Legal Disclaimers: the small print

Foundation for Latin American Anthropological Research is a nonprofit organization established under the laws of Rhode Island and registered with IRS for over three decades. As a research and educational institution. FLAAR has tax exempt status. The office of FLAAR in America is in St. Louis MO. As typical of other publications, incoming mail (e-mail) is utilized to form a wider picture of the state of digital imaging technology, especially what end-users need in terms of equipment, accessories, and help, whether help via future training or more immediate help by means of providing general introductory information. In some instances the information contained in an incoming e-mail may be pertinent enough that we would include it within one of our reviews. In no case, however, is the name of the sender published by FLAAR on our web sites. The text of e-mail will be edited appropriately to fit in the space, style, and subject matter at hand. just as you are interested in our answers. It's a fair exchange. When an incoming e-mail expresses interest in a particular product where it is logical that the manufacturer or distribute of that product may have more up to date information with which to answer aspects of the questions posed in the e-mail FLAAR will forward the pertinent e-mail to the pertinent company so that they may attend better to the needs and questions of the e-mail. Nonetheless, we will personally answer your e-mail ourselves. All images taken by Nicholas Hellmuth, Andrea David, or sent to FLAAR by others are copyright by the respective photographer (or FLAAR in the case of photos by Nicholas Hellmuth). No portion of the text or illustrations of a FLAAR web site may be reproduced in any manner without prior consent of FLAAR in writing.

The purpose of FLAAR itself is research and public education by means of photography and digital imaging in the fields of art history, architectural history, archaeology, anthropology, ethnohistory of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, Central America, and South America, with a focus on pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica (Mexico through Costa Rica). Because the exotic plants and animals in this tropical region were a key part of the diet and culture of the indigenous peoples of these areas, we also include studies of the tropical flora and fauna of the core region. Our goal under this mandate is to work towards increasing the quantity and quality of a professional level of photography in field work and in museums. It is logical that we are thereby keenly interested in helping people learn about the advantages of high-end digital imaging, both input (scanners and digital cameras) and output (inkjet and laser printers). In addition to our web sites and occasional public lectures and articles, FLAAR is active in market research so we can better communicate to the hardware and software companies what the end user needs in terms of new and better features. All too often the needs of first-time users are not attended to by major corporations (who naturally tend to concentrate on the prepress and commercial markets).

Since our background is academia and as public education implies a policy of helping newcomers learn about the subject at hand, we work hard at helping newcomers learn about digital imaging (as can be attested to by the countless "thank you" e-mail that we receive weekly from people whom we have helped make a decision on what direction to take as they enter the world of scanners, digital photography, and desktop printing).

A current goal in FLAAR research is to gather together the gist of the incoming e-mail and with this information to prepare booklets, handouts, and other information so that additional people can be helped. Since the companies who make the hardware and software rather obviously know more about their products than outsiders, we are sharing the questions and needs expressed in the requests-for-further-information with the companies so that through feedback from the companies we can all learn more about the products ourselves and hence are better prepared to answer the next round of incoming questions. Thus the questions, observations, facts, and text of incoming e-mail may be utilized as background material or as quotations for informational publications of FLAAR and/or the companies whose products are pertinent to digital imaging so that we may provide more complete information to all who come to FLAAR for help in learning about digital imaging needs.

All rights in letters, articles, and reviews sent to any FLAAR editor or e-mail address will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and are subject to FLAAR's unrestricted right to utilize and edit as necessary. If for any reason you wish to send postal mail to FLAAR, the office manager is Pam Graves, FLAAR, 604 Clark Ave., St. Louis MO 63119. e-mail should go to largeformat@flaar.org If you happen to have a question on legal matters, Andrea David, Co-Director, is a lawyer and will be interested in your observations. In real life she is a corporate attorney for a major multinational company headquarters in Essen, Germany. We do not list a phone or fax number because we are often away at trade shows and our staff are in Guatemala or Germany so reaching FLAAR is more realistic by e-mail.

FLAAR reviews of large format printers by Nicholas Hellmuth are based on the following factors:

1. truth in advertising. If a companies lies, cheats, makes claims that are pure hype, they get roasted in our reviews. We will point out the good features in those printers but go into detail on the defects that are blissfully omitted in the misleading ad claims.
   

2. Feedback from end users. We get reports daily from the 12,000 people a month who read our web sites (fortunately not from all 12,000, but from more than enough).

3. we actually use the printers in an actual studio, thus we have time to figure out how to produce great output. We have produced a quality of prints that many resellers, actual people who sell these machines, are unable