Yearly Archives: 2006

HP ink costs

Printing

The old HP 12C helps out.

In my piece on framing Really Big Prints I guessed at the cost of ink used by that frugal beast, the Hewlett Packard DesignJet 90 printer.

Well, in the HP engineering spirit, I whipped out the old 12C and set to work.

Checking the ink levels on the printer showed the following:

Yellow 3/4 full
Black Full
Magenta 3/4
Cyan 3/4
Light Magenta 1/2
Light Cyan 1/2

Now as the level in each cartridge is reported in one quarter steps, I averaged 3/4 full to mean 5/8 full (i.e. half way between 3/4 and 1/2) and so on, making for ink use aggregating 2.5 cartridges.

Production?

13 18″ x 24″ prints and 27 13″ x 19″ prints, or 12,285 sq. in.

With cartridges averaging $35 (the prices differ, strangely, according to color), that works out to $87.50 in ink, or $1.75 for a 13″ x 19″ and $3.07 for an 18″ x 24″.

So my $4 ink cost-per-print estimate in that earlier journal entry was a tad high. You can make an 18″ x 24″ print with the HP DesignJet, paper included, for the price of a hamburger-and-fries at the local fast food joint.

The HP DesignJet dye-based series of printers (30, 90, 130) are frugal, indeed, when it comes to ink use. I cannot express how pleased I am with this large printer and, in truth, rather regret not having bought the 24″ carriage model, though how I would handle mounting and framing 24″ x 36″ monsters in 32″ x 42″ frames boggles the mind.

The Christmas snap

Photographs, Technique

It cannot get any simpler than this.

Almost a year ago I wrote why I believe it makes no sense for a photographer to process his own small prints.

I am more convinced than ever that this is true.

Here’s a time line for this year’s annual family picture mailed to all our friends:

11:30 am – Family commences donning decent clothing. No jeans allowed!
11:40 am – Old Olympus 5050 digital is placed on the tripod and a test shot is made. This camera, despite the horrible shutter lag, boasts a fine wireless remote which is easily hidden in the palm.
11:47 am – The first picture is taken
12:06 am – The last of 22 pictures is taken – you try to get all five people, including a dog and cat known to conspire, looking good at the same time
12:10 am – The best snap is chosen in iPhoto and cropped to 3:2 to match the 6″ x 4″ prints we will order
12:15 am – The picture of choice is uploaded to Walgreens and forty ordered at 19 cents a print
12:25 am – Walgreens emails that the prints are ready for collection
12:35 am – The family, having strolled down the road, picks up the pictures at Walgreens and hands over $8.23
12:36 am – We cross the road to the greasy spoon for lunch and share the pictures with the nice Koreans who run it so well

1 hour and 5 minutes start to end. Meanwhile, the home printer is wondering why his print heads are clogged, the colors are wrong, and then runs out of ink. Walgreens uses a superb Fuji printer which renders lovely skin tones and runs it with Kodak paper, interestingly. They told me it works better that way.


Sixty-five minutes, $8.23 and forty prints later

A fool and his money….

Photography

Don’t be a Red Dot Fool.

Despite all the publicity telling the world that all Leicas, save the M8, are made by Panasonic, there are still a lot of Red Dot Fools out there. You know, camera buyers who buy a Panasonic digital which Leica has emblazoned with its name and added a 2 cent red dot so that you can be sure everyone knows you are a Red Dot Fool. Both Panasonic and Leica buyers get to share the same excellent Leica designed (and Panasonic manufactured) lenses fitted to these cameras.

Here are the statistics on what that two cent red dot is costing these ill informed or delusional consumers:

So, even in the absence of any objective test data to indicate that the insides of these cameras differ one iota, consumers are willing to pay between $170 and $850 (!) for a two cent red sticker.

A fool and his money are easily parted.

I wish Leica lots of luck in selling these as they are going to need the money to fix all those faulty M8s they just had to recall, and they do actually assemble the M8 even if the only bit they make is the rangefinder. Maybe they should delegate manufacture of the M8 to Panasonic, though given that Panny would sell it for 50% less, maybe they couldn’t stand the cannibalization.

One hundred yards – Part III

Photographs

Some of the best pictures are one hundred yards from your doorstep. Or less..

Given how much time we spend in our homes, it’s surprising that many photographers feel they have to journey to remote, exotic locations in search of picture opportunities. They arrive tired, are in a strange location which they have no time to ‘learn’, and leave frustrated. You must make the return flight and have to make do with whatever weather is around at the time.

By contrast, the circle centered on your home, with a 100 yard radius, provides some of the best photographic opportunities. You know the area, are rested and have no deadlines. There is no return flight. And you can wait for the weather to come to you.

Here are a couple more snaps, taken over the years, all within 100 yards or less of where my bed was the previous night. More to come over the next few weekends.


6 yards. Templeton, California. 5D, 200mm.


20 yards. Templeton, California. Mamiya 6, 75mm.

For more on this theme, please click here.

Giving Thanks

Art Illustration, Photography

The greatest American feast and the great man who made it possible.

For an index of articles on art illustrators, click here.

Today’s journal entry is only peripherally about photography, as I am busy cooking. It is, however, intended as a reminder why any ambitious person should consider coming to America to improve himself and his lot in life. It still matters little in the United States who your father was, how you speak and what size, religion or color you are. Hunger enough and you will be rewarded. You don’t even need ability. Just the desire to work hard.

When I emigrated from Britain to the United States on November 16, 1977, I had no idea of the existence of the great feast of Thanksgiving. Why should I? Poor old England, having won the war and lost the peace, was mired in repressive socialist politics where everyone, starting with schoolchildren, was being reduced to the level of the laziest. Thus the citizens of the British Empire had little to give thanks for. Not having benefitted economically from my fine British education, I did not arrive with just the money in my pocket. Rather, I arrived $4,000 in debt – half from my employer, the other half from my sister in Seattle, who had the vision to come here some years before me. The only hard assets I had in this world were my Leica M3 with 35mm, 50mm and 90mm lenses and two shabby polyester business suits bought at C&A in London. The Leica would last me another thirty years. The suits quickly moved on.

Five days later I found myself a guest of an American family which, with traditional hospitality, had invited this funny sounding immigrant to their Thanksgiving meal. I can never forget this act of warmth and welcome, nor the truly wonderful selection of food loaded on a table whose legs must have been groaning under the weight. This was America as I had always pictured it – the family home, warmth, conviviality, joie de vivre, everyone healthy and rosy cheeked and food a plenty. No wonder that Thanksgiving remains one of my favorite American holidays, for it was my introduction to the best in American values. To this day, few occasions give me greater pleasure than cooking a bird of choice for the feast that follows.

Years later I got to know the art of Norman Rockwell and he captures the sense of this great occasion better than anyone. No photograph can improve on this. Four generations gather to enjoy the feast to come. The sun is shining. Everyone is smiling. All is right with the world.

Let me preface what follows with the statement that I am an apolitical animal, believing solely in an economic system which allows individuals to be rewarded for their efforts and which keeps entitlements and government to a minimum. At the same time, such system has to be imbued with a strong dose of humanitarianism to protect the poor and unfortunate. That’s simple decency. The picayune distinctions in America between Democrats and Republicans, and their rabid hordes of followers looking for a benefit for no cost, are simply of zero interest to me.

Sad, then, to contemplate a Thanksgiving where I can no longer say with joy that I am sharing my lot on this earth with the giant who was Milton Friedman, who passed away a week ago. People speak of him as a great economist, but he was much more than that. He was a great humanist, having by the sheer power of his intellect created more wealth in twentieth century America than all her industrialists combined. Consider just some of his achievements.

  • The ending of the draft.
  • The abolition of the gold standard.
  • Proof positive that Government monetary policy caused inflation.
  • The commitment to free immigration.
  • The support of school vouchers to remedy the crime that is American public education.

This was a man for the ages.

I had the great pleasure of meeting him at the invitation of my friend Art Laffer, in 2002 on his 90th birthday, at a presentation he gave at the Ritz in San Francisco. It was, interestingly, the first time I saw a journalist use a digital camera – I recall with some fascination noting how he inspected the little screen on the back of his camera to check the picture from time to time. Friedman was, his 5 foot 2 inch stature notwithstanding, a giant, with an electric personality. A sharp wit and great charm. His teaching inspired two great students – Reagan and Thatcher – to fix the messes they had both inherited. Milton Friedman’s school drew no geographical boundaries in its admission of pupils. And tuition was free. Indeed, the president of the newly free republic of Estonia, when asked why he had imposed a low rate flat tax on his nation shortly after it gained freedom from its Russian opressor, replied that the only book on economics he had ever read was Milton Friedman’s “Free to Choose”. It hardly need be added that Estonia is booming.

So while I rue this Thanksgiving, the first where Milton Friedman is not among us, I rejoice in the knowledge that even now he is teaching our maker why freedom is the only policy for those in charge to pursue. Friedman once famously remarked:

“A society that puts equality – in the sense of equality of outcome – ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality or freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom. On the other hand, a society that puts freedom first will, as a happy by-product, end up with both greater freedom and greater equality. Freedom means diversity but also mobility. It preserves the opportunity for today’s less well off to become tomorrow’s rich, and in the process, enables almost everyone, from top to bottom, to enjoy a richer and fuller life.”

Amen to that, and Happy Thanksgiving.