Digital BW, The Print

Mike,

I still have the samples you sent and I posted something awhile back but it
is worth revisiting at this point.

The samples include two images each printed once on a matte Oce art paper
(very rough)and one on a semi-gloss Ilford paper. My impression is the same
as yours. These prints do not equal prints done with grayscale inks. There
are strange unpleasant tonal splits, blue to yellow. Possibly this could be
corrected by better use of the printer.

The fact that the split is there may be an indication of why Epson came up
with the gray balancer software for the 2200 and makes me wonder how
difficult people will find it to get a good neutral tone. While buying
custom profiles is a possible solution, the fact that the inks and papers
vary from lot to lot may make this impractical unless you invest in your own
profiling software. The unfortunate truth seems to be that neutral B&W
printing is much more sensitive to tiny shifts in hue than color printing.

Re-examining the prints closely I see some metamerism that shifts from
neutral in tungsten light to yellow green in daylight. This seems to be
mostly confined to the 25 to 50% tonal range. One image has a lot of values
in this range and looks worse. The other has few values in that range and is
not too bad. The effect is much more pronounced on the semi-gloss Ilford
paper than the matte Oce. Perhaps this is also a product of the split tone
and can be corrected but I am skeptical. Metamerism is generally inherent in
the ink. The amount of metamerism is much, much improved over 2000P prints I
have seen. I am also seeing a fair amount of "bronzing" on the Ilford print,
not as bad as the gray scale pigment inks but still surprising.

I read Michael Reichmann's review of the 2200 as well. I hope that his
assessment of the color capabilities of the printer are correct as I would
purchase one for my wife's color work. He does say that there is slight
metamerism but that he finds it so small that it is not an issue for him.
From my own experience with B&W this is very personal and what doesn't
bother Michael may be very noticeable to me and others.

At this point we have conflicting reports. We are going to have to wait and
see what more people have to say as the printers get out into the
marketplace. Since we have some negative reports it is clear that B&W prints
with these inks are not automatic out of the box.

One thing is certain though. This will have a big impact on the grayscale
ink market and B&W inkjet printing. Large numbers of people that might have
given one of the grayscale inks a try, are going to be quite satisfied with
a 2200 instead. This will make grayscale ink printing a more alternative
process than it already is.

Michael completely skips over the issue of B&W print life in his review.
While the UltraChrome inks offer a color print life that is absolutely
compelling in the world of color printing, it is not up to B&W standards.
People who wish to sell their B&W prints in a market dominated by silver
fiber are going to have a hard time with UltraChrome prints. On that issue
alone the 2200, 7600 and 9600 are not going to be acceptable to a lot of
photographers.

Someone needs to get some UltraChrome step wedges to Paul Roark so that we
can see how they fade/warm compared to the grayscale inks.

Martin Wesley

http://www.borderless-photos.de/guests.html



----- Original Message -----
From: "mkravit" <mjkaia@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, July 29, 2002 6:22 AM
Subject: [Digital BW] Re: Epson 7600/9600 B/W Output Not What I Hoped For.


> Mitch,
>
> Thanks for the title "Master" but you are being too kind. I have made
> my share of crappy prints as well.
>
> I also read Michael Reichmann's review. I have not seen color images
> from these printer. The only thing that I can imagine is that the
> person who printed these images (they were done by two different
> people) were not not experienced with the printer to thoroughly
> refine the settings.
>
> I sent a set of two of the images to Martin Wesley for him to look
> at, so perhaps he can offer an opinion as to what he see's as well.
>
> Mike
>
>
>
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., Mitch Alland <malland@m...>
> wrote:
> > >Recently I recieved  b/w prints made on an Epson 7600 and
> > >9600. Contrary to the reports in the media color crossover and
> > >metamerism were quite evident. I examined each print under
> > >tungstun, fluorescent (3800K CRI 92 lamps) and daylight.
> > >
> > >The output from my Epson 1280 and Epson 7000 with MIS FS/N
> > >Mix are far superior to what I examined. The 1280 and 7000
> > >prints are smoother and and have a "fine art" presence that the
> > >7600/9600 prints lacked.
> >
> > I assume that output from the 7600/9600 should identical to that
> from the 2200, is that right? In a review on www.luminous-
> landscape.com, Michael Reichmann states that B&W prints from the 2200
> are so good and free of color casts that he is going to use it for
> all his B&W work instead of Piezography.
> >
> > Having seen a couple of your B&W prints at Nina's in Paris, I can
> see that you're a master B&W printer, so I tend to believe your
> conclusion rather than Reichmann's.
> >
> > Do you know how color prints on the 2200 compare to those on the
> 1280 in terms of color gamut and quality?
> >
> > --Mitch/Bangkok
>
>
>
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