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Pro Digital Gear BLOG! bio picture

Welcome to our Blog!

Andy Frausini (sitting) brings 25 years of
photographic experience to Pro Digital Gear. Andy retired from
professional photography and started Pro Photo Gear in 1997, with a
name transformation to Pro Digital Gear in 2005. After having run a
successful photo studio with their own color lab, Andy states,  "I began selling my expertise
as a consultant and set up studios in many of the corporate accounts. I
ended up providing training and selling them all the equipment needed
to perform high end digital imaging. The business has just grown from
there” Our company specializes in high end digital imaging equipment
and represents Canon, Epson, HP, Xrite, Eizo, Lacie, and more! We
offer installation and training as well. Andy has the advantage of
knowing the business from the photographers point of view and prides
himself on giving Pro Digital Gear’s clients professional service with
wholesale pricing. All of Andy’s staff are professionals! Our motto is " PRICE, SERVICE, DELIVERY" We ship from 26 different states!

John Fast (standing) our Top Sales Executive, is retired from a career in nuclear engineering
with General Electric. His pursuit of photography as a serious interest
began more than fifty years ago. John specializes in wildlife and
nature photography and his images have been shown in several galleries
in Connecticut. (www.johnfastphotography.com) He has been published in
Outdoor Photographer magazine and presents slide programs featuring his
photography and adventure travel to clubs and organizations throughout
New England. John also teaches digital imaging and Photoshop
at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich. You can visit his personal blog at http://www.imagingthenaturalworld.com

Monitors & Monitor Profiling

Ifright_img_s2243w you are serious about controlling color output it is critically important  to have a monitor that faithfully displays color to a known standard. It is the single most important step you can take on the way to to reaching the holy grail of having the colors displayed on your monitor match printed (or other) output.

Reading posts on other web sites and fielding questions about color management here at Pro Digital Gear, I conclude that there is a lot of confusion about monitor profiling. I hope to clear up some of the confusion with this post.

Monitor calibration and profiling is really a two step process but the steps are often intertwined when applied in monitor profiling hardware and software solutions. More about the solutions later. Before beginning calibration and profiling, you must be sure your monitor has been on long enough to have reached a stable condition. A good rule of thumb is to allow 30 to 45 minutes for a CRT display and 15 to 20 minutes for an LCD display to warm up.

STEP 1: Calibrate the monitor. Calibration puts the monitor in a known reference state that it can be returned to in the future.

STEP 2: Create a profile for the monitor. This step creates a correction table for your monitor that ensures it is displaying color accurately when compared to industry standards.

Step 1 involves establishing some parameters and then adjusting your monitor using it’s controls to come as close as possible to the targets. The three target values are:

Luminance:  Usually specified in candellas/square meter. Reasonable target values are  95 for CRT monitors and 130 for an LCD monitor. Not all monitors will achieve these numbers.

NOTE:It is important not to select the greatest luminance value for a particular monitor because as it ages, the ability to reach the target luminance will decline and subsequent profiling will be effected.

Tonal Response Curve (TRC) or Gamma: This target should be set at 2.2 for either Mac or PC based systems.

White Point: A suggested value is D65

The colorimeter or spectrophotometer and software package that came with it will lead you through the necessary calibration steps. Not all monitors have the same controls particularly when it comes to establishing the white point. Some monitors wrill only have white point “presets” to choose from while others will allow you to individually adjust the red, green and blue channels to the desired white point.

After establishing the desired target values above, profiling  of the monitor will be accomplished using a spectrophotometer or a colorimeter and the software that came with it. It is in this step 2, that the color corrections are determined and a color profile created for your monitor. The color profile will be installed in the operating system.

A word of caution.  Any images that you have adjusted and printed successfully before profiling  your monitor may now look “unacceptable” because you have changed its display.  If it is important that you can print them identically to the way they were printed in the past do not make any new color adjustments to them.

Once your display profile has been created, you can check that Photoshop is recognizing it by going to the edit color preferences menu and from the RGB work space scroll to “monitor RGB”. You should see the name that you gave your profile. Note do not select this as your RGB work space. You should also be aware that not all software that can display images makes proper use of the display profile, so your images may have a different color look when viewed in non “color aware” software. You should only make color or tonal range adjustments to your images on your properly profiled monitor and using “color aware” software such as Photoshop.

You must periodically re-calibrate and profile your display as they do drift with time. Most particularly CRT displays. Weekly or at least monthly recalibration and profiling is recommended.

There are several monitor profiling packages available. I personally like the Eye-One Display 2 from X-rite.

…John

New Epson Fine Art MediaHot Press & Cold Press Papers

Pro Digital Gear now has samples of the new Epson  hot and cold press fine art media. Each of the two media comes in a “natural” and a “bright” version. The natural version contains no optical brighteners and has a slightly warm tone while , as the name suggests, the bright is a bright white. For those of you familiar with Epson’s Ultrasmooth Fine Art the natural media is very similar in”warmth”.

The cold press media has a surface texture very similar to the Epson Texrured Fine Art media, while the hot press has a surface texture similar to the Epson Ultrasmooth Fine Art media.

All four media are currently available  in 8-1/2″ x 11, 13″x19″ and 17″x22″  sizes only and are 17 mil thick.  Custom profiles are available for many Epson printer models on the Epson web site.

In the near future I will be making a few trial prints using the new media and record my impressions here.

In the meantime, contact us if you would like to receive a free sample of this new media. A small shipping charge will apply.

SPECIAL on CONTEX WIDE FORMAT SCANNERS- See our YOUTUBE videos!

We sell the Contex/Vidar scanner line. Contex has provide us with some phenomenal interesting video for you to view. Note these five new scanner videos on YouTube that will enable you to educate yourself as to the possibilites of WIDE FORMAT SCANNING. Extra profits and we have GREAT specials running until 3/31/10. . Click to noted links and contact us at sales@prodigitalgear.com should you need ANY assistance or have any questions. Thanks for choosing PRO DIGITAL GEAR as your source from professional digital input to output..and EVERYTHING in between!

Contex HD3600

CANON IMAGE PROGRAF PRINTER SALE with REBATES! Now until 3/31/10

UNBELIEVABLE printer deals on the CANON IPF series printers. Just to wet your appetite, how about a BRAND NEW CANON IPF 6100 24″ printer complete with STAND, INK, ONE YEAR CANON on site warranty and support for ONLY $1995.00….AND..get $400.00 BACK ON A MAIL IN REBATE. This is INSANE! We are an AUTHORIZED CANON DEALER. Contact us direct at sales@prodigitalgear.com with any inquiries and REAL…NO HIDDEN COST wholesales printer pricing!  YES we ship all over the world!

CANON ANNOUNCES NEW PRINTERS – IN JAPAN!!!!!

THE FOLLOWING IS A TRANSLATION (Google) from the Canon Japan Website. Formatting and Precision wording may be off…BUT..you get the idea!

・Precision equipped with newly developed high-quality printing techniques, RIP graphics professional large format inkjet printers launched three models for enhanced


Canon is a large-format inkjet printers “imagePROGRAF (Imejipurogurafu)” as a new product series, proof (color calibration), photo and graphic arts markets “iPF8300″ and will launch three models sequentially from the 2010 mid – .

imagePROGRAF iPF8300
imagePROGRAF iPF8300 imagePROGRAF iPF8300
imagePROGRAF iPF6350/6300
imagePROGRAF iPF6350/6300 imagePROGRAF iPF6350/6300
* Stands optional “ST-25″ when seated

  • imagePROGRAF iPF8300 imagePROGRAF iPF8300
    (Release date: early October 2010)
  • imagePROGRAF iPF6350 imagePROGRAF iPF6350
    (Release date: mid-October 2010)
  • imagePROGRAF iPF6300 imagePROGRAF iPF6300
    (Release date: early October 2010)
    includes only the standard stand.
Inquiries regarding this
Sign up to this blog to receive up to date reports on ANYTHING we hear ….from PRODIGITALGEAR.com  Blog site is prophotogear.com

The new models-

Ink system, which incorporates a new face charges of newly developed high-precision mechanical platform, powered by a revolutionary new technology, accurate proofs (color calibration) and the output, the output delivers expressive photography, professional users to meet the demands of extremely high quality from.

■ corresponds to the color proofing systems in various fields

The mechanical platform with enhanced mechanical configuration of the printer to a new body, thin characters・accuracy, improve the uniformity and reduce the color shift, achieving uniformity of the required image accuracy and picture proofs. In addition, industry-leading support and RIP graphics, utilizing the printer is now possible to introduce a familiar workflow.

■ quality to meet the needs of professional photographers and creative

The new pigment ink system “LUCIA (LUCIA) EX” and the introduction of new printing processes and the quality of black and dark tone improve the level of representation is required to achieve high-quality photos.

In addition, color-responsive and genuinely reflect the color of the material improves the scratch resistance output became more comfortable with the material output.

The three new models, 2010 are already being exhibited in Tokyo

Large format printer market

With the spread of high-performance digital cameras, it has been due to easily handle high-quality data has also been showing a growing demand high-quality photo output. The printer color reproduction and expansion of the area, with the improved printing precision, large-format inkjet printer using a color proof (proof) is also showing a certain extent the output needs. Behind them, large-format inkjet printer market has been steadily expanding ever. Temporary slowdown in 2009 due to the financial crisis was, after 2010 is expected to recover again.

Open 24/7

Open 24/7

Photo Connection- New Canon 8100 Printer Owner

Jeanette and Mike of Photo Connection With Their New Canon 8100 Printer

Jeanette and Mike of Photo Connection With Their New Canon 8100 Printer

Jeanette and Mike of Photo Connection (Colchester CT) just took delivery of their new Canon IPF8100.

The CanoniPF8100 offers twelve independent color channel printing on multiple media configurations up to 44 inches wide. Its printing speed coupled with large ink tank capacity and built-in 80 gigabyte hard drive make it the ideal choice for professional wide format ink jet printing.

Pro Digital Gear’s experience with our demonstration Prograf printers validates Canon’s claim regarding  automatic clogged nozzle detection and compensation Contact us for more information on Canon Prograf printers.

Congratulations Mike and Jeanette!


New Wireless Capability for Some Canon EOS Cameras

20100107_hiRes_wft_e4iia_5dmkiiCanon has released three new wireless units for use with the EOS-1D Mark IV, EOS 5D Mark II and EOS 7D cameras.

By coupling each compatible camera with one of the new WFT units, professionals can fire up to 10 cameras simultaneously with Canon’s new Camera Linking function, which is perfect for getting that split-second shot from multiple angles.

The new WFT units also enable the roaming photojournalist or back-country nature photographer to geotag images easily through hard-wired or Bluetooth-connected GPS devices and append coordinates to the image’s EXIF data. Additionally, reliable file transfer options such as FTP Mode provide wedding and event photographers with the ability to send images in real-time to a computer for instant prints or projection onto event screens while allowing the photographer to operate wirelessly.

Call or contact Pro Digital Gear for additional information.

It’s Finally Happening !!!

Epson has just announced that shipment of more of their “Signature Worthy” media is beginning. We first saw samples of this long-awaited media at Photo Expo more than a year ago. In addition to the Exhibition Fiber Paper that has been available for some time now, Epson has begun shipping its Hot Press and Cold Press papers.

“Epson Signature Worthy papers enable photographers to achieve images with richer blacks, wider color gamuts and smoother tonal transitions that define the ultimate expression in print making.”

“Optimized for use with Epson Stylus Pro Printers and inks, including new Epson UltraChrome® HDR ink technology (found in the Epson Stylus® Pro 7900 and 9900), the new Signature Worthy Hot Press and Cold Press Papers yield richer blacks, smoother tonal transitions and an expanded color gamut to produce the most advanced fine art prints. The Hot Press papers offer a smooth surface and Cold Press papers feature a textured surface. In addition, Hot Press and Cold Press Bright offer a bright white point, while the Hot Press and Cold Press Natural offer a warm white point.”

Epson profiles for the new media are available on the Epson web site. As soon as I can lay my hands on some samples of the new hot press and cold press media, I will give you my impression.

Canon 7D On-Line Tutorials

B6_K250

The Canon Digital Learning Center has a number of excllent video tutorials exploring specific features of the remarkable new Canon 7D  DSLR. Tutorials included are:

  • Automatic AF Point
  • Manual AD Point
  • Spot AF
  • Zone AF
  • Memorizing AD Points
  • AF Custom Functions
  • Image Quality Options
  • Viewfinder Options
  • Electronic Level Display
  • Love View Basics
  • Movie Mode Basics
  • Movie Mode Settings
  • Customizing Operations
  • Battery Display
  • Flash
  • Basic WFT

The video tutorials are available for viewing on line or downloading for playback on an ihone or iPod or for playback on your camera’s LCD screen at http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=3167

Image Print 8.0 Now Supports Epson 7900 & 9900

ColorByte announced that Image Print 8.0 now supports the Epson 7900 and 9900 printers.

These drivers are the first to incorporate a brand new color engine capable of fully using the expanded gamut offered by the HDR inks.  This technology is the first of its kind and will allow ImagePrint to maximize the color and dynamic range of different paper types like never before.  ColorByte claims to see as much as 40% more color volume than with the 880 series printers.

ColorByte began  filling orders on December 18th.   Many of the most popular papers have already been profiled and ColorByte will be adding more profiles to their library everyday.

If you are already familiar with ImagePrint call us for pricing for Version 8.0.  If you are not sure that it meets your needs, you can download a trial version of this RIP from the ColorByte site at http://www.colorbytesoftware.com/