Re: [photo-3d] stereocard printer possibilities?

[Herbert C Maxey <bmaxey1@xxxxxxxx>]

> Everything else is in place.  I'm ready to become a stereocard
> convert/practitioner/tycoon.  All I need is the right printer.
> Other people on this list must be doing this.  I've heard some
> people mention dye-sub printers.  I need to keep costs down but I'm
> ready to consider anything.  There are low priced dye-subs from
> Olympus (P300) and Canon (CD-300) but they only print on 4 x 6.
> What printers are you all using?

Unfortunately, if you are aiming for the best possible longevity, you
should stay away from today's color printers. I hear these claims of
longevity, then something comes along which causes the manufacturer to
say that perhaps their prints do not last as long as reported. The simple
fact is the color printers of today have not been around that long and
have no track record. 

You can always reprint the images, however.

Lots of things affect longevity. The inks - either all of the inks or
just one of them; exposure to the environment, material used to glue the
prints on to the stereo card stock, material used to make the color
prints on, the materials used to make the card stock, how they are
stored, lighting and UV - all of these affect your pictures.

If you want a picture to last for the longest time, it should be  
archivally processed black and white print. B/W prints have a track
record that can't be argued with - color does not. I doubt that any color
printer vendor would provide you with any sort of written guarantee that
their prints will not fade and degrade after even 20 years. It might be
an interesting experiment to see if any on this list could get a written
guarantee. 

By the way - I use to hear people argueing over this very thing on the
various mailing lists dealing with printers.