Digital Printing Questions (Newbie)

[Yoricko]

Hello folks,

I plan to make my own digital prints but I've got a few doubts to clear.

First of all, I shoot both colour and monochrome, but mostly in monochrome. I've read on the net that the only way to get excellent black-and-white digital prints is to use a custom grayscale ink set. If I do plan to use custom ink sets, will it cause the warranty to be void, and will I be use to use the default ink set without damaging the printer? Is it too much of a hassle to change the ink set once in a while? Will it be better to buy two cheaper printers and dedicate one for colour and one for monochrome?

The printer, paper, and ink affects the quality of the prints. But which one of these factors contributes the most?

Is the EPSON R3000's '3 level black ink technology' near the level of quality of prints made with a custom monochrome set?

If you calibrate your printer and monitor to a specific type of paper, do I have to re-calibrate if I were to use one of another type?

Lastly, I'm looking for an inkjet printer that suits my needs and I would like some recommendations.



Regards,
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I forgot to add, I plan to spend about US$400-600, but if the printer is good enough, I wouldn't mind spending a few hundred more.

As of right now, 17" maximum width would be very, very nice; but anything more than 12-13" is good enough.

The printer should also have the capability to use custom black-and-white ink sets such as MIS Ultratone.

That is all ....

 

[jeffreyg]

I'm not so sure you really need a dedicated black inks only to get good B&W prints although there are those who think otherwise. Personally, I mostly print analog in a wet darkroom but do also print digitally and digitally enlarge negatives for platinum/palladium printing. I am still using my Epson 2200 with their UltraChrome inks and getting excellent results both B&W and occasional color. I found calibrating the equipment to be frustrating and perhaps over-rated ( I will probably get criticized for that ). Good software, good original negatives and transparencies and attention to detail will go a long way for you. I would start simple and learn how to make good images while sticking to you budget. You can always get new equipment which will be considered old after a couple of years anyway.

Practice on less costly paper and print the images you feel best about on the best quality papers of which there are many. Each paper will give different color representations with the same inks so find the one that pleases you. Switching inks will become a drag since you would have to purge before switching. Better to get two printers if that is the route you elect to go. A friend of mine decided to convert his 4880 to black inks and after much aggravation and expense he went back to the original Epson inks and gets beautiful prints.

Since I'm not into the nitty-gritty science of all this I am interested in the image and the joy of seeing the composition. That said, I think my printing will technically hold its own.

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[Joe Lipka]

I use an Epson printer (the guy at the camera store calls my R2400 "obsolete"), Epson inks, Epson papers to make Black and White prints that have a warm tone. I really think that the folks that are pushing the various black and white inks may have had a very good case a few years ago, but I think the advances in technology may have caught up with those claims.

This, is of course, my opinion and is definitely not backed up with exhaustive testing of any type.

 

[pschwart]

Not quite. Epson ABW is easy to use and can make beautiful b&w prints. But the driver can tone images because it uses some colors (cyan and yellow I think) in addition to the black inks. The colors are not pure carbon pigments and likely will fade more quickly than the blacks which could alter the appearance of the print. Some monochrome inksets include some color pigments, too, but these are already mixed with black and are not laid down as discrete ink channels. Using more shades of black can produce dotless highlights and great depth. If one is committed to making great b&w prints, a dedicated inkset is worth investigating, but it definitely is not the simplest or the least expensive solution.

I use an Epson printer (the guy at the camera store calls my R2400 "obsolete"), Epson inks, Epson papers to make Black and White prints that have a warm tone. I really think that the folks that are pushing the various black and white inks may have had a very good case a few years ago, but I think the advances in technology may have caught up with those claims.

This, is of course, my opinion and is definitely not backed up with exhaustive testing of any type.

 

[Jim Jones]

I've used an Epson 3800 for the past 3 years and over 3000 prints, large and small, mostly B&W. Epson inks and paper give some assurance of long print life. Some other ink and paper combinations have been tested to have short print life. Perhaps some might have a better appearance, but I haven't been able to compare them.

 

[artobest]

The new Canon Pixma Pro-1 has five monochrome inks, of which, I believe, four will be usable at any one time (ie quad-tone). The price is a tad higher than your $600, and the carriage width is around 14", but it may be worth it. Canon are talking about releasing larger versions next year.

I print with an HP Z3200ps that produces native quad-tone prints on fine-art papers, and the results are very smooth and deep. Even the three-black glossy prints (on papers like Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Baryta or Canson Platine) are extremely impressive. I find it hard to believe that a third-party inkset would be substantially better, although I'd love to own a Piezography set-up one day (I've seen very nice Piezography prints made on an Epson 1400). One thing to remember is, the third-party carbon pigments are much warmer than the OEM inksets, which tend to be blended for neutrality. However, being carbon, they have phenomenal theoretical longevity, probably limited only by the substrate.