Lasergraphics is the leading manufacturer of affordable, high quality digital slide makers for 35mm slide presentations, and digital film recorders for high resolution digital imaging and photo retouching applications.

There are five current models in the Lasergraphics film recorder product line: The Lasergraphics Personal LFR Pro (NEW!!), LFR-X, LFR Mark III, LFR Mark III DPM, and LFR Mark VI DPM (the previous LFR, LFR Plus, Personal LFR, Personal LFR Plus, Mark II, Mark II DPM, and Mark V DPM models have been discontinued, although most of these are still supported by Lasergraphics and the Computer Graphics Group). While all the current models are film recorders, we will refer to those models which are primarily designed to produce slides, by the more commonly used terms "slide maker" or "slide printer".

Slide Makers			Film Recorders
Personal LFR Pro	LFR-X	LFR Mark III	LFR Mark III DPM	LFR Mark VI DPM

The Lasergraphics Personal LFR Pro and LFR-X models feature 4000-line (4K) resolution, and are primarily designed to image 35mm slides. These two slide makers will produce excellent slides from most presentations. The 35mm film adapter on the Personal LFR Pro is permanently attached to the film recorder, and can image one 24- or 36-exposure cannister of 35mm film at a time. On the LFR-X model, the single-cannister 35mm film adapter is removable, and can be swapped with an optional "SmartLoader". The SmartLoader can accept and expose up to seven standard 35mm film cannisters without user intervention, for unattended imaging of up to 7x36=252 slides.

The Lasergraphics LFR Mark III model features 8000-line (8K) resolution. It is designed to image 35mm slides with maximum possible sharpness, and will produce more readable slides than the Personal LFR Pro or LFR-X on any slides which contain tiny text or very fine details. Its single-cannister 35mm film adapter can also be removed and replaced with the optional 252-slide capacity "SmartLoader" described above. While the LFR Mark III is designed primarily for 35mm slides, if ordered from the factory with the "drum filter" option it can also mount a 120/220 or 4x5 film adapter for imaging transparencies in these medium formats.

While negative film can also be loaded into the Personal LFR Pro, LFR-X, or LFR Mark III slide maker models, and good results will be obtained on negative film, professional quality negatives require a film recorder especially designed for negative film. This is where the Lasergraphics DPM's (Digital Photography Models) shine. The main problem with negatives shot on film recorders, is the "haloing" effect. Film recorders display their images on a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), similar to the one in your TV but much, much higher resolution. An electron beam produces a spot in a coating of phosphor on the inside of the face of the CRT, and this spot is moved around the face of the CRT at varying brightnesses to paint the picture. The problem is, some of the light emitted by the spot doesn't pass through the glass face of the tube, but instead is reflected back from the front surface of the glass and illuminates the phosphor around the spot. This results in a "halo" around the spot - dim, but nevertheless visible. Transparency films like slide film are not particularly sensitive to this haloing effect, but negative films are. The result is that dark areas, especially those which are near light areas, are "fogged" slightly, losing shadow detail and producing negatives which are too "flat". Some other film recorder manufacturers have attempted to reduce this problem by making the face of the CRT out of glass which is gray, rather than clear. The idea is that the reflected light will have to travel farther through the gray glass than will the light which passes straight through the glass to the lens, so the reflected light will be dimmed more than the direct light, and the halo will be less obvious. The problem with this approach is that the intensity of the spot has to be increased to compensate for the loss of direct light through the gray glass, so the spot gets bigger and fuzzier. So by reducing one problem, they create another possibly worse one - now the whole image is fuzzier. On the other hand, Lasergraphics has created as proprietary method of mechanically cutting off the halo while still using a clear glass CRT face, virtually eliminating (not just reducing) the haloing without increasing the spot size or making the image fuzzier. This technology is not available on any other brand of film recorder, but is standard on the Lasergraphics LFR Mark III DPM and LFR Mark VI DPM film recorders. The special DPM enhancement has no adverse effect on positive films such as slide film; any DPM model can also be used to image excellent positives.

The first DPM model is the Mark III DPM. This model features 8000 lines (8K) resolution, and includes a standard single-cannister 35mm film adapter. The LFR Mark III DPM is recommended primarily for imaging onto 35mm negative film. Optionally available for this model are medium-format 120/220 or 4x5 film adapters. However, if you want to blow medium-format film up to very large (poster and larger) sizes, we recommend instead the LFR Mark VI DPM. This model is rated at 16000 lines (16K) resolution, and has a larger CRT and relatively smaller spot size than the LFR Mark III DPM, so negatives produced by the Mark VI DPM can be blown up to larger sizes. With 16K resolution, even the biggest enlargements from medium-format negs look sharp and clean.

Finally, Lasergraphics and the Computer Graphics Group are currently offering a tradein of $500 to $3000 for any competitive film recorder, working or not, on a new Lasergraphics model.

Click on one of the links below for more detailed specifications on any of the Lasergraphics models described above.

Slide Makers			Film Recorders
Personal LFR Pro	LFR-X	LFR Mark III	LFR Mark III DPM	LFR Mark VI DPM