Digital BW, The Print

Hi Bob and All,

>In no way minimizing the great pointers so far about where to do
>research, I sense you're looking for ideas on specifically what to
>buy. I'm a year into this, very happy and not seeing a need for an
>equipment upgrade. My thoughts:
>
>Epson 1280 printer - a rock solid simple functional workhorse. Get a
>refurb directly from Epson (about $350) as they are essentially new
>and have warranty. Remember 99% of digital printers use Epsons.
>
>Inks from MIS - either Ultra Tone or Full Spectrum Neutral for the
>Epson Driver. widely used, great support both from MIS and on this
>site. They use free curves & workflows available on the MIS site or
>here. Buy them in carts.

Thanks for the suggestions.  By buying cartridges for the Epson driver do 
you mean that they are designed to work with the print driver written by 
Epson for that model vs. a third party driver?  As far as buy the ink is 
cartridges are there may options other than the standard cartridges?  Are 
they more difficult to manage?



>Paper - Epson Enhanced Matte or Epson Heavy Weight Matte. Reasonably
>low cost and works very well. You'll go through a lot.

Is this paper available in the major chain office supply stores or am I 
better off searching at my photo dealer?



>Film Scanner - for 35mm, The Minolta Scan Dual III should do
>everything you need for a long time. Great cost / performance ratio. I
>think they're about $300 now. (B&H has always been a reliable supplier
>for me)

I was already eyeing this one, I had reas several reviews of it and they 
all spoke pretty highly of it's performance.



>Software: Photoshop is used by probably 98+% of digital printers.
>Although Adobe Elements will get you going. Just don't spend time
>learning a version of Photoshop earlier than 7. The earlier versions
>work well but your major investment will be in time learning how to
>use it, not money to buy it. Learning how to use Photoshop is the
>biggest part of the learning curve in making digital prints. Count
>your blessings that you're an IT pro.

I have elements now but I'll plan to upgrade to PS 7, I assumed that was 
what most used, it pretty much seems to be the standard for digital photo work.



>bottom line: just buy the stuff and start making prints. Learning how
>to improve is a lot more motivating than doing research.

Thanks for all the info.
Take care,

Jim Mooney




>Bob Michaels
>
>--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Jim Mooney
><jmooney776@c...> wrote:
> > Hi All,
> >          I recently found this groups and am intrigued by the idea of
> > making B&W prints on my own.  I haven't yet switched to digital
>capture but
> > I also don't have the space for a darkroom so this seems like a great
> > solution.  My questions to the group are:
> >
> > What would you all recommend as an affordable basic setup consisting
>of a
> > printer, inks, papers, software, and perhaps a scanner?
> >
> > Are there any resources such as a FAQ that go through to get the basic
> > concepts down?
> >
> > I guess I consider myself an impassioned amateur photographer and my
> > shooting consists of travel, outdoors, and some people.  I'm a IT
>person
> > who works with MAC's and PC's so I hope that I can contribute to the
>group
> > if anyone has any computer issues.  I'm a total novice to digital photo
> > work, so I won't have much to offer in that area yet.
> >
> > Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.
> >
> >
> > Take care,
> >
> > Jim
>
>
>
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