Digital BW, The Print

Also, whenever I see people talk about MIS VM inks, I never see 
mention of metamerism.  Is this because it does not exist???  Please 
say yes.  :)

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "carlislematthew 
<carlislematthew@h...>" <carlislematthew@h...> wrote:
> Here's how it happened, from start to beginning.  Please excuse the 
> terseness, but I'm sure you've all heard it before so I'll try and 
be 
> brief.  The question is at the end if you want to skip the crap.
> 
> -Bought 1280.  Loved it from the start, but paper choice and 
profiles 
> sucked for "archival" color work.  B&W using color sucked more.
> 
> -Didn't like the idea of paying hundreds for Piezography or similar 
> system, so never bought that.  Didn't know about MIS inks or 
similar 
> things at the time.  I wish I had known about this forum!!!  
> 
> -2200 came out!  Reviews (not from Epson) talked about how 
wonderful 
> the B&W output was.  No metarism apparantly, and anyway I had no 
idea 
> what the hell that actually meant.  Had gray balancer - wonderful!
> 
> -Bought 2200.  Color work is excellent.  Can use favorite semi-
gloss 
> paper without it looking like crap, and it will last more than a 
year 
> or two, so I can now give pictures away without feeling cheap.
> 
> -B&W not so good.  Getting neutral gray almost impossible even with 
> gray balancer.  I start to quickly learn about metamerism in the 
same 
> way that you learn very quickly about a rare disease you just 
> caught.  I wasted about 100 bucks on paper and inks with Gray 
> balancer and still am not there.
> 
> -Start looking into these RIPs.  Download PowerRIP demo (thanks 
> Daniel).  Actually looks pretty damn good (I recommend trying it), 
> but still is not there for me because I'm just really fussy.  0-10% 
> looks fairly dotty.  Thought about IP5, but 500 bucks is a bit 
much.  
> Metamerism still exists but it is VERY reduced over normal color 
> B&W.  Can't say why - no flatbed scanner or microscope.
> 
> -Use BO mode.  Awful awful awful.  I agree with Peter that some 
> people just can't see the dots.  That's great for them, but it 
really 
> bugs me.  It just doesn't look smooth.  Not good enough.  Bah.
> 
> -I start to look over at my old 1280 sitting in the corner.  I 
never 
> got round to selling it, and that would probably only get me about 
> 200 bucks.  Can't get Imageprint for 200 bucks, PowerRIP still 
> doesn't cut it at that price.
> 
> So that's my history in B&W printing.  Thank God I live in Seattle 
> and the thought of being outside taking pictures is just nowhere in 
> my mind.  If I lived somewhere nice I'd feel bad that I have spent 
> all this time on my "photography hobby" with nothing to show for it.
> 
> Why am bothering to tell you all this?  Well, I'm thinking about 
> using the old 1280 with MIS VM inks and those Roark curves.  From 
> reading other posts it seems like I might up and running in an 
> evening or two, especially as I'm quite good with printing step 
> wedges and messing around with curves.
> 
> Would anyone else recommend this as a good setup?  Anyone else had 
> the same experience and gone back to the old, rejected Epson?
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> 
>    Matthew