Now that is good news!!! Just out of curiosity, I get the whole concept of megalux/hours exposure but never really thought about actual time. How long it takes to advance on each testing step?
Thanks.
Not quite sure what you mean about advancing in each testing step. There is a lot of initial work that goes into sample preparation, documentation, and color measurements that must take place, but once in test, it becomes a simple function of light intensity and time on the test units. I'm already well along in the initial sample printing, measurement, and documentation related to new Pro-1000 print samples about to go into testing.
My light fade units produce 10,000-12,000 lux light intensity on the samples whereas some commercial light fade test units will deliver 100,000 lux intensity or higher light intensity to deliver much shorter test times, but they often lose control of both sample temperature and moisture content in the sample which are both key variables in accelerated light fade tests. I also add some dark time to ensure sample moisture content reconditioning which is also essential to simulate real world environments, so 10 megalux hours of light exposure accrues in about two months on my test units. Good pigmented ink sets deserve testing to a minimum of 200 megalux hours, so we are talking about total light fade test cycles verging on four years in test at Aardenburg Imaging! However, the good news is that the I* metric I use for color and tonal accuracy measurements is perceptually linear, so we can measure and report solid trends emerging from the testing of high stability inks in as little as 20-30 megalux hours. Hence, about six months from now we will have some interesting results that Canon has so far failed to tell us about the new Lucia Pro ink longevity on various media.
kind regards,
Mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com
