Caught on film: Jonathan Sutherland (left) & Jeremy Stubbs, with the camera
A new company has been set up in Avondale, West Auckland to service the large format printing industry with film, using one of only three horizontal gallery cameras in the country. The Film Depot has just been established as a pre-press outlet , in the same industrial block as three other well-known Auckland printing firms.
Managed by photo lithographer Jonathan Sutherland, the new company is outputting large format film for posters (retail & street), large display stands, bill boards and packaging up to 1800 x 1200 predominantly for the screen printing market but also for the off-set industry.
It is currently supplying Auckland-based companies with film, but Jonathan says there are plans to broaden its customer base throughtout New Zealand & potentially the Pacific & Australia .
The Film Depot also offers a design service through its inhouse Mac operators, managed by Jeremy Stubbs with large format digital proofing up to 1100mm wide.
Jonathan says the company was founded with an eye on the pre-press market, and coincided with the availability of one of only three large cameras in the country.
"The camera became available via Lithotech when it became surplus to their requirements and we jumped at the chance to service the market" he says.
Coincidentally, Jonathan operated the same camera many years ago when employed by Maxi Grafix in Auckland.
"I never thought I would see it again, in fact the quality it’s producing is as good as it ever was."
He says "the camera was purpose built to enlarge intermediatory film to its maximun image size."
