I was looking at the prices of some of the labs and some offer metallic paper for about $10 - $15 more on a 16X20. I looked over the archive of past posts to APUG and didn't see my question answered. That is, does metallic hold up better than regular paper? I'm refering to the image fading and cracks in the paper. Is it worth it in your opinion or just something else to offer for those that think paying more is always giving you something better? I'm talking about regular developing not printed on a photo printer paper.
the reason why it costs more is because its a specialty product. As far as I know, its pretty stable archivability-wise(if processed per kodak's standards).
and the paper can just make some images look drop dead gorgeous! Fuji's comparable paper "pearl" is great too.
I don't know for sure how well it will hold up but being part of the Kodak Endura series of paper, they all hold very high standards of longevity. The sister products to this paper hold up very well according to testing. I'll see if I can find some documentation.
One of the print from digital only labs near me offered a special on enlargements using this paper that was incredibly inexpensive. The next print night at the photo club I attend convinced me that:
1) for certain images, it is tremendous; and
2) for many images, it is awful.
I agree completely. After one of the photo students at my school discovered that Mpix prints on the metallic paper, tons of students were using it for almost every photo they put into critiques. It can add to some images, but just makes most look gaudy to me.