Release Issued by De Vere:
Traditional quality and digital efficiency
Since its launch, the De Vere Digital Enlarger 504DS has continued to capture the imagination of prolabs and photographic studios around the world who love its winning combination of a traditional darkroom approach and high-end digital technology.
When De Vere, part of Odyssey Sales, created the world's first Digital Enlarger which could produce quality prints from digital images onto both colour and black-and-white photographic paper, it was bound to be a winner. It is therefore no surprise that prolabs and photographers around the world continue to regard the 504DS system as their primary processing system.
Sussex-based studio Mary Fraser Photography took delivery of a De Vere Digital Enlarger about six months ago. Primarily a wedding and portrait photography studio, the business also takes in processing for other photography businesses.
Studio director Simon Fraser explains that the benefits are already obvious: “Previously, we weren't able to print digital images,” he says, “but a lot of our customers were changing to digital and we were losing out. After considering all the options, the De Vere 504DS suited us ideally, as it gave us so much control.
“Although there are digital minilabs in the area, they are restricted in the sizes they can print, whereas this machine is so versatile, we now produce any size up to 20x30ins. This was a good, cost effective option for us. Most of our processing work is now coming from other professional photographers wanting large size format portraiture and wedding images, but we are also starting to get quite a few requests from digital artists.”
For London prolab Positive Images, the 504DS has enabled it to keep a foot in both camps. “We are, at heart, a traditional lab handling all the wet side, but with reversal type printing coming to an end - and a lot of our customers asking about digital - this seemed a good half-way house to marry the old and new technologies,” says Positive Images managing director Dick Kaemena.
“We can print from any digital file but, as importantly, we can now also take a positive image and, as there is no longer any reversal paper, we can scan it and make it digital. We know Odyssey really well and we're very pleased with the Enlarger - it's a nice, flexible piece of equipment.”
The flexibility of the De Vere 504DS also stands well with Monolab, a specialist black-and-white lab based in Brighton, Sussex. Being able to combine the wide facilities of a digital system with the traditional values of monochrome photography provides the perfect answer to modern image production of the highest quality.
For full information on the De Vere Digital Enlarger 504DS, visit www.odyssey-sales.com
