1 - beak
- Key Master
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- From: Qld Australia
- Registered: 24-3-2013
- Posts: 912
Hermes Ambassador - first impressions.
Good. Damn good.
Everything works like buttered glass, and the action is amazing. Feels like a good 3000, but with the slight 'clunk' (which was never realy a problem anyway) removed.
Better than the SG!? Too early to say, since I've had the Ambassador for only a day, but I crashed through five A4 pages without even noticing how much I'd typed. This machine just eats up paper, and could not be floored by any amount of work, I'd guess.
Speaking of A4 sheets, this particular machine has micro-type (17 cpi) and that means, wait for it, an average
seven hundred and fifty words to an A4!
Perfect? Well no machine is, and one minor problem that I have found so far is that one cannot set the left margin any further to the right than just before the centre of the page, and vice versa with the right margin. Why should anyone want to do so? Well, a machine with micro-type screams out to have the page typed in two columns (as the sample picture accommpanying) and that cannot be done by just resetting the semi-automatic margins - you have to use the tab function instead. As with that famous 'Signature' machine by Woodstock(?), unusual things are allowed for, since the company did not wish to restrict the user, but held that if a typist wants to do something out of the ordinary, he or she would have their reasons, and it was not up to the manufacturer to limit them by providing only that which was 'normal'.
More anon when I have been back and forth with the Olympia SG1 a few times. This sample is with the ribbon supplied, shall be fitting a new ribbon for more tests.
Last edited by beak (23-3-2015 03:28:33)
Sincerely,
beak.
- Ektagraphic
- Touch Typist
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- From: Mass.
- Registered: 05-10-2014
- Posts: 146
Re: Hermes Ambassador - first impressions.
Beak- Great little review...The typing looks beautiful! I love that typeface! You have me tempted to start to keep my eyes open for an Ambassador! Doesn't the Ambassador have the option of running a carbon ribbon at the same time? I thought that feature was pretty neat. I don't know why one would really need to have that, but interesting nonetheless...I actually have never really used a Heremes machine, so I have always been wondering what the hype is about.
- Spazmelda
- Key Master
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- From: Ohio
- Registered: 25-2-2015
- Posts: 830
Re: Hermes Ambassador - first impressions.
Love that typeface!
- beak
- Key Master
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- From: Qld Australia
- Registered: 24-3-2013
- Posts: 912
Re: Hermes Ambassador - first impressions.
Ektagraphic wrote:
............ Doesn't the Ambassador have the option of running a carbon ribbon at the same time?..................
Mine does (though the special spools are missing) but I have seen Ambassadors for sale without this feature -
or what I saw was a slightly different model (?) the Hermes 9, perhaps, about which I can find out nthing.
Last edited by beak (22-3-2015 08:57:46)
Sincerely,
beak.
- •
Thread Starter- WIWriter
- Novice Typer
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- From: Wisconsin
- Registered: 25-2-2015
- Posts: 35
Re: Hermes Ambassador - first impressions.
Speaking of A4 sheets, this particular machine has micro-type (17 cpi) and that means, wait for it, an average
seven hundred and fifty words to an A4!
If the goal was to pound out text without having to take the time to change paper (which it sometimes is for me), that would be the way to do it!
That typeface looks quite friendly and casual. Not what one would expect for business correspondence, though. From the name Ambassador I would think the machine was marketed toward business or institutional users, and not students or home use.
- beak
- Key Master
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- From: Qld Australia
- Registered: 24-3-2013
- Posts: 912
Re: Hermes Ambassador - first impressions.
I guess the price of this machine would have excluded the average student or private user too. As I dicovered in another thread, this micro-type was used, among many other things, by chemists to type the labels for medicine bottles, and there would doubtless be many other applications for this compact text.
I wonder if this san-serif type-face is the only one used for micro-type, since a more ornate t-face would, perhaps, not be easily readable at this size.
It is odd to move to a 10 cpi machine after using this - feels like writing newspaper headlines. Thinks; must drag out the 6 cpi machine and do comparison sheet.
Last edited by beak (23-3-2015 20:05:35)
Sincerely,
beak.
- •
Thread Starter- KatLondon
- Key Master
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- From: London
- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Hermes Ambassador - first impressions.
Wow, that looks amazing. And well done on your three-&-a-half-thousand words! I can only dream of a day like that at the moment. Even now I should be working and am looking at a typewriter forum... ;)
I've had a Hermes Week too, in that I went and bought a Hermes 2000 the other day. I'll do a thread on it as it's been an interesting machine so far! I guess it won't compare to the 'gold standard' standard, even at its best - and this one has been through the wars.
I'm loving all these conversations abut the typefaces. Thanks, Beak!
- beak
- Key Master
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- From: Qld Australia
- Registered: 24-3-2013
- Posts: 912
Re: Hermes Ambassador - first impressions.
I'll bet you like the 2000 when it's fully operational again; quite an underestimated machine - I really like mine.
Sincerely,
beak.
- •
Thread Starter- igotztowrite
- Touch Typist
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- From: California, USA
- Registered: 08-11-2015
- Posts: 109
Re: Hermes Ambassador - first impressions.
Better than the SG!? Too early to say, since I've had the Ambassador for only a day,
More anon when I have been back and forth with the Olympia SG1 a few times.
Any thoughts regarding comparison to the SG1? I'm conversing with a seller regarding an Ambassador. The drive is freaking long though. 3 hr round trip!
- KatLondon
- Key Master
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- From: London
- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Hermes Ambassador - first impressions.
Oh, go for it, igotztowrite. Hermes are in a class of their own. Three hours is nothing!
