Digital BW, The Print

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Kale [mailto:stevekale@...] 
> Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2003 9:00 AM
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Re: Looking for 2200 B&W sample
> 
> 
> Ed
> 
> I would still argue that perfecting the use of the 1280 on a 
> dedicated basis
> is the way to go, perhaps moving to the UT inks.
<snip>

Steve,
     I really appreciate your taking the time to offer this advice, and
I know you spent a lot of time and energy and thought with this
response.  But you might not know that I've been on this forum for over
a year, been posting, and working with the 1280 for that same period.
I'm on my 3'rd 1280.  I've corresponded privately with many people, and
exchanged prints with them too.  It's not like I haven't given it the
old "college try".  I did try the UT inks as well, and they clogged
severely in my 1280, and produced terrible results.  I also fairly
frequently get clogs when changing new VM cartridges, that will often
take a couple days and 1/4 of the new ink cartridge to clear out.  And I
sometimes get variations in results from one set of cartridges to the
next.  Then there's the micro/dither banding problem, which sometimes
happens and sometimes doesn't, even with good nozzle checks.  And other
people I've talked to have had a variety of results (some good-some bad)
with the same curves, inks, and model printer.  It's amazing to me that
when adhering to a strict workflow, how at times the whole thing seems
wildly unpredictable, and it's extremely frustrating.  Most recently, I
was pretty darn satisfied with the VM inks and at least the MW curve,
but on this latest set of cartridges I'm now getting some
solarization/posturization with the same images and the same settings
and the same paper and good nozzle checks.  Now I'm suspicious that
maybe MIS inks are not mixed the same all the time, or as consistently
as they should be.
     What I want, is a printer I can trust, and inks I can trust on a
consistent basis.  If it means using OEM inks, then so be it, but I want
them to be somewhat archival and that's why I've had recent interest in
the 2200.  I'm also interested in the HP7960, but I can't find any real
samples from that either, and I'm somewhat suspicious of print longevity
and paper choices with that model.

Thanks,
Ed
http://lightandsilver.com