Review Harman by Hahnemuhle paper

[POAH]

Harman by Hahnemuhle are a new range of papers from a collabortation between these two company's.

quoite from the press release.

"The papers are designed to meet the needs of the professional fine art photography market, but there is also expected to be significant demand from the enthusiast photography community"


so basically a selection of fine art papers at a lower price (well cheaper than hahnemuhle as you'll see). The coatings are Harman's and the base layer from Hahnemuhle and there is ICC profiles for download too

http://harman.hahnemuehle.com/site/en/820/products.html

there is a

Gloss baryta - standard & warm tone
Gloss art Fibre - standard & warm tone
Matte smooth cotton
Matte textured cotton
Canvas

Longivity tests have been carried out

http://harman.hahnemuehle.com/media/lne_longevity_test_harman_by_hahnem_hle.pdf

I made my own profiles before printing and I'm using an R2400 with fotospeed ultra 4K pigment inks.

Looking at the papers you can see similarity between the gloss baryta (WT) and harmans own gloss FB AI paper (WT), in fact I can't tell them apart by eye. The same goes for the Matte smooth cotton and harmans FB matt paper as well. The gloss art fibre looks strikingly like Hahnemuhle's fine art baryta too although the weight of the papers are different 325 (H) V 320 (HbH).

The papers are quite ridged and had to be fed through the rear roll feed to reduce the likely hood of head strikes although the gloss baryta still manged too. The gloss baryta also warpped after printing although the base is not as rigid as the gloss art fibre.

The print from the gloss baryta is slightly brighter than the gloss art fibre and the texture of the gloss art fibre was not to my taste with the landscape print I made.

I compared the two HbH papers to epson tradtional photo paper, innova art white gloss and innova art super glazed papers.

epson traditional is my current favorite paper although I only buy it when its on offer because it is far too expensive. The innova papers I like although I've never personally bought any.

innova super glazed - £1.20 per A3 sheet
innova white gloss - £1.20 per A3 sheet
Epson tradtional - £3.00 per A3+ sheet
Harman By Hahnemuhle - £1.56 per A3 sheet
Harman FB Gloss - £1.50 per A3 sheet
Hahnemuhle fine art baryta - £2.55 per A3 sheet
ilford gold fibre silk - £1.50 (3.00) per A3+ sheet 50 sheet pack (10 sheet pack)


In terms of price the HbH paper undercuts Hahnemuhles own fine art baryta by a fair margin and is significantly cheaper than epsons traditional photopaper at normal street price (my current stash was purchased at 1/2 price). The HbH still has the same problem as the harman paper with head strikes and I'm not convinced about the quality of the base layer in the gloss baryta paper.

the big question - would I buy these new papers from HbH

no is the answer. I don't like the texture of the gloss art fibre for the majority of my work (works well in B&W though particularly the WT) and the gloss bartya is a pain because of the head strikes which I don't get with any of the other bartya papers I have.

if you like hahnemhule's fine art baryta then the glossy art fibre is a much cheaper option


I never tested the canvas or the matt papers as I don't like those types of paper and have nothing to compare it too.

 

[nikonuser]

Many thank POAH for your detailed review. You clearly have a good knowledge of photographic papers and printers and it is nice to get some feedback from someone who has tried a number of different papers and knows what they are talking about.
I did speak to a Harman rep. at Focus on Imaging in March about this new range of papers and was looking forward to them coming onto the market.
I use Innova papers mainly although I too have tried many different types and probably from your detailed report will stick with what I have.
Thanks again
Dave