Digital BW, The Print

Martin,

Since I have both, I will take a stab at it here.

My honest feeling is that the 1280 is the "dye" version of the 2000P 
from a mechanical standpoint.

The 2000P does appear to have better software to control the paper 
and head transport though. You can actually change a printer 
cartridge that reads dead empty in the middle of a print and never be 
able to detect where the change took place. Also the paper 
registration repeats dead on. At 1440 the 2000P will print with the 
same speed as the 1280 at 2880 (read that as slooooow), but thay may 
be a good thing with pigmented inks. It also cleans the heads more 
often than the 1280.

When you consider the 2000P has 7 picoliter heads and the 1280 has 4, 
it is amazing just how smooth the 2000P is in comparing prints. Yes 
you can look at them under a loupe and the 1280 will look better 
(esp. at 2880), but at a standard viewing distance the 2000P looks 
more like a "traditional" photo to me. This printer did exceptionally 
well with the VM inks, no printer induced "artifacting" that I could 
detect - banding, etc...

The cut and paste quote below is from Ian Lyons Computer Darkroom 
site.

******************************************************************

Here's a commentary on the real world performance of the Photo 2000P 
from someone who actually owns one, i.e.; Carol Steele at Adobe's 
Photoshop User-to-User forum. Carol is an Award Winning Professional 
Photographer, and is well respected by ALL those who participate on 
that forum.

 


Epson Semi Gloss paper
On normal visual inspection, the print appears very similar to the 
print which you supplied done on Epson Glossy paper. Close inspection 
with a fairly high powered lens showed the dot pattern from the Epson 
2000 print to be slightly more defined than the 1270 print - however 
I could see print lines in the 1270 print which were completely 
absent in the 2000 print. Please bear in mind that the magnifying 
lens which I used is also capable of resolving the fine fines which 
make up prints from the Kodak LED20 printer (the Pegasus printer in 
the US).

Epson Archival Matte paper
Again visual inspection put these two prints neck and neck from a 
normal visual inspection. However, because of the grain pattern of 
the paper a very detailed examination with my lens, I couldn't really 
detect a dot pattern in the 2000 print - but in the matte print which 
you supplied, although there was no noticeable dot pattern, I could 
resolve the lines of the print.

Lysonic Smooth Fine Art Watercolour paper
Again because of the grain structure of this type of paper, I could 
detect no dot pattern from the print.

Conclusions
On the whole the printers are very similar and you would not be able 
to tell the difference from a normal visual/close visual inspection. 
Differences only start to appear when examined closely with a high 
powered magnifying lens - and these are only really apparent on the 
glossy type papers. 

Obviously there are pros and cons for each printer, the 1270 is much, 
much faster - so if speed is an issue and quick output is required, 
then the 1270 is the printer of choice. On the other hand, if 
archival permanence is more important than print speed then the 2000P 
is the printer to go for.

Carol 

*******************************************************************

I also have been able to feed the 425gsm Smooth and Textured Epson 
Fine Art Paper (cut down from 24X30 sheets with no trouble - haven't 
tried this on the 1280 yet).

While mechanically as I said they appear to be identical, the 
software makes the 2000P seem to "work" slightly better. The thing 
that interested me from the above quote is the ability to see the 
print lines in a 1270, but not in a 2000P. To me this indicates 
better head and paper transport. Although Jon most likely won't 
release Piezo for the 2000P, this would probably be the best printer 
for use with Piezo ie. no banding, etc...

Don't know if any of this helps. 

Terry

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Martin Wesley" 
<mwesley250@e...> wrote:
> Is there any difference between the 1280 and 2000P in terms of 
paper 
> transport and head mechanics? Is the 2000P a better printer 
> mechanically or is it just a difference in the nozzles and 
> electronics?
> 
> Martin Wesley