Digital BW, The Print

Martin,

My experience so far shows the 7000 prints to be markedly better that 
both those with my 1160 and some I made a while back on a 3000.  Very 
sharp and the banding, which is invisible on watercolor stocks, is only 
barely discernible on EAM, which I find the most revealing paper in 
that respect.  You definitely need a loupe to see it, however.  I was 
never able to get rid of it completely with my 1160, although again, on 
the rag stocks it's hardly noticeable. It's true that at arm's length 
there is not so much difference between the printers' output.  Of 
course if you need 24" wide output...

I also think that this difference is something that is more obvious 
with sharp, highly resolved images with very smooth tonal range, such 
as those from large format negs.  Smaller format images seems to mask 
the differences in the hardware.  This was also true for me when using 
the Epson driver with the 7000 and comparing with PiezoBW prints from 
the 1160, ie. less difference. The Pro24 RIP really shows off what the 
7000 can do.

Best,
Phil
http://philbard.com

> Even going up to the 7000, people have posted that they do not see a 
> significant difference between prints made with Piezo Pro on the 7000 
> and Piezo on the desktop 3000 and 1160 printers.
>