flatter paper surfaces. Similarly the more pronounced the texture of the paper, the greater the loss of detail in the final print. Wet photographers did not use heavy papers because they liked the feel, but rather because it would yield a richer print using conventional emulsions. My results on HP PPP Glossy are stunning. Water resistance - My framed prints, produced using whatever method, have never seemed to need this requirement. One final observation; I don't know how to clean the nozzles of my 8750, though I imagine perhaps it's possible, as I have never needed to do this ;-) Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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