Avoiding dried up/clogged Epson heads, is it possible?

mark said:

As I said there is no tried and true method of making digital negatives such as QTR for canon so I will not be buying a canon. I have neither the time or inclination to invent/make do/deal with inconsistencies and make my way in the dark. NOT BUYING A CANON. What I am willing to do is follow instructions, test according to those instructions, and get to the art of the matter quicker.

Optically enlarging the negatives? In 2020? Are you insane? Before you make any assumptions, I have done this, I was paid to do it, I was really good at it, and I would not even consider doing it now, assuming you can get the right materials and had what would amount to unlimited funds.




You and I have been around here for about the same amount of time. I have appreciated your knowledge and talent over the years. If you are ok with the P400 doing QTR I honestly feel pretty comfortable about it. Mind if I ask what refillable carts you use, and are they pigment inks?

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Thank you Mark for your kind words! I first heard about the P400 from Sandy King. I thought if it can make carbon transfer prints, it'll do anything. I've made a few and am quite happy! I've also made tri-colour gums, kallitypes, cyanotypes, and gumoils. I'm using refillable cartridges and ink from inkowl dot com. All of the inks are PK, except yellow. They are pigment inks. With QTR, I set the clear coat cartridge to zero. In future, I may replace it with refillable cartridge and PK. To upload profiles, use the command button in the R2000 profile folder. Cheers!

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR EPSON.

mshchem said:

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR EPSON.

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mshchem said:

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR EPSON.

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Sweet. Think of all the Canons Epson has sold !

Don't think for a minute that canons and Hp's don't have their own problems.

I let a Canon printer sit for a year. I didn't know what I would find. Darn thing started up and made good prints, nothing special, scans of slides on glossy photo paper. I've never had a problem with a Canon printer.
I always had good luck with HP. Last printer acted up, tried everything, no joy. I bought some genuine HP cartridges from Costco that the printer detected as counterfeit, at that point I recycled it.

Oh ya? Well... I let my 4000 sit for almost three years in the garage. Started it up. Head clean, and no clogs. So there!

And... the Epson 1400 sat idle in the photo room for 8 years. I started it up last year after the previous photo teacher retired. Did a head clean and Bob's your uncle! Been making digital negatives ever since with my students.

mshchem said:

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR EPSON.

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Exactly. That is why I won't own an Epson even if a free one is offered to me. Not worth the grief.

Andrew O'Neill said:

Oh ya? Well... I let my 4000 sit for almost three years in the garage. Started it up. Head clean, and no clogs. So there!

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That's the solution, we need to "age" our printers and ink. I have a couple I haven’t used in a month, not sure that's long enough .

mitch brown said:

Don't think for a minute that canons and Hp's don't have their own problems.

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CLOGGING is typical of Epsons. There have been a very few good ones, such as 1400. As a company, Epson doesn't give a damn. If they intended quality they'd still make 1400s.

i had an epson 4900. first one died,. dead print head, 10 months after purchase. epson replaced it,, next one died in 6 months, they replaced it. 3rd died in 8 months, they told me its over 1 year from FIRST unit purchse, so im out of luck. had to PAY$150 to recycle it, typical california, so no more epson ever again.

went with a canon, pro-1000 for a crazy low price after x-mas day sale and have never had an issue. the epson would need deep cleaning if not used every day, the canon went 7 weeks between use and no issues at all. I cant tell the difference in any of my prints when the same image was printed on the same paper on both machines. go with what you trust! if you every day or every other day, than the epson might work for you. if not, run fast from epson and look at one of the others. I love my canon and have heard great things about HP. life is to short to worry about your printer. .

I have to admit that I dont miss my long darkroom session optically printing.

john