Digital BW, The Print

Jim,

I'm glad to hear you are getting some good results. I also salute 
your persistence through all the problems you have had over the past 
few months. This list is new and a lot of the MIS users are new to 
the inks as well, but so far I don't think there has been any mention 
of a clogging problem with MIS inks.

I am running the MIS VM in a 1280 and three times I have had visible 
white banding that was quickly traced to one or two non-firing 
nozzles. So far only on the black cartridge. A single nozzle clean 
cycle cleared up the problem twice and once I had to run the cycle 3 
times. So at this point clogging appears to be on a level with the 
Epson inks. Time may prove differently but so far it is a great 
relief over the many over night waits I had to do with Piezo on my 
1200. In fact when I fired up the CIS with the MIS on the 1280 I was 
able to print immediately.

I have three prints by Bernd Langmack of the same image from an 8x10 
negative. One with Piezo inks, one with MIS FS inks with the Piezo 
driver and one with MIS FS inks with the Epson drivers. All were done 
on an 1160 and all three are excellent. The Piezo print is perhaps 
the best Piezo print I have ever seen with no detectable pattern 
under magnification at all (unlike my 1200). The same is true for the 
MIS with the Piezo driver. The contrast and tone are different from 
the Piezo but I would not say one is better. On the print using the 
MIS with the Epson driver I can see the dot pattern in the high 
lights but only with magnification. At a normal viewing distance the 
pattern is invisible. No banding of any kind on the three prins.

With the Piezo driver I see little or no advantage to using a 6-ink 
printer. With the Epson driver I do see an advantage. The dots are 
not smaller but with more nozzles the dot pattern gets harder to 
detect. 

I can see some microscopic banding with the MIS on the 1280 with the 
Epson driver. It is not light banding but more of a vague linear 
pattern in the darker tones. This only shows up in very smooth areas 
of the print and is completely invisible if there is any pattern or 
texture in the image. Not an issue for normal viewing in any case and 
much less noticeable then the microscopic light banding and window 
screen with Piezo on the 1200.

I will probably give Piezo another try when both the "selenium" inks 
and the 1280 driver are available. Hopefully ConeTech will have 
resolved the clogging issues with the new ink.

For new comers I have a hard time telling them which way to go. With 
the Piezo the software end is really nice and I think you can get to 
a tonally good print more quickly. On the other hand Piezo has all 
these clogging problems that get to be a major source of frustration 
plus the "Hayes syndrome" and the yellow or olive-green cast 
metamerism that some people see under artificial light.

With the MIS there appear to be none of the mechanical issues but the 
current workflows are not as well developed and you may have to spend 
more time working with your images and/or the curves to refine your 
final prints. This is an evolving situation and the gap will narrow 
with time. Actual use of the workflows is not as user friendly as 
Piezo but what you have to do is rather trivial. I see some 
metamerism with the MIS VM but it is in reverse with a blue-green 
cast in daylight and neutral under artificial light.

Please keep us posted on your progress. I sincerely hope you can get 
back to printing and can stop all the testing and cleaning!

Martin


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Jim Hayes" <jimhayes@j...> 
wrote:
> A caution: I had a problem with Piezo inks. I no longer think they 
are 
> viable for longterm use in 1160. Hate to say that, that's just my 
> experience. My experience with MIS inks is new, so they are to be 
> taken as my initial impressions only.
> 
> After a year with Piezo inks, I'm discontinuing them. I can't clear 
my 
> printer fully of what is now called "Hayes Syndrome" on the Piezo 
> list. When I compare MIS Full Spectrum inks set up on a spare 1160 
> with the Piezo prints from my old clogging up with Piezo printer, 
the 
> Piezo inks definetly have a green tinge, and remnants of the other 
> symptoms.
> 
> I very much like the tone of these  FS MIS inks, a bit warm but 
nice, 
> not sickly.
> 
> Until this problem is solved (and Cone says he IS working on it) 
I'm 
> not going back. I really don't mean to badmouth his setup<sigh>.
> 
> OTOH I find that even using John Woolf's workflow, when I examine 
> prints done with Epson driver ("error diffusion" setting") vs Piezo 
> driver with MIS FS inks, I can see dots in highlights and I get 
very 
> tiny tiny microbanding with Epson driver/Woolf workflow....but the 
> Piezo driver is smooth. This is counter-intuitive for microbanding, 
> but there it is. Please note that I only see the highlight dots and 
> microbanding when using my CRI 98 Ott-lite and viewing from 1 foot 
> away. I don't know why, but viewed under typical tungsten lighting 
of 
> varying intensity, I can't see the dots/banding at all.
> 
> The piezo driver seems  (still some uncertainy)to print a bit 
> contratier than the Epson. In this case for some photos, I wonder 
if 
> the Epson driver still might be better, if a textured paper was 
used. 
> S. E. photo textured paper seems to "almost" hide the microbanding 
> even when I put the Ott-lite up real close.
> 
> I am curious if I have the settings wrong for the Woolf workflow. 
His 
> screen shot of settings did not match my driver dialogue choices, 
so I 
> e-mailed him as to the discrepancies (i.e. "Halftone" setting not 
> availabe, J.W.---->use "error diffusion" instead).
> 
> So, if I can swing it, I'll be using the Piezo driver with MIS FS 
> inkset. I am going to conduct my usual fade testing of some papers 
> profiled by Cone in this manner, as some on the Piezo list are 
aware I 
> already do.
> Jim H.