Finestra Brand Papers

Before I posted this, I did a site search for Finestra. I found only one entry which I made a response to.

Homepage: http://finestraart.com/

Does anyone have experience with this brand? I'm blown away at the vast selection of papers, the great reviews, and the very low prices. For instance, on Amazon you can buy 50 sheets of 13"x19" for $34.99. Add another item for a penny, and it's free shipping.

We all know that there are only so many manufacturers and coaters of inkjet papers. I presume Finestra is buying from multiple sources. Overruns, perhaps, whatever. They even have Pearl, which a reviewer describe perfectly as the Ilford type Pearl texture.

They also offer up free ICC profiling. How cool is that?

You can buy directly from their website, or you can find better pricing on Amazon.

No one has used Finestra? No interest? With all the posts I see of peeps getting excited about paper on sale, or using generics, I'd think this would have been of interest to US readers. I mean, where else are you going to buy heavy photo Pearl finish paper in 13x19" for 70 cents a sheet? With you handy paper cutter and higher math, that's, um, uh only 35 cents for a letter size!

Paul Verizzo said:

No one has used Finestra? No interest? With all the posts I see of peeps getting excited about paper on sale, or using generics, I'd think this would have been of interest to US readers. I mean, where else are you going to buy heavy photo Pearl finish paper in 13x19" for 70 cents a sheet? With you handy paper cutter and higher math, that's, um, uh only 35 cents for a letter size!

Click to expand...

Actually Paul I looked at the web site and was very impressed with the range of products and what appeared to be very reasonable prices.

Changing paper like changing ink is not something one does on a whim. Another variable I need like a hole in the head. Especially with queries over the new PC Pro 100 magenta inksets.

Also paper tends to be heavy and bulky so shipping factors into the equation.

Have made a note to myself to investigate further when/if the magenta ink issue is laid to rest.

RS

Hi, Roy. Valid issues, especially shipping into Canada. The particular best deal I found was on Amazon. Do they have a Canadian warehouse? A special shipping deal into Canada if not? Amazon is too smart to just kiss off all you Canucks. (BTW, Canadians are the largest group of furriners that visit Florida, by far. Or own property here. Recent meetings of those snowbirds to try to get the six month visa stay extended to eight months.)

I recently ran test prints on my new PRO-100 with the nine photo papers I had laying around. Two were Canon, so there was the gold standard. I tried two different paper type settings on two of the other papers, so eleven test prints in all. I used Canon paper settings that were close to the paper type, but mostly Glossy II. The image was of red chrysanthemums and the green foliage, that were done on Kodak HD color negative film and then scanned from the negative.

The Canon papers, the Ilford Smooth, the Arista II (Premier brand, I'm pretty sure), and HP Everyday are all so close in tonality and contrast as to be insignificant. The Royal Brites (El Cheapo) matte was very close, differing a bit with less saturation. Still just fine for handing out to friends or correctable in the printer settings. The HP Premium glossy was too red, which ironically, probably made the print more appealing to an average consumer! The Ilford Classic was a dud, way too little saturation.

My point is that "out of the box" differences for microporous papers seem to be almost non-existent. Only side by side viewing with a critical eye are they visible. I think you know my beliefs about objectivity vs. subjectivity. Interestingly, Inkpress brand says to not worry about custom ICC profiles for their papers with Canon inks, "Canon has done an incredible job," making them unnecessary for most of their papers, just use closest surface type match.

If not good enough, Finestra will make a custom profile for free, don't forget.

I wish I needed more paper.................