Photography News | Issue 39 | absolutephoto.com
60 First tests
Accessories First tests We get our hands on the
latest kit and share our first impressions – so you know whether or not to add it to your list for Santa
Reviews by Will Cheung and Kingsley Singleton
Fotospeed Square & Panoramic papers from£17.99
What do you do when you’re a paper supplier with an already extensive portfolio of sizes and surface finishes on offer? Explore the potential of different formats is the answer Fotospeed has come up with, and it may be onto something. I have certainlybeen enjoying thePanoramic and new Square sizes in its range. To be honest, you could ask what’s the point? After all, the Panoramic’s 594x210mm size is just A2 cut in half width-ways, and the square can be cut down from any rectangular sheet. But doing a professional job with a straight edge and sharp knife is tricky and not only that but if your printer is A3+ you’re unlikely to have any A2 paper on hand. Then there’s the health and safety risk of slicing off a fingertip unless you own a quality trimmer, so Fotospeed’s thinking works for me. There are three square sizes, 8in 2 , 10in 2 and 12in 2 so they’ll work fine with A3+ printers but only the smallest size works with A4 printers. The Panoramic paper’s width of 21cm means that it will go through A4 as well as A3+ printers no problem
As innovations go, offering paper in different shapes does not rate high on the excitement scale, but it is worthwhile and Fotospeed should be praised for that.
Specs
Prices and availability Panoramic Test pack £29.99 (24 sheets, four of each of the six available finishes) 25sheets PF Lustre 275, PFGloss 270 or PhotoSmoothPearl 290£29.99 25 sheets PlatinumEtching 285 £47.99 25 sheets PlatinumBaryta 300 or Smooth Cotton 300 £64 8x8in 50 sheets PF Lustre 275 £17.99 25 sheets PlatinumEtching 285 £19.99 25 sheets PlatinumBaryta 300 £25.99 12x12in 50 sheets PF Lustre 275 £48.99 25 sheets PlatinumEtching 285 £47.99 25 sheets PlatinumBaryta 300 £66.99 Contact fotospeed.com
Verdict
I really enjoyed using both paper types and being able to produce a panoramic or square print without the faff of cutting down a larger sheet is a real benefit. My handheld panoramas vary in width but that wasn’t a real issue and I trimmed the final print where necessary or went for a thinner image to get it all in. With a good choice of surfaces in each format, these paper collections from Fotospeed are well worth exploring. Pros Saves the hassle and possible wastage of cutting down larger sheets Cons Nothing
although you need a back-fed model. You should check your printer’s instructions if you’re not sure. In both cases, you need to set up a custom template in Photoshop to print from. Fotospeed has PDF guides on its website to help you out and supplies generic profiles – a custom profiling service is available too. I’ve used Fotospeed products previously
so I had the generic profiles already in my system so it was just a matter of producing images that worked in the respective formats, dragging over to the custom templates and hitting the print button. The process is straightforward and even I managed it without getting the size parameters or print orientation wrong. Happy days! WC
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