Oak Ridge, NJ:
Chromatics Photo Imaging is well known in Nashville, Tennessee as a
professional photo processing lab. It is owned and managed by Mike Borum, and
his wife Linda acts as the marketing coordinator. When they took delivery of their new Cruse CS 220/450 SL scanner,
Linda’s idea of using the scanner to create a new art exhibit quickly caught
the attention of the local media. The Sunday, November 12 edition of The
Tennessean newspaper ran a feature article on the exhibit in their Arts
and Entertainment section.
The show, titled “Les Beaux Jumeaux” (The Handsome Twins),
was constructed around the idea that the Cruse scanner could capture such a
high quality scan that output from this file would be nearly identical to the
original print. Linda had no trouble
attracting artists, and the exhibit featured works from Sean Dudley, Sheila
Baldwin, Carrie McGee, Edie Maney, Connie Erickson, Joseph Sulkowski, James
Threalkill and seven others.
Although the tactile quality of output differs from the
original (since you cannot reproduce the texture of an oil painting via inkjet
or digital photo printing), even critics are pleased with output quality. Anne Brown, owner of The Arts Company in
Nashville and a representative of several featured artists, noted: “People want
the image, and this is a 21st century way of getting an image. The quality… is very good. It’s pretty impressive.”
The Borums feel that artists may reap the biggest benefits
from the new technology. Per Mike, “If
they want to sell prints of their work, they don’t have to print up 1,000 or
5,000 copies to justify setting up a four-color press. The artists can make smaller, more cost
effective limited editions, and we will keep the original file archived for
future runs.”
Linda compared the ease of image capture on the Cruse to
traditional methods:
“Previously, we would need to photograph the original, then
work from the negative or transparency to produce a copy print. This was a time consuming, labor intensive
process that never produced the same quality as the original. Using the Cruse scanner, we are able to
capture much more of the color and detail of the original artwork; when you see
the copy beside the original, it is just amazing.”
By targeting existing markets with new technology,
Chromatics has established itself as a leader in the photo and imaging
industry. Chromatics was founded 21 years ago by Mike Borum, at the time a
professional photographer, to fulfill his needs for precise and accurate film
processing. After offering his film
processing services to other professional photographers, Chromatics grew into a
full service lab that today offers film processing, photographic printing, full
digital imaging and scanning services, as well as mounting and laminating. Located in downtown Nashville, Chromatics
serves customers nationwide.
Cruse Digital Equipment is the US based arm of Cruse
GmbH. Known for the legendary Cruse
Camera, Cruse GmbH has focused research and development efforts on creating a
line of premium-quality large format scanners.
The resulting Cruse scanners can handle originals as small as a 35mm
slide, and as large as 5’x8’. Cruse
scanners are in place at such locations as the Beethoven Museum in Bonn,
Germany; Lucent Technologies in Orlando, FL; NASA’s Johnson Space Center in
Houston, TX; and industry-leading photo and repro customers such as Rieger
Communications and Bay State Reprographics.
For additional information on the Cruse scanner product line,
please call Cruse Digital Equipment at (973) 208-7289, or e-mail kurt.ernst@crusedigital.com.