Digital BW, The Print

I've been testing MIS FS inks on a 1280 using the Piezo software. I've been 
pleased with the results on these papers: Crane's Museo, Hahnemuhle German 
Etching and Photo Rag. Images seem to be a bit snappier on German Etching 
compared to Museo but I like the look and feel of Museo and it has better 
archival characteristics than the other two. And prints look good on Epson 
Archival Matter but that paper isn't really archival, hence the new name 
Enhanced Matte.

If you are debating between MIS inks and the new PiezoTones, check out Paul 
Roark's fade test results posted recently on this forum.

I'm on my first set of carts and have run through about 30 8 x 10 prints. 
No problems with microbanding or clogging. I always run a nozzle test 
before printing and only once had to run a cleaning cycle to clear things 
up. The printer usually sits for 4-5 days between printing.

Jeff Greer

At 06:30 PM 09/04/2002 +0000, you wrote:
>As my original Piezography inks begin to run out, I, like many others
>before
>me am faced with a decision of what to buy now. I print with an Epson
>1160
>and a CIS. I have been relatively happy with the old inks, but have
>never
>really been able to get prints through the Piezo driver without some
>microbanding. I have found myself using the Epson driver most often
>and find
>the quality to be nearly as good if not better for my photographs and
>there is
>no microbanding.
>
>I realize this amounts to heresy to many on this list, but I don't
>even really use
>a special workflow ;-)  What looks good on my screen in rgb mode
>generally
>looks good on paper with a few tweaks in Photoshop. Although I've
>never
>suffered from the major "greenies" I do find that on some papers
>there is a
>slight greenish cast to the inks that I don't like.
>
>I admire all of the people on this and other lists who seem to have
>unlimited
>time for testing and re-testing inks and papers and workflows etc.
>With a full
>schedule and a baby on the way, I don't have the time or energy to
>screw
>around any more. I just need to make some prints. I've never once
>printed a
>step wedge or a gray ramp and I'm sure many purists would say my
>prints are
>lacking in tone definition somewhere.  As a people photographer and
>former
>newspaper photojournalist, I like my black and whites to be snappy. A
>little
>compression in some shadows is fine by me.
>
>I tell you all of this not to bore you, but to explain why I don't
>want to get
>sucked into the minutiae of quadtone printing.
>
>So what's my best choice? I certainly like the price of the MIS inks
>and think
>they would probably do the job for me, but I have a couple of
>questions.
>What's the latest real-world experience with fading of these inks? Do
>they
>suffer from the "greenies" either major or minor? Are there any other
>drawbacks?  If I thought that Piezotones would be foolproof, I would
>spend the
>money, but I'm not sure they are worth it until they have been around
>a bit
>longer. I have no interest in shelling out the money for Imageprint
>right now
>either.
>
>Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
>--
>Jeff Thompson Photography
>715.838.9962
>www.jeffthompsonphoto.com
>jeff@...
>
>
>
>
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