Density Values using Epson and Z 3100

[fotoinsight]

Hi,
I have finally got round to testing some OHP film via a printer reseller here, and was wondering if someone could help me with the values that I have got from these test films.
They were printed on OHP film using the Epson 7800 and HP Z 3100.

The top row of numbers relates to RGB values, the bottom a conversion.

HPZ 3100

R0047 G0054 B0081
R1113 G1340 B1662

0.047 0.054 0.081
1.113 1.340 1.662

Epson 7800

R0043 G0051 B0078
R1281 G1437 B1783

0.043 0.051 0.078
1.281 1.437 1.783

Thanks for any help you may be able to offer, I'm keen to find out if this is good or not prior to buying the printer.

Here's the image: (I think!)

 

[fotoinsight]

Well the response has been overwhelming! 63 views and no help.
I guess I should have said that I was hoping to make Platinum and palladium prints on on or the other of these printers, but before making a purchase decision I wanted to see which one you guys/gals thought was better.
If you can help I really would appreciate it.
Thanks

 

[amphoto]

I'll chance my arm! I can't comment on the numbers you've given since I'm not sure what they relate to. On the other hand, the 7800 uses the same k3 inkset as the 3800 - and people are making great digital negatives with that for a whole range of processes, so it should be fine. You may want to double check on the photo vs matte black choice for digital negatives though. I've heard the k3 photo black is a weak UV blocker. The 3800 has both carts installed at once which is great (since the matte black is a good UV blocker), and if you need to switch between the two it's a breeze. With the 7800 you have to physically switch the cartridges which is time consuming, ink consuming, and therefore expensive. Unless you dedicate such a big printer to digital negatives (not sure why you'd want to do that), you could find yourself switching back and forth quite a bit. There's been the odd post in the past about the Z3100 (I think I asked about it once!) - from what I can remember I think there was a positive response, but you may want to double check. The starting point with any inkjet printer, for any process, using any system (colorized neg., composite black etc.) is whether or not it can produce a dense enough portion of the negative to get paper white (or very near paper white if you still want detail in the uppermost highlights of your image) with your chosen process? If so, you've got a starting point...

 

[fotoinsight]

Hi,

Thanks for that response amphoto.
I guess I should have tried to be clearer in my original post, the vlaues given relate to the Dmin and Dmax of the boxes on the left of that image posted, these were read by a density meter at work used for checking the densities on colour film, so the values are RGB.
The tests were done by a sales person and she remarked that she was never able to get the ink to go really black on OHP, I've looked at the inter negatives and there are some issues, but I don't know if this is because of the curves applied or use of the wrong ink etc.

I was really trying to prevent any further problems by running a test prior to buying, rather than spending ours in front of a computer poring over a solution, something I do all day long!

Thanks for the reply though, I guess I'll bite the bullet and see if I can get hold of an Espon 3800 as your other post also indicates that this may be the best option for me.

Cheers

 

[jimcollum]

i just got an hp z3100, and have started testing. I'm not sure if your density readings were visual or UV density. So far, i've been able to get a UV density of about 2.85 (once i get the color nailed for smoothness, i'll post both the UV dmax as well as the color)