Best printer for digital negs?

[chapmank]

I'm planning getting a cheapish A4 printer to replace my broken Epson C86 (which was great with mono MIS inks from the US!). Any advice on what would be best for making digital negs as well as normal prints- would a Canon 4500 be OK?

thanks
Karl
www.awinterlens.blogspot.com

 

[Robin P]

If you want easy real B&W then an HP with the option of grey ink would be your best bet - e.g. Photosmart D5160
The Canon will produce lovely colour prints but B&W will be slightly pink or green unless you can stick to a paper for which a printing profile is available.
The HP Photosmart D6160 would be cheaper to run and gives good B&W if you stick to HP or Ilford paper.

Cheers, Robin

 

[Jordan]

I could never get the Epson C86 to work with MIS inks on overhead transparency materials -- what kind are you using?

 

[Colin Graham]

HP B9180 is pretty alright. Seems frugal with ink. Just make sure to use the 'maximum dpi' option when printing digital negatives or you might get head banding, a.k.a. venetian blinds. (Doesn't seem to matter as much with prints, the 'Best' options looks great for B&W, and I mean great.) I only mention this because it took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure this out and was almost ready to chuck it for a 3800.

 

[chapmank]

thanks all. I got an Epson R220 from ebay very cheaply and with a lot of ink so I'll see how I get on with that and try to post an image