Digital BW, The Print

On Apr 10, 2010, at 9:09 PM, john wrote:

> That old HP model, not an art printer by any means,

Your definition of art printer must be very different from mine. I have a B9180 (2 years) and a recently acquired Epson 3800. Though the B9180 virtually defines the word "unreliable" mechanically, when it behaves it produces first class prints. I have yet to make a same image, same paper print with the Epson printer that matches the depth and local contrast I get out of the B9180.

If HP would have pulled their collective heads out of their collective a***s and built a reliable 17" printer with the same ink set as The B9180/Z series, I never would have considered the Epson.

As for the Z series, I am not giving HP $3000 or more for a machine I know from experience will break down even before it becomes obsolete, which will be soon. The first manufacturer who realizes that photographers need a machine that will reliably print the way WE want it to, not the way THEY want it to, with the inks WE want to use; that manufacturer will own the market.

David Kachel



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