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Lightfastness Comparison of Epson UltraChrome HD versus K3 inks

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MHMG:
I just published some comparative results on the lightfastness of the new Epson UltraChrome HD ink set versus the older Epson K3 ink set on two different media.  The testing is ongoing, but the results to date pretty much tell the story.

http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com/epson-uchd-versus-k3-inks/

cheers,
Mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com

samueljohnchia:
Thank you Mark, I read the article with great interest. I've been following the tests since it began. I was hoping you could say a few words about the LUCIA EX performance against the HD inks, in addition. LUCIA doesn't seem to be doing as well, looking at the I* color. It is keeping up on I* tone. The LUCIA light skin color has shifted quite a bit more. I wonder which ink is the weakest link. Yellow?

MHMG:

--- Quote from: samueljohnchia on May 23, 2016, 12:59:13 pm ---Thank you Mark, I read the article with great interest. I've been following the tests since it began. I was hoping you could say a few words about the LUCIA EX performance against the HD inks, in addition. LUCIA doesn't seem to be doing as well, looking at the I* color. It is keeping up on I* tone. The LUCIA light skin color has shifted quite a bit more. I wonder which ink is the weakest link. Yellow?

--- End quote ---

I didn't want to dilute the discussion in the HD versus K3 article by including any trend line analysis of the LUCIA EX set, but LUCIA EX has indeed been in test alongside the HD and K3 inks on those two batches of paper. There's also specific older but still ongoing tests for K3 and LUCIA inks on HN photo rag Pearl in the Aardenburg database that I want to go back and study carefully. I took a very quick look at this older data recently, and the older K3 looks like it has tracked very closely but the older LUCIA EX sample looks like it was performing significantly better the first time around. I want to try to sort out that variability issue if possible.  These older tests have been running on the same light fade test unit but in a different batch M1.  The environmental data loggers for the M1 and N1 batches are agreeing very closely as they should, and the fact that the K3 samples are also matching well means environmental issues like heat, humidity, and light level variances can be largely ruled out as the source of error.  That leaves true sample repeatability as the likely culprit for the LUCIA EX variability, and it means more testing should follow.  I will tackle additional LUCIA EX testing when I start the new Canon LUCIA PRO inks in test. Canon has not been very forthcoming to date about longevity of the new LUCIA PRO inks. I'm keen to see how they perform, but I don't have a time frame for this new round of testing.  Raising the necessary funds has been going very very slowly.

best,
Mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com

shadowblade:
So, pretty good, but not quite Z3200-good so far.

MHMG:

--- Quote from: shadowblade on May 26, 2016, 11:28:48 am ---So, pretty good, but not quite Z3200-good so far.

--- End quote ---

I understand what you are saying, but IMHO, with any ink set now as good or better than Epson's new HD set, the battleground for excellent lightfastness properties now shifts much more to the media and its interaction with the inks, not just the inks by themselves.  Check out ID# 152 in the Aardenburg database, for example, that shows how even a great ink set like HP Vivera pigmented inks printed in what would normally be a very lightfast grayscale mode can be brought down to a very sad state by pairing these inks with the wrong paper.   The Aardenburg Conservation Display rating for that sample of Z3200/OEM ink paired with a choice of HP Pro Satin media was only 8-15 Megalux hours (equivalent to only 4-7.5 Wilhelm years on display). Yikes!

Some of Epson's own branded media such as the ever popular Epson Premium luster RC media will also likely be a letdown for the quality of these new HD inks. Printmakers will have to choose media more wisely in order to achieve the full benefits of the newer high stability ink sets.  Yet the only way to truly sort the good from the mediocre media and the mediocre from the poor media is to perform a specific test for any given printer/ink/media combination.

cheers,
Mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com

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