Fujifilm X100 for pro photographers
– what it is, and what it isn’t

Simon Towler takes a first quick look at the new Fujifilm X100 camera, considering it from the point of view of the professional photographer.

• .mp3 audio podcast file
• .3gp video for smart phones

We rarely feature cameras on NewPhotoDigest, and when we do they’re usually professional systems over £10,000. But we’re making an exception for the new Fujifilm FinePix X100, for a few reasons. The main one is that professional photographers are waiting for this camera, and are considering buying it as their always-with-you compact, so it just about falls within our editorial remit (at a squeeze). And Fujifilm are marketing it as a “professional” compact, so it should be examined in that light.

Recently, Katrin Eismann, author of a number of Photoshop books, returned her new Fujifilm X100, commenting that it should have been “a sleek digital camera that didn’t try to be retro”, and saying it is “too quirky for serious use”. So, she didn’t get what she was expecting when the X100 box arrived.

What it is

Addressing working professional photographers, I think it’s important to think about what this camera is, and what it isn’t.

“The Fujifilm FinePix X100 digital camera is a retro-styled compact for the mass market. There may be professionals out there wishing, hoping or expecting it will be something else, but that’s what it is.”

The Fujifilm FinePix X100 digital camera is a retro-styled compact for the mass market. There may be professionals out there wishing, hoping or expecting it will be something else, but that’s what it is. The pro market is a very small market; Fujifilm haven’t made the X100 just for pros, as some kind of compact Leica M9 alternative.

The X100 will produce images of professional quality though; in fact, it will out-do some of the semi-pro cameras photographers have used quite happily for press work and weddings in the past.

Today was the first day I saw a functioning production X100 in real life. I haven’t had time to learn how to use it, and I haven’t done any serious image taking with it. But I’ll give you some opinions on it anyway.

The only reason NewPhotoDigest is covering this camera is because it’s a candidate for inclusion in the list of non-DSLRs that professional photographers favour as their take-anywhere, always-with-you camera — the role traditionally filled by rangefinders and advanced compacts. Online surveys tend to indicate that quite a few camera models make it onto this list, and it’s not dominated by just two or three stand-out models. Canon G and S series models feature, as do micro four thirds cameras, and several other types.

The only reason I personally am interested in it is because — probably like a lot of photographers — since the advent of digital I’ve been waiting for a digital compact to come along that has genuinely usable manual creative controls.

You could write a book on this camera. In the remainder of this article I’m going to touch on only two features: the manual focus, and the hybrid viewfinder.

Manual controls

In my opinion, where a compact does have manual controls, they’re often there purely for marketing reasons, to be features on the feature list rather than to be used routinely. They have gadget value in the first few days after you get the camera, but once you’ve learned them and finish playing with them, you rarely use them in anger. Most digital compacts with a full manual option are almost impossible to use in anything other than point-and-shoot mode.

The Fujifilm FinePix X100 has some immediately obvious advantages over these cameras. Its retro styling puts the manual controls under the command of a traditional layout of analogue rings and dials on the camera itself. These are familiar and intuitive to use, and it’s very satisfying to be able to change settings almost instinctively, without having to take your eye from the viewfinder.

And they have the other advantage of the traditional manual layout, which is that they’re arranged so a quick look down at the top of your camera allows you to read its complete current settings from all the rings and dials at a glance.

Manual Focus

One of the things that have always frustrated me in the manual modes of digital compacts up to now has been the manual focus. This usually has to be set with reference to a distance scale displayed as a bar on the camera’s screen, and adjusted by buttons, or (much better) by command wheel.

The Fujifilm X100 improves slightly on the command wheel with its implementation of manual focus control. It has a traditional-looking focus ring on the lens. It’s not a real, mechanical lens-focus ring; it’s a fly-by-wire thing, just as a command wheel is. And it doesn’t have a distance scale marked on it, so you can’t pre-set the focus before a shot by reference only to the focus ring, you have to look at the camera’s LCD display for that. The focus distance can’t be read from the focus ring.

My brief time with the Fujifilm X100 wasn’t long enough to convince me that, overall, it had any really significant advantage in manual focus over compacts that have come before. But realistically, how important is that?

Hybrid viewfinder

Viewfinders can be digital, with shooting information, or they can be optical. But many digital compacts no longer even include a built-in viewfinder, and some of those that do have only a vestigial one, too small to be routinely usable.

Why would you want a viewfinder when today’s compacts have such high quality, large, bright, high resolution display screens? Well, I still like to have the option of using a viewfinder in bright sunlight. And I like the way a viewfinder held to my left eye screens out my vision of everything outside the scene I’m framing.

I’ve never liked the electronic viewfinders on compact stills cameras. I haven’t liked their lack of colour fidelity, their imperfect colour registration, and the noticeable image lag when they try to update as you move the framing around. I’ve never felt they’ve had enough resolution either. These electronic viewfinders had a long way to go, and they’re still not there yet.

“The Fujifilm FinePix X100 has a unique hybrid viewfinder.”

The Fujifilm FinePix X100 has a unique hybrid viewfinder. At the flick of a lever you can make the electronic viewfinder disappear, and view your framing directly via the fair sized optical viewfinder, through the same window. Vital shooting information — including framing-lines matched to subject distance — is still indicated, on a kind of heads-up display superimposed on the optical viewfinder, and there’s even more info on show when you flick back to the electronic finder.

When you take a shot, the viewfinder can display the digital image you just took for a few moments after each exposure.

Conclusion

Playing with the Fujifilm X100, I got the impression that the combination of the innovative viewfinder and traditional analogue controls really would work well in tandem, and allow you a shooting style that other compacts would deny you. So there’s more than styling going on here, the ergonomics may actually be better for some shooters than other compacts.

Looking up its DxO Mark sensor ranking tells me the Fujifilm FinePix X100′s image quality is well within the domain of what’s considered professional — as you’d expect from a current model with an APS-C sized sensor. You can take serious professional images with this camera.

In professional situations, the retro styling may aid credibility, particularly if you add some of the optional accessories, giving the little compact more gravitas and presence. This might stop people asking you why you aren’t using the usual DSLR brick with a 1200mm lens — like their local photographer does, or like the one they have at home.

This is not a no-nonsense, no-compromise, thoroughbred professional camera. It’s not a purely professional camera at all. No manufacturer can afford to make compacts just for the tiny pro market. But it is a camera that could be used for professional purposes.

The retro features are just styling, but they do actually work, and do open up, to some extent, a more traditional way of using the camera, that may enable some pros to leverage their knowledge of manual creative control.

“Despite appearances, this is not a Leica M9 that shrank in the wash.”

Despite appearances, this is not a Leica M9 that shrank in the wash. That is just appearance, it’s not what you should be expecting. And it’s not a sleek leading-edge compact either. It is a quirky blend of innovative premium compact and retro styling, not intended for ruthlessly serious use.

This camera is in short supply at the moment, and there are very few demo models in the UK. What worries me about this is that many of the pros who’ll buy one over the next few months may not have had a chance to get hands-on with it before putting it on order. They’ll be buying on specification, and hype. Like Katrin Eismann, they may be expecting something other than what they’ll get.

It is what it is. It’s a lovely little camera.

(Oh, did we mention, the lens hood is extra?)

[for an in-depth review, we unreservedly refer you to DPReveiw.com]

The unique Phottix Hero camera remote.

Phottix, a leading global manufacturer of photo accessories, has established a distribution hub in the UK.

Phottix, a leading global manufacturer of photo accessories, announced the official opening of its Distributor for UK and Ireland today, Phottix UK Ltd. The opening is being marked by a period of special introductory pricing from the UK website www.phottix.net, and by promotional competitions in the press.

Phottix professional photo accessories have long been popular in the UK and Ireland, but prior to the establishment of the UK distribution partnership customers had to make their purchases from unofficial overseas websites. The new company, Phottix UK Ltd, will provide an official channel for Phottix quality photo accessories, and will greatly enhance customer service experience and product support.

The Phottix product range has items compatible with major makes of camera, including Canon and Nikon, and includes unique units like the Phottix Hero wireless camera remote control which operates over a video link, the Phottix GeoOne GPS camera geotagging unit, the Phottix O-Flash affordable ring light, the Phottix Nikos digital timer remote release, and the Phottix Cleon II wireless/wired remote shutter release, as well as comprehensive replacement accessories ranging from camera grips to batteries, flash accessories, filters and complete studio lighting systems.

Phottix UK Ltd will import and distribute Phottix products in the UK and Ireland from warehouse facilities in Northamptonshire. The new company will sell Phottix quality photo accessories direct to consumers via the new UK website www.phottix.net, and will also supply a growing nationwide reseller network, wholesale. It will raise awareness of the Phottix range of accessories through nationwide advertising campaigns in print and online media.

It will channel all UK and Ireland technical support, servicing and warranty assessment and repairs, and will provide marketing support, including promotional collateral and point of sale. Information about the products in the Phottix range will be disseminated widely and authoritatively via the www.phottix.net website.

Phottix UK Ltd has been set up in association with long established environmental services company Metafix (UK) Ltd, a supplier to major photo players including ASDA, Fujifilm, Klick Photo, Max Spielmann, Noritsu, Snappy Snaps, Tesco and Tetenal. It is directed by the same senior management team.

Nick Dean, Managing Director of Phottix UK Ltd said: “Our opening as the official UK distribution channel for Phottix professional photo accessories means Phottix customers now have a source they can trust, from which they can buy in confidence, in Sterling or Euros, secure in the knowledge that their purchases are fully covered by applicable consumer law and trading standards, and backed by the warranty, service and support of the Phottix corporation. Our association with the long established UK industry leader Metafix means people know they are dealing with a substantial, experienced and well known management team that isn’t going to disappear overnight. It’s a new dawn for Phottix in the UK and Ireland, and I look forward to enhancing the product experience of the company’s many loyal and enthusiastic customers. They’ve deserved this for a long time.”

To find out more about Phottix professional photo accessories in the UK visit www.phottix.net. To apply to become an official reseller of Phottix photo equipment, call Phottix UK on +44 (0)1933 460894 today.

A short with professional photographer Andy Earl testing out the new Canon 5D MkII on a shoot in London. Director; Dave Haigh Camera; Hans Ravensberger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLiaF1bUPe4

John Fitzgerald in his modern pro lab on Guernsey

John Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald’s Photographic Services, a medium-sized custom photo laboratory in Guernsey on the Channel Islands, is a progressive member of the photo finishing community. He keeps his lab up-to-date with the latest equipment and software, and follows trends in services. He tells us: “We’re of the mind that, especially with the way the market moves so fast, if you don’t keep up with it you’ll fall behind very rapidly, and eventually drop out, as a lot of labs have done.”

Fujifilm is John Fitzgerald’s preferred solutions provider. John explains: “I favour Fujifilm because they have that personal contact with me. I know various people there, I know what their areas of expertise are, they’re happy for me to phone them up and just chat to them every now and again, about my thoughts and problems, about what I’d like to see, and they see if there are ways they can accommodate me.”

Fujifilm has supplied a number of solutions to Fitzgerald’s recently, to help it develop and innovate in its business. The Guernsey lab is evolving from a traditional photo printer into the modern model, a digital imaging centre. Its new solutions include a Fujifilm Xerox 700 Digital Colour Press for high-end photo book production, a Fujifilm Frontier 770 minilab for high-speed productivity, Fujifilm SmartPix in-store and on-line photo kiosks, Fujifilm Epson large format printers, and a range of new inkjet papers.

Fujifilm Xerox 700 Digital Colour Press
John Fitzgerald first saw the Fujifilm Xerox 700 Digital Colour Press exhibited at PMA 2009 in Las Vegas, and had a hands-on interactive demonstration. The Digital Colour Press uses toner to print at 2400dpi resolution on papers up to 300gsm in weight and up to SRA3 in size, at a rate of 70 pages per minute. It does automatic duplex printing on papers up to 220gsm.

John told us: “I was interested in the machine before the show, but I hadn’t had the opportunity to see one. Because I knew it was going to be there, I made sure I had a good chat with the Fujifilm people, and have a look at it, along with the competing devices that were around, and see what the quality was like. I knew the Fujifilm Xerox 700 was going to be available through Fujifilm UK from chatting with David Hartwell, my Fujifilm rep. I usually bend his ear about what’s happening and what latest products they are producing. So he knew of my interest in this type of printing technology.“

David Hartwell, sales executive for Fujifilm business imaging, recalls: “Because Fitzgerald’s and Fujifilm have such a good working relationship, when John got back from Las Vegas he just rang me up and asked if he could come over from Guernsey to see the our new Digital Colour Press. So he came over to see us, we looked after him, and took him to see the printer at the Xerox offices. John was suitably impressed with the results it could produce. Then it was simply a case of how quickly he could get one installed.”

John Fitzgerald now uses the Fujifilm Xerox 700, in combination with its Light Production Finisher option, to produce high quality photo books, as well as short-run items, such as greeting cards, for the bespoke gift market. The Light Production Finisher is a stacker, stapler and hole-punch that can also collate and fold.

Fitzgerald’s custom laboratory is primarily for professional photographers and trade. John Fitzgerald tells us: “We weren’t doing photo books of this quality on this scale before. We have a small Xerox, the 7760, which came as part of another Fujifilm photo book solution. That’s still doing the work that comes through the SmartPix kiosks. But the Fujifilm Xerox 700 puts us in a completely different league. It enables us to do the higher quality photo books, the ones generated by the professionals’ own software.”

Fitzgerald’s is also a wholesale lab, doing photo sales fulfilment for many UK national newspapers. He prints copies of their published pictures to order for their readers. John is trialling different paper stocks on his Fujifilm Xerox 700 with a view to applying it to this work too. He expects to be offering custom greeting cards and calendars for the newspaper market from the autumn of 2009.

Fujifilm Frontier 770 Digital Minilab
It was because of its work fulfilling photo print orders on behalf of national newspapers that Fitzgerald’s developed a need, in 2008, for the fast Fujifilm Frontier 770 Digital Minilab. The firm needed to complement its existing Fujifilm Frontier 355, to run glossy and lustre paper at the same time, to have a degree of redundancy, and to achieve the throughput rates needed for its newspaper work.

John Fitzgerald told us: “The newspaper work is very fast. We download it each morning and we have to have it all printed and packed by eleven o’clock, to go out in the post that day. So we’re only looking at a three hour turn-around. At our busiest time of year we need to print and pack maybe 1,500 prints in less than two hours. So we needed the Frontier 770.”

Crystal Archive Professional Paper Type DP-II
Fitzgerald’s uses Fujicolor Crystal Archive Professional Paper Type DP-II for all its RA4 process. The paper is optimised for digital exposure. It has the substantial base support that professional’s expect, giving a long-lasting product. And its whiter base colour and deeper shadows yield increased dynamic range.

John Fitzgerald says: “I like the quality and the handling. It doesn’t damage easily. And I like the look of it, not over-saturated or too contrasty. It has a professional look and feel. It’s a very nice paper.”

He also uses the Fujicolor Crystal Archive Professional Paper Type DP-II for prints up to thirty inches wide produced on his Durst Theta system.

Fujifilm Epson Stylus Pro printers and Fujifilm Professional Inkjet Paper
Fitzgerald’s also make large format inkjet prints, including fine art reproductions. These are output on the Fujifilm Epson Stylus Pro 9900 and 7800 printers, on a range of Fujifilm papers. John tells us: “We use the Museum Rough, the Fine Art Rag, the Canvas papers, and of course the Baryte, as well as normal Silk. The most popular is the Museum Rough.”

He continues: “One of our customers is the museum here on Guernsey. They’re starting to introduce all their artwork online for people to buy copies of, and Museum Rough is their favoured paper. We printed various styles of their art, whether photographic or watercolour or whatever medium, on various papers, and let them decide which one they preferred.”

Fitzgerald’s use a Fujifilm Colour Hunter RIP to print this colour-critical fine art work on Fujifilm Epson large format printers. John says: “Using the Fujifilm Colour Hunter RIP is the only way I trust to run inkjets. I’ve tried running them directly from a computer and hated it. With the Colour Hunter you can just pop images straight in and rely on the Fujifilm profiles.”

Fujifilm SmartPix photo kiosks
Another area in which Fitzgerald’s is driving forward is kiosks. The lab has added two new Fujifilm SmartPix kiosks, and the Fujifilm online kiosk, in addition to a Fujifilm unit they already had.

Fujifilm SmartPix photo kiosks enable an outlet to sell much more than just standard 6x4in prints. They present compelling options to the self-service customer to easily choose up-sells to higher margin products, including photo books, posters, calendars, canvases and a wide range of gifts. Online, the virtual SmartPix kiosk lets the lab’s customers make these choices from home.

John Fitzgerald told us about price movements on kiosk products: “We did go through a phase of dropping our kiosk prices right down to try and compete with the PhotoBoxes and SnapFishes of this world. But since then we’ve put them up, and not seen any difference in numbers of prints coming through. That shows the public don’t choose cheap price over quality.”

Fujifilm solutions
John Fitzgerald’s own analysis of how Fujifilm solutions have enabled him to preserve margin while photo finishing has undergone rapid and exciting change is this: the corporation’s products provided the automation, productivity, first-time hit rate and added value that he needs. He says: “Our gross margin is probably lower than it used to be. But our production is much higher to compensate. In the old days of film we could often test everything twice then reprint it all. These days it’s all very high first time results. And a lot less time spent on the orders. The bulk orders basically fly through, and that’s it. We don’t even get to see the photographs, apart from when we take them out and pack them up. And we’re moving toward more value added and higher margin products, produced, for instance, on the Fujifilm Xerox 700 system.”

Fujifilm enabling the modern digital imaging centre
Fitzgerald’s Photographic Services is an example of how Fujifilm solutions can enable medium-size pro labs to cost-effectively provide many of the facilities offered by larger ones, and also stay ahead of the innovation curve. Fitzgerald’s is a modern lab for modern times, a comprehensive digital imaging centre, embracing the convergence of photo finishing and press printing, and the digital and online revolutions.

For more information on Fujifilm’s solutions, email minilabs@fuji.co.uk or call +44 (0)1234 572 144 today.

Artur Krzykowiak at Double Take Studios

DoubleTake Studios, the portrait, make-over and boudoir photography chain with branches in London, Manchester, Southampton (and soon Birmingham), installed their first Fujifilm Frontier DL410 Dry Minilab in March 2009, and by June had installed two more.

They use the DL410 dry minilabs to print 8 x 12 inch contact sheets for clients. This work was formerly printed on desktop inkjet printers. But the cost-per-print, wear-and-tear, breakdowns, and the need for frequent manual intervention, were all too high on these machines. What DoubleTake needed was an industrial strength solution.

Artur Krzykowiak, production and retouching manager for DoubleTake, says: “Producing the contact sheets on the desktop inkjets was very expensive if you compare the price per page. I think it’s almost ten times more to do it on an inkjet than on a dry lab. Although the inkjet printer only costs you maybe one hundred pounds to buy, and the dry lab is obviously far more, over the years it’s a massive saving. I think the price per print for an A4 page on the dry lab is about seventeen pence, and it replaces inkjets that were costing us up to one pound fifty, so it’s a massive difference.”

Each of DoubleTake’s four studios produce between 140 and 250 contact sheets a day. The studios were already a Fujifilm house, doing their production printing on Fujicolor Crystal Archive paper, on Frontier 330 and 770 minilabs. After evaluating the alternatives, DoubleTake chose to buy their new solution from Fujifilm too.

Krzykowiak tells us: “We’d been using the Frontier 330 for about six years, and it was one of the most reliable pieces of equipment ever. We had really good experience of Fujifilm and Fujifilm support. We knew their after-care was great. Because we knew their service, and we knew what we can expect from Fujifilm, we decided to go with them, even though the price might have been slightly higher than some others.”

And DoubleTake discovered another benefit of installing Frontier DL410 dry minilabs. Because its prints are production quality, on an occasion when their main Frontier 330 went down, one of the studios was able to fail-over onto the Frontier DL410 dry minilab and print portraits on that.

Krzykowiak concludes: “Dry minilabs from Fujifilm are a great alternative.”

Fujifilm Epson 11880 GreenBox large format printer at Farnells Photographic

David Farnell has chosen the FUJIFILM Epson Stylus Pro 11880 GreenBox system for Farnell Photographic Laboratory’s new digital print service. Farnell, who has been printing since 1978, chose the 64″ FUJIFILM solution for his Lake District pro lab based on the quality of its prints on FUJIFILM papers.

“It was the quality of work on the new papers that finally convinced me,” Farnell said. He had evaluated 11880 prints on FUJIFILM Fine Art Fibre Baryte paper. “Prior to that I’d been reluctant to offer digital prints because I had concerns about black and white quality, skin tones, and longevity. These are not a problem now.”

The installation of the 64″ FUJIFILM Epson Stylus Pro 11880 GreenBox printer was done by specialists from FUJIFILM Photofinishing UK, who also provided the training and a follow-up post-installation visit, just to make-good. Farnell was reassured to be working with a corporation with a heritage in professional laboratories and fine art photo printing.

Farnell has also been gratified to find the new prints have gone down well with established clients, even traditionalists who are quite conservative. “It gives them something new to offer their customers,” he said, “and they want that.”

“We used to do Lambda prints up to 60″x30 but now we can do much bigger, in-house, with confidence” Farnell said.

His new 64″ FUJIFILM Epson Stylus Pro 11880 GreenBox has enabled him not only to offer digital prints, but also to follow the trend for larger print sizes. “We used to do Lambda prints up to 60″x30″,”Farnell said, “but now we can do much bigger, in-house, with confidence.”

The FUJIFILM Epson Stylus Pro 11880 GreenBox also wins out against traditional kit on costs. “The service contracts on some of our legacy kit had meant we couldn’t justify extra machines to provide redundancy and backup,” Farnell said. “But the cost in down-time and call-out charges would have been unaffordable if something went wrong. The FUJIFILM system doesn’t have those costs, and it means we have another digital unit we can move jobs onto when something else fails.”

For more information on FUJIFILM’s GreenBox large format photo printing solutions, email greenbox@fuji.co.uk or call Peter Hayward, Commercial Manager of FUJIFILM UK Photofinishing, on +44 (0)1234 572 135.

Fujifilm UK today unveiled a pre-production demonstration unit of their eagerly awaited GreenBox 7900 wide format printing solution. The Fujifilm GreenBox 7900 is a unique bundle of EPSON’s forthcoming Stylus Pro 7900 24″ inkjet printer and Fujifilm’s ESP Easy Studio Print software. It’s a complete solution for anyone ready to move up to the latest standard in image quality and productivity, and comes with full support direct from Fujifilm Photofinishing in the UK.

“Fujifilm GreenBox 7900 is the obvious choice for businesses ready to replace their EPSON 7880 or older large format inkjet printers,” said Peter Hayward B.Sc., Commercial Manager, Fujifilm Photofinishing. “It’s at least 1.8 times faster than its immediate predecessors, and nearly four times faster than some older units. It takes much higher capacity ink cartridges, up to 700ml, and the inkset has been increased to include green and orange inks. The new Ultrachrome HDR high dynamic range inks greatly enhance gradation, particularly in skin tones. And they give a much wider gamut that can match more colours, particularly spot colours. Fujfilm’s solution for the EPSON 7900 allows stunning images to be easily and swiftly produced.”

In keeping with the corporation’s commitment to lead innovation in digital imaging, Fujifilm are welcoming visitors to preview GreenBox 7900 at the Fujifilm demonstration suite in Bedford. A pre-production demo unit will be available from today, right up to the end of November, when GreenBox 7900 will start to ship to customers. Fuifilm are accepting customer pre-orders now so to book your demonstration, or for more information, email minilabs@fuji.co.uk or call Peter Hayward now on 01234 572 135.

Fujifilm ASK2000 - a fast event printer

Which Printer for Event Photography?
by Simon Towler

Event photography has evolved from being just another way to earn some money, into a whole contemporary subculture. Instant photo printing is the technology that has enabled modern event photography. The printers used in eventing today are a class of machine known as “Fast Event Printers”. A fast event printer is a dye-sub unit that takes a roll of media 6″ inches wide and produces its maximum-size print in less than 20 seconds. These machines are about as closely related to the small dye-sub photo printers used at home as main battle tanks are to the mini metro. This month I tested seven of them for NewPhotoDigest, giving some thought to how you might choose between them. This is what I found.

Current models of fast event printer include the Copal DPB6000, Fujifilm ASK2000, ICI ImageData OP1000, Kodak 6850, Mitsubishi CP9800DW, and Sony UP-DR200.

PRINT QUALITY

I’m going to stick my neck out in this review, and suggest that print quality is not an important factor. All of the photo printers on test here are capable of producing photo quality your customers at any event will be perfectly satisfied with. There’s not much to choose between them, and the choices would be personal and highly subjective. A photographer’s eye will clearly see differences, but their customer’s won’t. The Sony UP-DR200 though, does deserve a special mention for its paper-based media and its ability to produce matte prints from the same roll as gloss.

PRINT SPEED

Event photographers are obsessed with speed. They need to make every sale they can in as little time as possible. If you’ve got, for example, 700 people at an event, and just a 90 minute window to offer them prints, then your maximum revenue possibility is to make and sell 700 prints in 90 minutes. Every second counts. The speed of your printers is not the only factor here. Arguably it’s not even the most important factor. But it is something eventers focus on.

All the printers on review here are fast. That’s the class they’re in. It proved very difficult to make speed comparisons between them. However, I did find that the manufacturer rated speeds were reliable, at least as a comparitive measure. In the real world, average times per print are very different when producing multiple different images, and it’s problematic to isolate all the factors in this.

The Sony UP-DR200, though, does take the laurels as the fastest event printer on test, although the ICI Olmec OP1000 and Kodak 6850 weren’t too far behind. If there’s one printer that could be faster, it’s the Mitsubishi CP-9800DW, but it partly makes up for that with its ability to maintain average print speeds over long runs.

MAXIMUM PRINT SIZE

These machines divide into two categories of maximum print size: 6″x8″ inches or 6″x9″ inches. All event photographers in the UK can agree that one of these sizes is the optimum for eventing – but not which one! The Sony and the Kodak are 6″x8″ machines, producing standard 6R photo sizes. These, their users say, are easy to find mounts and frames for. The other printers go up to 6″x9″, which matches the aspect ratio of digital camera images. Event photographers that use these say they can print 6″x9″ images straight away, without having to waste extra seconds editing the crop.

The debate as to which is the better size for events is an irreconcilable schism. Choose your preferred print size before you choose your printer! (6″x9″ users will tell you their printers can do 6″x8″ too. But the 6″x8″ folk say this is a cheat, and uses 9″ inches of ribbon anyway!)

OTHER PRINT SIZES

UK photographers claim they can charge more for 6″ inch prints.

Interestingly, in the States 5″x7″ is a common size for event photos – photographers there offer 6″ inch prints as an up-sell. If you want to sell 5″x7″ in the UK, all these machines will do it (although they may need spacers), except the Kodak 6850, which requires a special irreversible conversion to 5″x7″, and then can’t do 6″x8″ prints.

DRIVER COMPATIBILITY

None of these printers can print by themselves, you need to attach a computer for that. Compatibility needs to be checked. They all ship with drivers for Windows XP, but how about support for Vista and the Apple Mac? (A lot of event photographers use MacBooks, or laptops with Vista.)

All the manufacturers featured here now have their own Vista drivers available for these printers. If they’re not in the box with the printer, your dealer may write them to CD for you, or you can download them from the Web. Mac drivers are also available for all of them, except for the Kodak 6850 and the ICI ImageData Olmec OP1000. (However, the OP1000 is the only one of this current crop to already have a fast direct driver in ExpressDigital Darkroom, the workflow software used by many eventers.)

In summary, if you absolutely have to print from a Mac, avoid the ICI and Kodak machines. If you’re an ExpressDigital user and need to pare every precious second off your print times, consider the ICI Olmec OP1000.

PHYSICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Having dealt with print size and compatibility, we now examined our test machines for another important set of properties: weight, dimensions and ergonomics.

It’s in the nature of event photography that you will have to manhandle your printers around – into the gig and back again. That’s one of the reasons why eventers use as few printers as they can get away with (just one, if possible). It’s also the reason most of them avoid excessively heavy units.

When it comes to weight, fast event printers fall into two broad categories – heavy weights and lighter machines. Heavy weights weigh 25Kg+ unloaded, while the lighter machines weigh significantly less – around 20Kg at most. The market for event printers favours the lighter machines.

Three machines here are heavy-weights: the Copal DPB6000, the physically identical Fujifilm ASK2000, and the Kodak 6850. They all weigh 25Kg. (Kodak do have a lighter machine, the 605, but not in this class.)

Of the lighter machines, the Sony UP-DR200 wins the laurels for lightest of the bunch at 17Kg, while the Mitsubishi CP9800DW is not far behind at 21Kg. The ICI Olmec OP1000 is a 44-pounder, a perfectly manageable 20Kg. If weight is a crucial factor for you, choose one of these three lighter machines. They’re built just as well as their heavier brethren.

If weight is important because you’re going to lift the machine, then ergonomics come into play here too. The dimensions need to be grabbable, and there need to be plenty of grab points built into the housing of the printer. Any assessment of this must be a bit subjective, but having handled them all my personal opinion is that they rank in ergonomics exactly as they do in weight, with the Mitsubishi and Sony being the most carry-friendly, the ICI machine holding the middle ground, and the heavy-weights coming in later.

PRICE, WARRANTY AND SUPPORT

The prices of these machines, the amount of media included with them, and the warranty periods offered for them, vary so much over time as to make comparisons difficult. It’s a constantly moving target. So instead of looking at what you get for your money, let’s consider what backs it up.

Fast event printers are mission-critical equipment – when they’re down, the eventer’s business is interupted, and he’s losing money. So what’s support like in the UK for these machines, if you need a warranty repair, out-of-warranty repair, or just help, assessment and advice?

It’s difficult to assess objectively. In my experience, though, Fujifilm have shown an edge in the levels of backup they provide for their machines. Help is provided by their Photofinishing Help Desk in Bedford, where their own engineers are also based. Bedford has been known to be quite proactive in resolving customer issues with individual ASK 2000s. And this is one of the main things that distinguishes the ASK2000 from the hardware-identical Copal DPB6000. First-line support in the UK for the DPB6000 is provided by the dealer who imports it.

ICI Olmec are also UK based, and have always had the confidence to offer a standard two-year warranty with their OP1000 PrintBox, which is anyway a legendarily reliable machine.

The Kodak support process always moves inexorably toward resolution of any issues with individual printers, but the price of their spare parts can be eye-wateringly prohibitive.

Sony offer a well-thought-out PrimeSupport package, mediated in the UK through dealers and third-party engineers.

Mitsubishi also offer a professional-level warranty with good backup, ultimately from their own engineers(if necessary).

CONCLUSION

The seven printers on test here represent a fair selection of the fast event printers currently available in the UK. They are all excellent machines, well designed, well built, high performance, high quality and great value for money. Each of them has some unique selling point that will make you as an individual choose it rather than any other. Whichever one you choose, you won’t regret it. Happy eventing!