EFNIR: Diamine Amazing Amethyst

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Diamine Amazing Amethyst

This is review #123 in my series.  Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: Cleaning was quick and easy.  Now I know why all the online photos are too blue: cameras turn the ink blue!  I've adjusted as well as I can.  The zoom image is the closest color.  I recommend sampling if you're picky about the exact shade of your purple...

And here is a screen of the final result, for those not interested in the video:

Scan of Completed Review:

Zoomed in photo:

Absorbent Paper Closeup (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper):

Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap

Previous Review: Herbin Gris Nuage.

Want to influence the inky sequence?  Take the "next ink" poll.

Need to catch up on The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh?  Find the whole story here.

Hope you enjoy.  Comments appreciated!

[mizgeorge]

Thank you @LizEF - another very interesting review.

 

I say interesting because this ink has lots of good qualities in terms of dry time, behaviour, OK flow and lubrication and easy cleanup - things I might well look for.

 

Unfortunately the colour (or I could say either of the colours) does absolutely nothing for me. I don't dislike it, but I can think of any reason for having it. It's that whole red-leaning thing again I think!

[LizEF]

30 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

Thank you @LizEF - another very interesting review.

You're very welcome!

 

30 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

Unfortunately the colour (or I could say either of the colours) does absolutely nothing for me. I don't dislike it, but I can think of any reason for having it. It's that whole red-leaning thing again I think!

It's possible my eyes were broken.  It's (no longer?) as red as the images show.  But it's also not quite as blue as the absorbent paper image.  <sigh>  I have no idea whether it's my eyes then or now, or whether the ink changed on paper.  This is one where I say "look at all the various online images and then roll the dice with a sample".

 

I swear it was a lot like Kaweco Summer Purple (which still leans very red to my eyes), but now it's looking more like Pelikan 4001 Violet (currently inked).   So maybe it changes after drying?  I know not what to say.

[LizEF]

Huh.  The swatch even looks darker and more muted than it does in the video - which is unusual.  I think maybe this ink changes color as it dries.

 

Edit: But the color of the swatch in the video is now more accurate than the photos...

[Sailor Kenshin]

In the close-ups, this ink looks red-violet, which appeals to me.  In the video it looks almost black.  😒

 

Poor Quin.  I'm feeling bad for him.  Thanks for the review.

[I-am-not-really-here]

Ah so maybe the color-changing characteristic is the amazing part.  
 

I like the red but don't foresee a need for this ink at the moment.  The blue switch is much less appealing.

 

Thanks for the review, and the follow-up with this color shifter!

[yazeh]

Nice one Liz  My favorite part about this review was Enketa/ Makhabesh, attempting an interspecies relationship. Unless, Makhabesh and family are humanoid felines  

[LizEF]

22 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

In the video it looks almost black.

It definitely doesn't in real life - there was no trouble (then or now) seeing color.  (What color I saw is in question as it's not what I see now, but it never was so dark as to look black - in person.)

 

24 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Poor Quin.  I'm feeling bad for him.  Thanks for the review.

Dealing with sphinxes is a tricky business.

[LizEF]

22 minutes ago, I-am-not-really-here said:

Ah so maybe the color-changing characteristic is the amazing part.

Oh, good point!

 

22 minutes ago, I-am-not-really-here said:

Thanks for the review, and the follow-up with this color shifter!

You're very welcome!

[LizEF]

16 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Nice one Liz  My favorite part about this review was Enketa/ Makhabesh, attempting an interspecies relationship. Unless, Makhabesh and family are humanoid felines  

No, not really humanoid.  Just Enketa being a tease, perhaps slightly enamored with the first wizard she encountered, and Makhabesh being the protective brother.

[LizEF]

29 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Poor Quin.  I'm feeling bad for him.

PS: We now have a brief rest between adventures, and then begin the "Old Goat Adventure".

[PithyProlix]

My Amazing Amethyst looks like yours, so perhaps either both of our eyes are broken or we both got a bum batch. I was wondering why mine was so different from online pics. I tried a few different pen/paper combinations and could never warm to the color. 

[LizEF]

21 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

My Amazing Amethyst looks like yours, so perhaps either both of our eyes are broken or we both got a bum batch. I was wondering why mine was so different from online pics. I tried a few different pen/paper combinations and could never warm to the color. 

Interesting.  And the scary thing to me is that my memory claims that the zoom image was more red this morning than it is now.  Perhaps my brain has been deteriorating at a rapid pace...

[PithyProlix]

2 hours ago, LizEF said:

Interesting.  And the scary thing to me is that my memory claims that the zoom image was more red this morning than it is now.  Perhaps my brain has been deteriorating at a rapid pace...

 

The zoom image learns pretty darn red, at least to my eyes. It did last night and it still does this morning! Not to say that my own brain isn't quickly deteriorating ...

 

In a 2017 review here, @visvamitra pegged the color as #57468e (R=87, G=70, B=142), so a lot more blue than red. That said, the lighter parts of the shading do appear more red in his scans. Perhaps it needs a wet pen to bring out the blue?

 

 

 

I just emailed Diamine to ask if there was a change in the color - I will report back if they reply. I got my bottle around December last year.

[LizEF]

20 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

Perhaps it needs a wet pen to bring out the blue?

We have seen that with some colors, so it could be.  It also wouldn't surprise me if my eyes or brain functioned differently in the morning after a good night's sleep vs. in the evening after a day of staring at computer screens...

 

21 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

I just emailed Diamine to ask if there was a change in the color - I will report back if they reply. I got my bottle around December last year.

Thank you.  I'm interested to see what they'll say.

[PithyProlix]

I just tried this using a #1 dip pen nib, Tomoe River 52gsm, really laying down the ink, enough so the darker parts took a really long time to dry. Unmistakably much more red than blue, at least to my eye, late morning here, wide awake and fueled by coffee. And I still can't warm up to the color. 

 

 

 

[LizEF]

5 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

I just tried this using a #1 dip pen nib, Tomoe River 52gsm, really laying down the ink, enough so the darker parts took a really long time to dry. Unmistakably much more red than blue, at least to my eye, late morning here, wide awake and fueled by coffee. And I still can't warm up to the color. 

 

 

 

On my screen, your image looks much more blue than mine - but that was my impression when I first photographed my own pages - that the camera added a ton of blue (or omitted a ton of red).  Bizarre.

[PithyProlix]

6 minutes ago, LizEF said:

On my screen, your image looks much more blue than mine - but that was my impression when I first photographed my own pages - that the camera added a ton of blue (or omitted a ton of red).  Bizarre.

 

Yes, same on my screen (and off) - mine is more blue than yours, except for your absorbent paper images, but still much more red than other online images, cf. visvamitra's image above, for instance. 

[PithyProlix]

Sorry, one more post and then I'll lay off for a while. I put my image in https://imagecolorpicker.com/ and, according to it, the four most prominent colors after the color of the paper are these, in order:

 

rgb(135,  93, 166)

rgb( 90,  67, 123)

rgb(152, 128, 171)

rgb(181, 135, 198)

 

Those are all more blue than red! Holy (bleep), maybe my eyes really are broken! Still, I say it is relatively much more red than the vast majority of other online images of the ink. 

 

 

 

***EDIT: OK, so I loaded my photo onto my laptop and, the difference seems to be a calibration issue with my phone, which is what I used to take the photo. It *does* look much more blue on my laptop, suggesting that I corrected the colors inaccurately on my phone (the only adjustments made were brightness and white balance temperature using Snapseed). I might try another adjustment, this time using my laptop ...

[LizEF]

9 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

Sorry, one more post and then I'll lay off for a while.

I'm finding your posts interesting, so feel free to post further if you wish.  My "phone" (really just a WiFi android device that looks like a phone) also makes images look significantly different from my laptop. Welcome to the world, I guess.

 

9 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

Those are all more blue than red!

Yeah, but three of them are also pretty heavily red, and look to me like red-leaning (to various degrees) purple (in the corresponding graphic).