Chromira vs LightJet prints?

[david_henderson]

I got a broadcast e-mail from West Coast Imaging to the effect

that they had bought a Chromira and will use this instead of their

"offshore" LightJet for all but the biggest prints. Not unnaturally,

they indicate that I probably won't see much difference and if I do

then I'll prefer the Chromira prints.

 

Now this is a big deal for me since I have well over 200 images

scanned, proofed (on a LightJet) and ready to go at WCI and

indeed they have performed extremely well for me over several

years. My prints tend to be 12" x 12" up to 30" x 30". I clearly need

to see LightJet and Chromira prints from the same image/scan

side by side and I will. In the meantime my question is this.

 

Have any of you compared results from LightJet and Chromira?

If so did you find any obvious difference and which did you

prefer?

[scott_eaton]

I did some tets a few years back between the two with a tough reference file and found the LightJet disposed of the ZBE quite easily. Then again this was a first generation Chromira and I understand there have been substantial improvements of the cheaper device. If WCI claims they've got it profiled to match the LightJet I would tend to belive them.

[john_photo]

Dave,

 

I have images from both the lighjet and chromira and I can see no

difference whatsoever. There may be miniscule differences but as far as sharpness and tonality go I cant disginguish.

[luke_luoh]

At present level the Chromira has slightly less control and customisation I think, so it's not possible to calibrate it quite as well as a Lightjet. A properly calibrated Lightjet should have better colorspace, including better pure black/white production than the Chromira. Chromira uses a LED system while Lightjet uses 3 lasers, so the Lightjet has better control.

Another thing with the Chromira is it's speed, as I understand it actually exposes the whole image at a time so it's turnaround is super fast, while the Lightjet has to plot along slowly line by line.

 

So, if your image don't have the full color and brightness spectrum and is a smaller print (less than 8x10 at max resolution), the Chromira should be pretty close to the Lightjet, although Chromira is a LOT cheaper and much much faster.

[rich_seiling]

Luke,

 

Someone has been giving you some false information. I'll do my best to set the record

straight.

 

>At present level the Chromira has slightly less control and customisation I think

 

I'm not sure what you mean by this but the Chromira has all the controls necessary to

make excellent prints with RA-4 papers. Perhaps you mean that it can't print on non

RA-4 process papers, like Ilfochrome?

 

>so it's not possible to calibrate it quite as well as a Lightjet

 

The Chromira is very easy to calibrate by using the attached densitometer. You print

out a test patch, read the values (which are fed directly into the software) and the

Chromira makes the necessary corrections to it's exposure curves.

 

>A properly calibrated Lightjet should have better colorspace, including better pure

black/white production than the Chromira.

 

That's the exact opposite of what we've been seeing. The prints from the Chromira

are more brilliant and accurate, and can print colors I haven't seen from a LightJet. As

far as white/black production, I did a test of highlight patches on the Chromira, and

my printers and I could distinguish the difference between all the patches, including

the 254 patch and the 255 patch (255 being no exposure, paper white). I don't know

how you can get better highlights than that in a 8 bit system. Overall it Produces a

very linear greyscale BEFORE being profiled, which makes it very easy to profile.

 

>Chromira uses a LED system while Lightjet uses 3 lasers, so the Lightjet has better

control.

 

Based on what? I can't speak to the engineering details of controlling the output of a

laser versus LEDs, but I can tell the difference in the prints, and what ever ZBE is

doing, they know how to get more out of LEDs then Oce can get from their lasers.

 

 

>Another thing with the Chromira is it's speed, as I understand it actually exposes

the whole image at a time so it's turnaround is super fast, while the Lightjet has to

plot along slowly line by line.

 

Actually both printers print one line at a time. Speed is relevant to productivity, not

quality with these printers.

 

>So, if your image don't have the full color and brightness spectrum and is a smaller

print (less than 8x10 at max resolution), the Chromira should be pretty close to the

Lightjet, although Chromira is a LOT cheaper and much much faster.

 

I don't understand this statement, but as I have clarified above, the prints bear out, at

least in out testing, that the Chromira is making superior prints to the LightJet.

 

Rich Seiling

West Coast Imaging

http://www.westcoastimaging.com