compared Acorn, Nazdar and Chromaline today. Did not take the readings as I am sure each can be linearized to produce bigger or smaller dot.
The ink used for the comparison is Chromaline AccuInk on an EPSON 4800.
Overall, Acorn had the least dot gain due to wicking properties of the coating. Nazdar was a little behind it and Chromaline was just a bit behind Nazdar. The difference is very subtle. It is only visible in the 98-99% dot size which is impossible to hold anyways (dots produced are smaller than the mesh openings and on top of that are just not strong enough to hold on to the screen during washout). I DID NOT adjust the ink delivery system and try to tweak it for the other films. Right now we are dialed in for the Acorn so it might not come as surprise that it produced the best results.
All of the films had a similar Dmax and Nazdar film seemed to have a slightly better Dmin than the others.
Acorn comes with a sheet of paper holding the film tightly wrapped. Nazdar uses adhesive tape and forces us to throw away about a foot of film due to the sticky residue. I don't remember what Chromaline does, but we did not need to throw away as much.
All the films are about 5/1000th of an inch in thickness, with Nazdar feeling thinner than the others, but I had to break out the calipers to find the 0.2/1000th difference. Just like everything else, the differences are just about immeasurable.
Few months back, I had an opportunity to check Brad's (mavgraph) film and it was significantly thicker. I can see that being important for archiving. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to test it. I think the sheet is here somewhere in my office, but just like the Fixxons stuff, I can't find it right now (don't ask!).
I've had problems with the Chromaline film before and even though it is cheaper and we still use it when we run out, for personal reasons I have been staying away from it. The issues I had were when we were still using the old EPSON 3000 with aftermarket inks, but somewhere somehow, I never regained the confidence. It certainly performs nicely with their ink and a better printer, but Acorn film just seems to do ever so slightly better and for us, we don't mind paying more to get more. Nazdar will probably be our go to 17" film as it is about half price what a 17" roll of our stuff goes for. 95% of our films are printed on 13" roll as the bigger size just seems to generate too much waste. So while we might not be sending too much business to Nazdar (with film purchases), for anybody wanting a good product at an impressive price, I can't recommend it more. For anyone looking to spend more to get more, Acorn would be my suggestion.
pierre
p.s. Acorn is sold under many different brands and it might take some digging to figure out who the manufacturer is.
p.p.s. I am sure there is better film than Acorn out there, but while I have seen stuff that is $300 per roll, I have not had the chance to test it; maybe one of these days . . .
