Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Tim 
Timmermans" <zenphoto7@a...> wrote:
Hi Tim;
Having just bought an 1800 on Thursday and taken it back on Friday, 
I may have a bit better perspective on tis than most list members:

> 
> Say you have to get a 13 x 19 printer. Your choices are the 2200 or
> the 1800. Which do you choose and why?
> 
> If you could get two printers would you get a 2200 for color and an
> 1800 for BW?

You've got it backwards here: The 1800 does the better color, 
especially with the premium profiles provided by Epson, but is 
worthless for B&W. The one I took back showed at least some banding 
at even the highest quality settings. At some point Paul Roark may 
work up a set of curves for it, and QTR may also support it, but 
until then you're stuck with either an expensive RIP or making do 
with the Epson driver for B&W.

> What if you already had a 1280? Would you dedicate that to BW 
using a
> CFS and if so, which of the other two would you get for color?
> 
Do you need pigment color? if not, the 1280 does a good job with 
dyes, especially with a couple of custom profiles. It also has B&W 
support, and does a good job, but tends to require more cleaning and 
is more clog-prone than the 2200. 

> I also have a 2200 which I feel so-so about. I have a replacement
> warranty on it so I could return it and get full store credit for 
it

Most people doing B&W on a 2200 are very happy with them. The 
printer has wide support for b&w, a definite advantage.

>> Would it make
> sense to move up to a larger format printer? 

I have a 7600, care and feeding of the beast runs a good deal higher 
if you wind up doing mostly small prints anyway. I think about 20% 
of each cartridge gets wasted by those incessant cleaning cyles, and 
you can't put anything smaller than 8x10 through it. It is also 
slower, and has a coarser droplet size than the 2200, ie, forget 
doing Black Only unless you happen to be a 35mm Tri-X/Rodinal fan. 
If you're not sure you have a good market for the bigger prints, 
test the waters by paying for a couple bigger prints and see if they 
sell at your next show. If you decide to go up, probably the 4000 
makes a logical next step up.

If you're really itching to spend that money, I would wait a few 
weeks for the new generation to hit the market, I think Epson will 
make the announcement this week, so I heard. The new machines will 
finally address B&W printing, hopefully reasonably well.

I hope this helps

Steve Karafyllakis