Epson 9800 Anyone?

[BillSchwab]

I have an old 7600 I am looking to get rid of and perhaps replace with a new 9800. I have heard good things about black and white output and was wondering if anyone has used this machine?

Bill

 

[Pinholemaster]

Friends who have the 9800 love them. I certainly enjoy my 9600. I've seen wonderful things from the new line of HP wide format printers as well.

 

[Baxter Bradford]

Hi Bill

I have the 7800 and have been pleased with prints on Photo Rag using Matte Black ink and ICC profiles for using RGB inks as 'colour' files to use all inks rather than the Advanced B+W mode.

The difference between way print is rendered in Perceptual and Relative Colourmetric is a bit bang-bang. Some images suit one more than the other - but I use softproofing to choose, this gives pretty accurate idea of what to expect. I have seen slight colour shifts in softproofing with blue tint in some tones when rendering in one setting or other, it appears less obvious in the ink. Haven't investigated since other setting has always removed this.

I recently looked at the Fibre-base lookey-likey papers with Da Vinci being my favourite, but these need Photo-Black and I just don't print enough to justify wasting all that expensive ink. Shame because they look pretty good.

I saw the Lord Patrick Litchfield retrospective exhibition yesterday and was pretty certain that they were using paper of this type for some of the images.....

 

[BillSchwab]

thanks Baxter, Walt. I have talked to one other person with the 7800 who tells me that the Image Print RIP is a great addition for B&W printing, but that the Epson driver is quite good as well. Baxter, you are the first to admit a color shift though. This always used to drive me crazy with my 7600! I am hoping to avoid this in the new machine and may go the IP route if I do this.

Thanks again, Bill

 

[Baxter Bradford]

The blue tones manifest themselves in the shadow areas at the softproof stage, but are present in a more subdued form in the print. Choosing the other rendering intent seems to alleviate the problem. I don't know what is producing it, my Photoshop work-flow is fairly standardised (as are film, developer, scanner etc) but some files are are prone to it....

I haven't had time to investigate, research and rectify!

I prefer to print in RGB as I can add a subtle warmth to try to simulate the colour tone/look of the darkroom papers I preferred.

 

[BillSchwab]

I prefer to print in RGB as I can add a subtle warmth to try to simulate the colour tone/look of the darkroom papers I preferred.

This is what I am hoping for as well. Thanks for the input Baxter. Much appreciated.

Bill

 

[blansky]

I print black and white on my Epson 7800 and after consulting a number of people who do this also, they recommend using the Epson as the print manager in Advanced Black and White Mode. With this driver you can tone all you want.

I have progressed to the point in only a month or so of printing, that I can nail a print often the first time. I often print to create the same look as traditional with a selenium tone which is a snap.

So unless you are doing color you probably don't need to waste money on the RIPs floating around.

If you need more info on this let me know, blansky@aol.com


Michael

 

[Michael Mutmansky]

I print black and white on my Epson 7800 and after consulting a number of people who do this also, they recommend using the Epson as the print manager in Advanced Black and White Mode. With this driver you can tone all you want.

Yes, but you have no control over the ink that is being laid down. This can result in undesirable metamerism problems, and of course, there is no control over the fine-tune details for how the print tonality is adjusted with density, so split toning of any kind is impossible.

I would argue the the ABW approach is fine for many people, but for the best quality B&W printing, a RIP will produce a better result. It doesn't have to be an expensive RIP, QTR is only $50, and gives much more control over the image than is possible in ABW.


---Michael

 

[Ted Harris]

What Michael says and I'd add that I have seen much better,much more consistant results with those printingfrom a RIP ... either QTR or IJC (black aand white only RIP's) or Image Print, Colorburst and others. My preference, when I was using an Epson, was Colorburst because it is full Postscript, takes full control of the printer totally bypassing the Epson drivers (which Image Print doesn't), is SWOP certified, etc.

Now, note I said when I used ... I only have one Epson in the shop these day (an old beater R800 the spews out notecards when there is a crunch). I was one of the unlucky minority that had to deal with a major nozzle clog twice and swore never again after spendin near 400 on ink to fux the second one. I am now running a Canon iPF 5000 and an HP B9180 with a z3100 coming soon. Both the Canon and the HO outperform the coperable Epson machines IMO and both do so, for the moment at least, at a lower purchase and operating cost.

 

[blansky]

I may be wrong on this but I believe that in Advanced Black and White Mode in the Epson you CAN control the ink density. You can also split tone an image with Photoshop CS3 and Epson.

I'm not negating what the advantages of RIPs are because I'm going to be using them for color, but for people who have used the 4800, 7800, and 9800 Epsons the Advanced b&W mode is pretty amazing.

Michael

 

[BillSchwab]

Thanks Michael, Ted and Michael for all the information. I have heard good and bad things about the Epson advanced B&W as well as RIPs vs manufacturers drivers. It seems that everyone has their favorites based upon their individual needs. Basically, I have a good deal of respect for everyone who has shared their opinion and the fact most are pleased says a lot. I am going to go for it, use one of the less expensive RIPs to start and go from there.

Much appreciated!

Bill