T3D Re: RE: TECH-3D digest 366

["Greg Wageman" <gjw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

From: tony <tony@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>


>I've been interested in your discussions vis-a-vis lenticular printing.
It is not an
>easy thing to do yourself.....if it were the print processing machines
(as used by >Image Tech,  Nishika, and us) would not cost $75,000
each!!!
>
>The printing tables for doing the enlargements (around $5,000 new) are
precision
>instruments that make 100% precise adjustments between each frame to an
>accuracy that would be impossible to achieve by hand,  and they make it
>continuously to widths that depend on how it's programmed and set up.


Tony,

There's a tremendous difference in price between a commercial developing
and printing machine which is almost totally automated, and a home
darkroom, too; yet the home darkroom can produce results as good or
frequently better than the commercial machine.  What the inexpensive
home equipment cannot do is develop and print in the kinds of quantities
and in the short time that the commercial machines can.

The cost of the machines you cite is primarily due to the fact that they
are designed to be fairly "idiot-proof", self-contained and automatic.
Also, they tend to be proprietary, and are manufactured in fairly small
quantities, all of which contribute to pricyness.

IMO, if it really were so difficult to do, people would be less
reluctant to talk about it, since the difficulty factor would keep
people away, as opposed to a simple lack of information.

     -Greg W. (gjw@xxxxxxxxxx)



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