Digital BW, The Print

> Paul, have you tried any of the Hawk Mountain papers? There are a few
> that are nice, but I'm not getting the black that I would prefer and I
> just wanted to see if you had the same thing since I know we both use
> some flavor of Eboni black. I'm thinking this is mostly a property of
> this all pigment black ink. Same goes for the Innova papers, the black
> is close to what I get on German Etching, and it does reach full
> density, but those papers are just a little higher than the GE paper.
> 

Yes, I have a sampler of their paper.  The Condor is a favorite of some BO
printers due to its cool printing and reasonable dmax.  My opinion of it is
that it is essentially the same as Moab Bright White and the old Brightcube
Eclipse Satine, which is the source of both papers' coatings.  The Eclipse
paper is still available from www.Photowarehouse.biz at 1-800-922-5484 (in
the paper catalog, but not on line) at super-low prices.

I didn't find the other papers in the Hawk Mtn. sampler to be ones I'd
recommend.  My observations concerning the black was similar to yours.

Of course, no pigment is going to be able to match a dye with respect to
dmax.  However, I find after 1.65 the visual differences on matte paper are
minimal.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com