P3D Re: stereojet

[Larry Berlin <lberlin@xxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 
>From: John Toeppen <toeppen@xxxxxxxx>
>..............
>There is some misunderstanding about the stereojet process. 
>......

*****  As I've stated elsewhere, the nature of this process did NOT
accompany it's announcement of existence, nor it's price tag. It's very name
made it sound like a likely trade name for polarized ink. The ink is
supposed to be usable on ordinary copiers and inkjet printers...
*Stereojet*, the name, sounded like it was or might be the long awaited
stuff. The folks at Stereojet didn't know there was such a thing as
polarized ink. 



>
>The inks are dichroic and diffuse into the polarizing sheet material. 
>The polarizing sheet material has perpendicular oriented PVA on opposite
>sides of the mylar base.  This is not the normal high volume production
>stuff, it is a special short run experimental material.  Years of work
>have gone into this to get this far by Jay, Vivian, and others at
>Rowland as well as Ed and others at the SlideFactory.  Consistent
>material has been very difficult, time consuming, and expensive to
>produce.
>
>The inks must permeate through a gel layer before they hit the PVA and
>this takes time and space.  Then the gel is washed off. It is not
>trivial to do, and is of much better quality than the old iodine
>vectograph process.

*****  Thanks for a detailed description. It truly makes the whole thing far
more interesting and valuable.


>
>Oh, and the images must take a tour through Photoshop and be in
>registration.

****  The hairs on the back of my neck bristle at the thought of someone
changing my carefully designed relationships and registration! However, I
would  expect them to handle the images WITH careful registration in their
process...


>............ What do you think that a dye transfer print would cost
>these days?

*****  I don't know. How much?


>
>If you choke on the price of something don't buy it.  I didn't buy a VCR
>at 2K, 1K, or $500 bucks.  I waited.  I let those with the money spend
>it, and I saw prices go down with volume.  Those who have worked on this
>for years at a loss are trying to cover their costs.  I am just glad
>that it was developed at all.  The few that I have are quite
>impressive.  And I hope to purchase some for a display application. 
>Until you have seen these you may underestimate their value.
>

*****  For me choking on a price is mostly connected with perceived value.
Thanks for increasing the value of Stereojet prints. It sounds like a
remarkable achievement totally aside from economics.

Larry Berlin

Email: lberlin@xxxxxxxxx
http://3dzine.simplenet.com/