Digital BW, The Print

As people were being shooed out of PhotoPlus Expo yesterday 
evening, I wandered into Epson's exhibition booth, where a 
number of prominent photographers' work - printed on the new 
Epson 4000 - were on display. Only one photographer of the 
bunch had any b/w work - three prints, in fact, which ranged from 
very nice to mediocre to awful (IMO). 

One, a portrait, was actually quite lovely and, unlike the other two, 
pretty much artifact-free; another, a landscape, had a rather milky 
contrast range, but, much worse, on only slightly closer 
inspection I could see obvious posterization in the clouds. And 
no, I doubt this was a sought-after "effect". The third print, of a 
man in mid-leap between two hay bales, was actually quite 
nice...until I noticed a magenta shift along the horizon line. 
Another photographer who was looking on was actually a bit 
startled when I pointed this out.

So...maybe this answers the question about there still being a 
need for a RIP with the 4000...at least for anal-retentives like me. 
But I'm not alone here, right?

I said, *right*? ;-)

- Barrett