The brief review just posted by Michael on Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl had a number of interesting aspects and some very important information gaps that will no doubt be filled in a further report.
A Dmax of 2.88 is remarkable and would be the highest ever, with Museo Silver Rag being reported at around 2.45 and Ansel Adams best around 2.3. Could you confirm this Michael?
The alpha cellulose with Hahnemuhle papers means "wood" . I would note here most Hahnemuhle papers , notably excluding Photo Rag) are wood based, which disturbs some clients .Personally I would like to know where the wood comes from , but consider the cotton industry in this country anyway, to be probably a greater environmental disaster than much of the timber industry. Museo Silver Rag is a cotton based paper. Demons everywere.
The 105% white would be due to optical brighteners (OBs)not incorporated into the Crane paper. There still seems to be much concern with the archival properties of OBs. Whiteners are also in the PhotoRag paper. I have had no problem with Photo Rag over a two year period but have with other papers including some Epson papers. My tests are very rough however and in no way comparative with Henry Wilhelms. It would seem on past record it is unlikely Wilhelm will give us a comparative report on the competitive Crane and Hahnemuhle papers.
We have no way of knowing what OBs Hahnemuhle are now using.
More vital parts of a more comprehensive report will be an evaluation of colour gamut and linearity, and the usefulness or otherwise of profiles supplied by the manufacturers and third parties such as ColorByte and Bill Atkinson.
I'm still waiting on my first delivery of Silver Rag, and look forward to testing the Fine Art Pearl too.
Cheers
Brian
www.pharoseditions.com.au