jdef said:
Cost is relative. If one were to ammortize the cost of a process over the life of the print, platinum might be the cheapest process to use, or maybe carbon? Digital prints would surely be the most expensive process in these terms.
Other than death what is not relative? The point in discussions of this type is to provide people with accurate information and let them make their own choices. In other words, make apples to apples comparisons. I am not pushing any process or method of printing. I print in AZO, carbon, kallitype and Pt./Pd and I also make digital prints. I find advantages and disadvantage in all of these methods of printing. Carbon is without question the least expensive of these processes to work in terms of the raw materials, if you make your own tissue as I do, but in many ways it is the most exquisite of all photograhic printing processes, vintage or contemporary. But carbon has a very long learning curve and even after one masters the process it is still very time consuming to work, and failure reate is high, so if you put a value on your time it is the most expensive of all processes.
My original suggestion was that people who know nothing about Pt./Pd. printing can basically learn the rudiments of the process by starting out with kallitype. And, if you have the two processes calibrated it is entirely feasible to proof in kallitype and make your final print in Pt./Pd, which can result in a substantial saving in materials because there is no question but that it costs more to make Pt./Pd. prints than it does to make kallitypes. How much more is subject to many factors, including the cost of chemistry and paper, which can vary tremendously as we have seen: Don Bryant suggests $4-5 dollars for an 8X10 print, Joe Lipka in his article at unblinkingeye.com suggests about $6.50 for a Pt./Pd. print of the same size, while Kerik suggests a cost of $5.00 for a 12X20 print. My own costs are similar to what Kerik quotes, or perhaps even slightly less. But bear in mind that Keriks figures and mine are based on buying the metals in quantity for roughly 1/3 or less of what they would cost through Artcraft, B&S or Formulary , and on buying papers also in bulk with considerable savings over normal retail prices.
In the end I have no interest in championing any process and it makes absolutely no difference to me how people choose to print. But costs do matter to some people and I think it only fair that if we compare expenses it should be done in such as way that accurately reflects the different ways the base materials are purchased. Otherwise the comparisons are meaningless.
Sandy