he's probably the most famous personality in the fountain pen world. it's just fountain pens happen to be a very niche interest in this day and age lol.
Yeah, well. It's in part rip-off of what SBRE Brown had started doing years earlier and tbh it imho lacks the originality of like Penboy Roy, but still: it can be informative at times.
I’m glad you analyzed this pen in your usual detailed way, but I think I’m still more drawn to the Skylight. I love the lava resin more than the large ink window!
Agreed! The lava resin is the unique feature of the pen. The skylights give a good view into the ink levels without destroying the proportions of the pen. I find that the ink window on the Crystal Dream is not in proportions with the rest of the pen, especially when capped. It breaks the pen into lava, window, lava. I actually feel like a chunk of lava was just removed. It doesn't flow like the Skylight.
To avoid an inkcident with Visconti’s top heavy ink bottle, one can place it in the upside-down clear plastic top of the ink’s box while filling the pen.
For a selection of reasons, I will not be buying this pen any time soon. Mostly that price tag. The ink window is interesting, but it looks so odd when it's not inked! I will say, it looks excellent side-by-side with the stainless steel and Magma versions. Very satisfying. Thank you.
I am happy I got one HS before they switched again to gold nibs. The palladium one feels and looks much better to me. I miss the double reservoir though...
Great review! The pen looks awkward when empty, and better when filled. If I were to buy such an expensive pen, the chrystal dream might be the one. The odd looks add to the ”cool factor” in my opinion. A pen at 700+€ can only motivate itself by huge amounts of ”cool factor”, in my opinion. The price tag will keep it a ”chrystal dream” for me.
David, the KWZ Turquoise ink you showed is their iron gall version. The regular KWZ Turquoise is one of the best you’ll get and would match your others better. For some reason, the iron gall version is that Greeny colour. 👍🏻😀
my ideal homo sapiens would have the entire forward chamber plus maybe 3/4 or 1 inch of window, then all lava resin the rest of the way back. i think one break would look better than constantly going back and forth between lava and clear
What is the advantage of having two ink chambers? Wouldn't it be easier to have one large chamber? Can you have two different inks in the two chambers?
It's similar to systems used on many different pens. There are many benefits. One being that if you keep the pen inked for a while, only the ink in the forward chamber will dry out, rather than losing the entire fill.
Inkcidents....lol. Thanks for the review!! If been wanting to see this one. I have a Dark Age and the only thing I'd like it to have is that small ink window near the section(I even like not having the bands on the barrel)
I love all these videos --great reviews. I love my standard Homo sapiens with the medium 18 k gold nib. I am considering a skylight or a crystal dream. How does the broad nib compare?
how do you find avoiding the ink staining on the section? if ink does dry on can you remove it easily? love your content and can't wait to order my Visconti Bronze Age in the next few days
@@FigbootonPens I was wondering the same thing. Thank you for answering. I just got a Dark Ages and I decided to get the newer 18k gold. I couldn't find a reasonable priced palladium that had a warranty...
I have a pre-palladium era gold nib on my Opera that has treated me well, although it is writing like a juicy Broad, and not as it is marked as Medium. Still I enjoyed it for the past 13 years.
Love my Visconti and Peneider. This one just seems a try hard combining a demonstrator and standard Homosapien. Love the size but can do without the larger ink window. Thanks David hope you are keeping safe.
I am glad this model comes with the gold nib which have always been amazing. I don't care for their palladium dreamtouch nibs and I think they are very over rated.
Personally I feel Visconti I doing a cash grab by decreasing the actual amount of lava resin and replacing it with acrylics. The large ink windows are quite ugly and never go with the aesthetics of the Homo Sapiens. The transparent band is a genius touch! Personally for me...the best Homosapiens would be a full lava resin Homosapiens with just the transparent band without the hideous unnecessarily large ink windows.
Lava resin is not that expensive as Visconti is trying to present it, so materials don't affect the manufacturing cost much. The filling mechanism in this one is more advanced than the original one. Personally, I am happy with the Skylight version - the windows are much smaller and still useful and they don't get scratched as much as this one, I suspect, would. The original one with the transparent band would be nice, but only if they increase the ink capacity, because both this one and the Skylight hold much more ink than the original.
if you fly (or just want to prevent leaks), you can turn the pen nib up and empty the first chamber into the 2nd chamber, then seal it off. that way there is no ink in the chamber that feeds the nib. hope that makes sense....
@@FigbootonPens I didn't say that it's a negative point, I meant from the point of price. If a pen is costing that much I expect all parts of the pen to justify the asking price.
@@humanfirst11 I wouldn't necessary equate the feed material to quality or price. I have reviewed fantastic $8,000 pens with plastic feeds, as well as $40 pens utilizing ebonite.
Ebonite may be regarded as an exclusive material, but it is also sensitive to temperature, in shipping, and post manufacturing storage. That could cause inconsistencies in performance at delivery, which would be detrimental to the first impression, and Visconti knows that. If you pay an insane price for a writing instrument, you may be to a lesser extent prone to start fiddling and adjusting your writing tool before you can use it than if you buy a 20$ pen like the wonderful ,and very adjustable, Noodler’s Konrad that has an ebonite feed.
This pen is pure insolence. If, as a manufacturer, you come up with something unique and original like a pen made of lava-resin and then you water down the lava-thing with just more cheap plastics while increasing the price point at the same time, I call bs on you. This line would have benefited from Visconti sorting out the imprecisions in, for example, the milling of the safe-hook-lock, the center band etc. And just for the record: the species of human animals and this pen line is called "Homo SapienSSSSSSS", NOT "Sapien". Thank you.
@@humanfirst11 "What I Ink" has a very remote semblance to cursive, prefer that over writing individual letters like this one here. Might as well use a pencil if you write letter by letter.
Your comment calls for some additional reflections i think. Maybe it would be easier for a viewer to get an impression of a pen if the review is made by a person with the same handwriting, but I don’t think beautiful handwriting is the rule among pen reviewers, nor is it a prerequisite for my enjoyment of a pen review. Chrisrap 52 does among the most entertaining pen reviews on Yotube and his handwriting is not beautiful. Tom Otto of goldspot pens, and PenBoyRoy write beatiful cursive in their reviews. Try them next!
This guy is so underrated. He needs to be more popular.
he's probably the most famous personality in the fountain pen world. it's just fountain pens happen to be a very niche interest in this day and age lol.
@@Danny.._ one of the most famous. I expected this channel to blow up after the Collab with Goulet pens and Niel Tyson
Yeah, well. It's in part rip-off of what SBRE Brown had started doing years earlier and tbh it imho lacks the originality of like Penboy Roy, but still: it can be informative at times.
@@DanielSpielmann It's not a rip off, Figboot is much better and less weird than SBRE Brown.
i know it is quite off topic but does anyone know of a good place to watch new series online?
David, I really admire your reviews, details in review and experience are unique and trademark style of yours. Respect🙏
I’m glad you analyzed this pen in your usual detailed way, but I think I’m still more drawn to the Skylight. I love the lava resin more than the large ink window!
Agreed! The lava resin is the unique feature of the pen. The skylights give a good view into the ink levels without destroying the proportions of the pen. I find that the ink window on the Crystal Dream is not in proportions with the rest of the pen, especially when capped. It breaks the pen into lava, window, lava. I actually feel like a chunk of lava was just removed. It doesn't flow like the Skylight.
Visconti is one of my favorite fountain pens brands. I have a Rembrandt and I love it.
I'm with you! I really loved my Rembrandt....and then I lost it 😢
11:07 it's almost like Visconti is holding a gun to his head and making him say that haha. Great review as always!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH Lollllll
To avoid an inkcident with Visconti’s top heavy ink bottle, one can place it in the upside-down clear plastic top of the ink’s box while filling the pen.
new video, awesome, saw the notification and as usual got excited right away. I really like the homo sapiens
I've been waiting for you to get to this one. Great review as always!
Thanks for the amazingly detailed review, as always.
I still can not believed that you don’t have 129K subscribers! Great review David.
For a selection of reasons, I will not be buying this pen any time soon. Mostly that price tag. The ink window is interesting, but it looks so odd when it's not inked! I will say, it looks excellent side-by-side with the stainless steel and Magma versions. Very satisfying. Thank you.
Ends today (Sunday 8/2/20) that same retailer he mentioned has an add'l 10% off, so it's down to $640. Only Mediums and Stubs are left.
Which retailer?
@@rjjone2 Sorry, their sale price is evidently gone now, they seem to be at the same price as everyone else. It was Pen Chalet, if it matters.
Roderick Femm CRAP!
Glad to see you shaved the beard, you look much better.
I am happy I got one HS before they switched again to gold nibs. The palladium one feels and looks much better to me. I miss the double reservoir though...
Great review! The pen looks awkward when empty, and better when filled. If I were to buy such an expensive pen, the chrystal dream might be the one. The odd looks add to the ”cool factor” in my opinion. A pen at 700+€ can only motivate itself by huge amounts of ”cool factor”, in my opinion. The price tag will keep it a ”chrystal dream” for me.
David, the KWZ Turquoise ink you showed is their iron gall version. The regular KWZ Turquoise is one of the best you’ll get and would match your others better. For some reason, the iron gall version is that Greeny colour. 👍🏻😀
An excellent presentation. Thank you.
Best Pen Reviewer on T'Internet and so Humble!
my ideal homo sapiens would have the entire forward chamber plus maybe 3/4 or 1 inch of window, then all lava resin the rest of the way back. i think one break would look better than constantly going back and forth between lava and clear
What is the advantage of having two ink chambers? Wouldn't it be easier to have one large chamber? Can you have two different inks in the two chambers?
It's similar to systems used on many different pens. There are many benefits. One being that if you keep the pen inked for a while, only the ink in the forward chamber will dry out, rather than losing the entire fill.
@@FigbootonPens Ah, thank you.
Inkcidents....lol. Thanks for the review!! If been wanting to see this one. I have a Dark Age and the only thing I'd like it to have is that small ink window near the section(I even like not having the bands on the barrel)
I love all these videos --great reviews. I love my standard Homo sapiens with the medium 18 k gold nib. I am considering a skylight or a crystal dream. How does the broad nib compare?
Hi David . With the single reservoir on the original lava model, does it still seal off the chamber from the nib like vac 700 does ?
“Ink-cident” haha I both love, and am stealing that!
What do you think about the balance of the pen? Are you bothered by it being more back weighted?
how do you find avoiding the ink staining on the section? if ink does dry on can you remove it easily? love your content and can't wait to order my Visconti Bronze Age in the next few days
What do you think about the gold vs palladium visconti nibs?
Each of the newer gold nibs of theirs I have tested has performed very well.
@@FigbootonPens I was wondering the same thing. Thank you for answering. I just got a Dark Ages and I decided to get the newer 18k gold. I couldn't find a reasonable priced palladium that had a warranty...
I have a pre-palladium era gold nib on my Opera that has treated me well, although it is writing like a juicy Broad, and not as it is marked as Medium. Still I enjoyed it for the past 13 years.
Wow, that pen looks great!
Exited to see the review of the Wancher Tsugaru Urushi.
So now my question is... Like the Magma, did you or did you not send it back to Coles of London?
Great review as usual.
So, to sum the review.
It's a semi-demonstrator Visconti HS?
the double ink chamber thing seems like its kinda a gimmick, but i like it nonetheless. Adds more interest to the old homosapiens deisng
While it might vary slightly in design, there are many vacuum filling mechanisms which work the same way. Most notably, the Pilot 823.
Thanks for reviewing.
I have a bottle of KWZ Turquoise and it looks nothing like on your swatch. It looks more like Visconti. Maybe they put a wrong label on your bottle?
Thanks David
Hey David
Following you for some years
Great review of a well known brand. I believe your handwriting has improved over years. Cheers👍👍
Love the Padres hat!!!
Nice review and comparison however Pen price and weight is not affordable for middle class.
How do you flush it? Doesn't seem like it is friendly with a syringe or ball syringe
You can carefully unscrew the nib unit for ease of cleaning.
@@FigbootonPens Thank you, I never would have tried to unscrew the nib on a dream pen
nice pen but way too expensive for me
Some day soon...
Love my Visconti and Peneider. This one just seems a try hard combining a demonstrator and standard Homosapien. Love the size but can do without the larger ink window. Thanks David hope you are keeping safe.
I am glad this model comes with the gold nib which have always been amazing. I don't care for their palladium dreamtouch nibs and I think they are very over rated.
Personally I feel Visconti I doing a cash grab by decreasing the actual amount of lava resin and replacing it with acrylics. The large ink windows are quite ugly and never go with the aesthetics of the Homo Sapiens. The transparent band is a genius touch! Personally for me...the best Homosapiens would be a full lava resin Homosapiens with just the transparent band without the hideous unnecessarily large ink windows.
Lava resin is not that expensive as Visconti is trying to present it, so materials don't affect the manufacturing cost much. The filling mechanism in this one is more advanced than the original one. Personally, I am happy with the Skylight version - the windows are much smaller and still useful and they don't get scratched as much as this one, I suspect, would. The original one with the transparent band would be nice, but only if they increase the ink capacity, because both this one and the Skylight hold much more ink than the original.
What is the advantage of double chambers over single chamber? If there's any.
if you fly (or just want to prevent leaks), you can turn the pen nib up and empty the first chamber into the 2nd chamber, then seal it off. that way there is no ink in the chamber that feeds the nib. hope that makes sense....
@@khunter2132 yes! Thank you.
Is this a bock nib
My grail
$700 after discount and a plastic feed? Ridiculous.
As long as it performs well, I wouldn't consider a plastic feed to be a negative.
@@FigbootonPens I didn't say that it's a negative point, I meant from the point of price. If a pen is costing that much I expect all parts of the pen to justify the asking price.
@@humanfirst11 I wouldn't necessary equate the feed material to quality or price. I have reviewed fantastic $8,000 pens with plastic feeds, as well as $40 pens utilizing ebonite.
Ebonite may be regarded as an exclusive material, but it is also sensitive to temperature, in shipping, and post manufacturing storage. That could cause inconsistencies in performance at delivery, which would be detrimental to the first impression, and Visconti knows that. If you pay an insane price for a writing instrument, you may be to a lesser extent prone to start fiddling and adjusting your writing tool before you can use it than if you buy a 20$ pen like the wonderful ,and very adjustable, Noodler’s Konrad that has an ebonite feed.
This pen is pure insolence. If, as a manufacturer, you come up with something unique and original like a pen made of lava-resin and then you water down the lava-thing with just more cheap plastics while increasing the price point at the same time, I call bs on you. This line would have benefited from Visconti sorting out the imprecisions in, for example, the milling of the safe-hook-lock, the center band etc.
And just for the record: the species of human animals and this pen line is called "Homo SapienSSSSSSS", NOT "Sapien". Thank you.
I was expecting a beautiful cursive handwriting with a pen of such caliber, but all I see is school kid's scrawl. Disappointed.
Watch the videos from "what I Ink" and than come back here again! 😂😂
@@humanfirst11 "What I Ink" has a very remote semblance to cursive, prefer that over writing individual letters like this one here. Might as well use a pencil if you write letter by letter.
@@TheJellyPlane but I have a very different thinking about his handwriting, suffice to say that it's not positive.
The fact that you even care is disappointing and disrespectful
Your comment calls for some additional reflections i think. Maybe it would be easier for a viewer to get an impression of a pen if the review is made by a person with the same handwriting, but I don’t think beautiful handwriting is the rule among pen reviewers, nor is it a prerequisite for my enjoyment of a pen review. Chrisrap 52 does among the most entertaining pen reviews on Yotube and his handwriting is not beautiful. Tom Otto of goldspot pens, and PenBoyRoy write beatiful cursive in their reviews. Try them next!
¿Do it have a number 6 nib?.
¿Is have a number 6 nib?.