Here are the winners of the PDML 2001 Printer Challenge. For those who have not been following this Challenge, it all started when I told someone on the list I had never seen an inkjet print that I though matched a photographic print. He said I had not seen one of his. I replied, send me one. He didn't, but Aaron said everybody should send me one. And I said if they do I will post a list of printer ratings based on those prints. To prime the pump, I said I would confer upon the senders best three prints, based on my opinion, the title of "PDML 2001 Master Digital Printer". I mentioned this to the area Pentax Rep and he offered to donate some Pentax memorabilia as prizes.
So there are basically two phases to this challenge. One, a compilation of printer ratings based upon prints sent to me by list members. The rating for a given printer is based upon the best print I have received that was printed on that particular model printer. I will give the current ratings in another post. This list of rating is an ongoing thing and I will post them monthly. Two, this contest, based upon my purely subjective rating of the prints I have received. The winner's have been selected from those who had sent me prints postmarked on or before December 15, 2001, and were made from the submitter's original photos. Names of the prints have been assigned by me for my convenience. Prizes will be mailed about the end of the week. These three winners may add the sig line "2001 PDML Master Digital Printer" to their PDML posts. You won it, flaunt it. So here are the WINNERS! (Drum roll please, maestro). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Third Prize (Winner of the Pentax PMA Lapel Pin featuring the MZ-S). Kathy Leickly --Autumn Trees Xerox Tektronix Phaser 850. No details Because I like it! Kathy sent three identical photos, one done on an HP Deskjet 722C, two done on the Xerox (one on plain paper, one on glossy photo paper). My selection for third place is the one done on the glossy photo paper with the Xerox. The Phaser printers are what Tektronics used to call solid state laser printers that use a block of toner instead of powder. Kathy says he blocks are wax like. The resulting print has a kind of oil painting like look to it. Strangely the print on plain paper is shinier ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Second Prize (winner of the Leather Pentax Keycase). Paul Stenquist --Maple Leaf Epson Photo 1200, printed from a 4800dpi scan using an Agfa Duoscan 2500 T from a transparency taken with a Pentax LX and a Vivitar Series 1 90/2.5 Macro. Paul's print is on Ilford Inkjet Matte Fine Art Paper. The maple leaf seems to glow. This paper hides printer defects, but give an almost painting like print. Certainly the print is worthy of hanging on the wall. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grand Prize (winner of the Pentax Swiss Army Knife). Mike Nosal --Column Epson 1270, printed at 480dpi, from a scan made on an Imacon Flextight scanner. Taken with his Pentax ZX-7, and a "F" 80-200 lens. Mikes print of the details of a column is an example of a print that will show every defect of the printer. Large areas of monotone show any sign of banning or unevenness. The column is about 90% white which will clearly show up any halftoning. It shows very little of any of those problems. What it does show is that it is worthwhile to use a higher res image than is usually claimed to be optimum. Mikes superb print shows that today's inkjet printer can do very high quality work. Ciao, graywolf [EMAIL PROTECTED] - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
