So how much variability is there in the ano colors that One Drop produces, for instance, within a single production run of a particular yoyo?
When I look at the shade of blue of @Tvelto’s VTWO (which you can see in his video review) and then look at the shade of blue of mine, they are very different. Yet I believe they came from the same production run (there was only one production run of the blue VTWO, right?).
I know there is some degree of variability inherent in anodizing, but in this case it seems much greater than I would expect.
A particular run of a solid color should be exactly the same (this is the case most of the time). If we run that color again, the shade is likely to be different.
Looking at his video he seems to have the blue from the first production run.
Not sure what your’s looks like, but perhaps the variance you are seeing is from your monitor or the video hue. Not sure.
Perhaps. Mine is much, much darker to my eyes than what I see in that photo (and in Tom’s video). But, as you say, it could be an artifact of monitor variance. I’d have to see Tom’s VTWO next to mine to know for sure.
Here’s what mine looks like in context with other yoyos:
Color darkness is a function of time in dye and dye concentration.
Anodizing is done on racks. Typically a ‘yoyo run’ from a manufacturer will be sent to an anodizer and the anodizer will color one rack of yoyos at a time. Depending on how many yoyos can be done per rack, a ‘run’ might be divided up into one or more racks.
Therefore while it’s possible that there is color variance by rack within a run, most commercial outfits should be pretty meticulous about keeping things consistent.
Between runs of yoyos, the anodizer most likely makes a new batch of dye. This introduces the possibility of a different dye concentration and different dye time. Unless the anodizer is very careful in keeping everything identical the colors will vary.
Sure, that makes sense to me. However, it just seems like the blue dye used for the run of VTWOs mine is a member of is qualitatively different than all the other yoyos One Drop has done in this cobalt blue color. For instance, here are all three of my blue One Drops:
You can see that the VTWO is not really the same color. Other blue One Drops I’ve seen pictures and videos of (e.g., Tom’s Kuntosh 5000QV, Tom’s VTWO, Chad’s Mantis) all look very much in the same hue/brightness family as my MC and Top Deck. The only one that seems strikingly different to my eyes is the VTWO. If I were to get a blue Overture, I’m betting it too would look much more like the MC than the VTWO.
Yeah OD solids definitely vary from model to model but IMO that’s to be expected. The VTWOs have a really deep dye job and a matte, almost chalky (but not actually chalky, still v smooth) finish. I see less variance (but some) between, say, my blue Mantis and my blue Vanguard that both seem have the same gloss finish.
I’m not sure what Tom uses to record but I suspect it’s a phone or something that isn’t a DSLR. When photographing yoyos, I’ve noticed that the photo software on iPhone etc can throw the color of something A LOT. And many times you don’t really have any control over it. That’s not to mention lighting etc and just the natural limitations of your lens. Even with a lot of photo editing, it’s super hard to really get a shot to 100% accurately represent the color of something. And that’s not even getting to monitor/display variance.
TL:DR I don’t ever expect perfectly accurate color representation. I’m pretty sure Tom’s VTWO looking different is a product of various technical stuffs.
This photo looks dark on my monitor. But yeah, every single run of “blue” will look different. This photo shows 3 different runs from different time periods. The Top Deck was done at a different anodizer (based on the engraving I know how old it is), but I have no idea on the MMC.
The only pattern to find in color shades on our yoyos is that there is no pattern.
