Digital BW, The Print

Hello forum members--

I've "lurked" for a while, but am only now posting, and wanted to 
introduce myself.  I have been a B&W photographer for 40 years, 35 
and 2 1/4.  I have only within the past three years become involved 
with digital printing.  So, while I consider my eye fairly well 
developed, I am not, by any means, an expert in digital printing.

I started with a 2000P, which I found novel but unusable for serious 
printing of anything.  The BO mode (with Epson inks and Watercolor RW 
paper) were acceptable, but lacked real blacks and any acceptable 
shadow detail.  Color from this printer always looked bizarre to me.

I received a 2400 about a week ago and have run through about $600 in 
ink and paper to try to understand the printer.  The short version of 
the story is that I am very impressed with it.  Although prints do 
not look like silver prints, I find them a very credible 
representation of B&W photography.  The "neutral" setting in the ABW 
driver is very close to a gray card and, under a Nikon stereo, zoom 
microscope cyan, magenta and yellow are just visible at about 6X or 
7X, obvious at any higher zoom.  By eye I see no color whatsoever in 
the print in any type of light at any angle of view.  Judging by ink 
use, the driver is using (in descending order) light black, matte 
black, light magenta, light cyan, light light black and yellow.  The 
yellow use is very slight (and magenta and cyan appear to be used 
only during "nozzle cleaning").  I realize that the introduction of 
color may imply some "longevity" (archival, fading or "shift") 
problems, but aside from that I cannot see an objection to it.  Other 
thoughts on this?  I am surprised by the light magenta use, because I 
would have expected light cyan after matte black given the color of 
carbon. All printing has been done at "neutral" settings in the ABW 
driver.

Most intersting to me has been the "paper issue" with the printer.  I 
will continue that discussion in a following post.