Digital BW, The Print

To: "Doug I." <doug@...> 

> Say what you will about Reichmann--at least he
>is speaking from personally living with and working with the
>printer...
>Until people on this list have given the new system even a fraction of the
>effort they spent perfecting their quad/hex work, or seen samples printed by
>someone who does "get what B&W printing is all about" in their personal
>judgement, it's all just meaningless speculation, isn't it?

Like Martin Wesley, I also had a frustrating experience wasting a lot of time, ink and paper trying to get a good a color-cast free B&W print from the 1290, based on Reichmann's glowing review of the 1270's B&W capabilities ("virtually indistinguishable from a traditonal silver print"). Having been mislead in the 1270 review, my point, unsurprisingly, was that it is now difficult to take Reichmann's statement seriously that the color facility of the 2200 is good enough to give up Piezography.

Yes, it would be great to be able to use the same printer for color and for B&W, but I don't have the time nor inclination to go into testing the 2200's B&W capabilities and therefore look forward to seeing the conclusions of knowledge people on this list whose judgment I can trust. The question of trusting judgment reminds me of a New Yorker cartoon showing a dog typing on a computer speaking to another dog sitting on the floor. The dog that's typing says, "And the great thing about the internet is that no one knows that you're a dog." Now, don't go and flame me for calling Reichmann a dog; I haven't done so.

If it turns out that one can indeed get great B&W prints on a 2200 either "straught out of the box" or through some careful adjsutments, we still would have to decide whether the 75-year "print-life" is adequate for B&W prints. Seventy-five years is very good for color but ain't that much for B&W.

For the time being I am merely trying to figure out whether to get a 2200 to replace my 1290 for color. While the 75-year print life is phenomenal compared to the 25-year life of the 1290, I still wonder whether the 2200 has the wonderful color quality and gamut of the 1290. Form what I have read so far it seems, but I am still trying to make sure that it isn't the New Yorker dog who has posted these judgments.

--Mitch/Bangkok