Digital BW, The Print

After lurking here and on the Piezo list, I have decided (I think) to go the
MIS VM route- because of the flexibility of "toned" prints, and the initial
investment.  So here are my questions (and I would love to hear from others
in addition to Jerry and Paul!)

First, I'm on MacG4/1160, currently using Gen3, and making toned prints on
EAM.

1. Learning curve- yes, one may save several hundred dollars by going MIS
instead of Piezo, but Piezo is basically plug-and-play, no?  How many hours
of tweaking, testing, reprinting, re-doing curves, downloading new curves,
trying Nevins/Woolf/Brandin transfer functions, etc. are required with MIS
VM to get acceptable prints?

My experience has me leaning towards going with tried-and-true systems.  I
can't tell you how many dozens of hours I have wasted trying to profile Gen3
inks (with Profiler RGB) on my 1160, even on old faithful EAM.  With
hindsight, it would have been WAY cheaper to pay for custom profiles, even
at $150 a pop, considering how I value my time.

So I don't want to be penny wise, pound foolish again.  If I have to spend
hours and hours tweaking, testing, etc, I'd rather spend a few hundred more
on Piezo, as aware as I am about clogging, microbanding, and "brown" inks.

2.  Variable Toning-
How variable are they?  Sounds like there's cold, neutral and warm.  (I've
seen Lyson SG and love what they can do, but I understand there's dot and
metamerism problems.)  So it sounds like with VM, if you want a "warm" tone,
you print with only three inks.  Can you truly get different tones "between"
cold, neutral and warm, like with SG?  And how, by using the Epson sliders?
If I don't care about cold tones, which I don't, should I just go with Full
Spectrum?  

3.  Profiles in Courage-
It sounds as if you can only use VM with Paul's curves, and the curves have
been written for EAM only for the 1160 (is this true?).  What do you do if
you want to use other papers?  I'm through with scanner-based profiling, no
more!  I don't want to write my own curves.  I want plug-and-play.  (Well,
at least plug, spend a couplahours, and then play.)

4.  CFS-
I have been using nomocarts CIS for over a year, with no problems.  Anyone
use MIS' CFS?  Reasons not to?

This is a great list.  TIA,

David Corwin