Digital BW, The Print

Hello All,

Around the beginning of the summer my 2200 began getting more
persnickity about paper feeding.  Last Thursday night when I was
feeding it some paper it made a loud Bang! (a mechanical sound like
heavy metal meeting an immoveable object) and the paper stopped.  On
several subsequent tries the paper would go in a few inches and stop.
Only after turning it off & on did it accept paper again, and
occasionally made a Clunk sound when feeding.  I got the impression
something in there was wearing out.  I've had it almost two years and
have run a lot of paper through it.

I got it at Comp USA with their 2-yr replacement warranty, and it was
set to expire on Sept 16th.  What to do.  Rather than risk losing my
investment, I decided to apply the warranty toward a new printer. 
They gave me the full replacement value of $745 (699 + sales tax that
I paid 2 yrs ago) on a store gift card which I applied to a 2400
($849 + tax).  When the dust settled, I paid about $220 for the 2400
and another 2-yr warranty.

So, like it or not, my trusty 2200 is gone and here sits a shiny new
2400.  It's just 2 days now and I have mixed feelings about it, but am
hopeful.

What I like:

- Fast
- Quiet
- smooth prints


What I don't like:

- Just the general principle of using color inks.

- Cost!  Man, those inks are dear at $15 per cart, and this thing uses
a LOT of ink.  Hopefully some refillable carts and 3p inks will
alleviate that.

- Being dependent on profiles supplied by someone else

- Paper.  The wide range of papers giving different tones and "looks"
that I've been used to with Eboni BO has been, at least for the time
being, severely restricted.  The only really acceptable results I've
gotten so far have been on Velvet Fine Art with the VFA paper setting.
It is the only one that has produced a print that 

1) doesn't look colorized (the ABW neutral 0/0 setting produces a very
pretty slightly warm tone that for the most part shows no hint of
color (in daylight there is a bit of green, but under tungsten and my
wide spectrum fluorescents it's fine).  I can even go a hair cooler to
-1/-1 without any obvious degradation, but at -2/-2 it begins to lose
some dmax and begins blocking up the dark zones.  So there is just a
tiny zone of acceptance.

2) has surprisingly good luminance for a full ink print

3) has dmax approaching that of Eboni BO

4) Doesn't block up the dark zones too badly (it does a tiny bit, but
is manageable with an adjustment curve).  

Everything else I've tried so far (various papers with various paper
and ABW settings) has failed to some degree in all four of these
categories.  It seems obvious of course that really good profiles are
needed and VFA being an Epson paper with a specific setting for it
ought to do well (although I couldn't get a satisfactory print on
EEM).  So anyway I will look forward to trying other profiles for
different papers as they are available.


Where Does That Leave me?

Well, at least I'm not dead in the water.  For the time being I can
make at least one kind of acceptable print on VFA.  But I really miss
the wide range of paper options I had before.  I also miss the BO
look, which while weak on some prints, is really handsome on others,
plus all the other advantages.  If possible, I would like to have the
option of making BO or smooth prints, as needed.

When I'm working on prints I use a lot of paper and ink, which will be
prohibitive with this printer.  So for proofing I bought an R200 (was
on sale for $79) and will get some refillable carts for Eboni.  Steve
Karafyllakis has one and I ran a bunch of BO prints on it on Saturday
and I think it will do fine for this.  BO is very economical, and I
now know that my images, worked up previously for BO printing, are
printing fine on the 2400 (with VFA).  So I think it will be fine as a
proofing machine and will reserve the 2400 for final prints.  


Where To Go From Here?  I look forward to 

1) Getting some 3p inks, especially Eboni, in here and seeing how they
do.

2) Trying QTR and seeing what kind of BO I can get from it (I have
hopes for this small drop size)

3) With QTR, continuing my quest for an Eboni+LK solution, which I
still think will be the best compromise of all the above issues.

Ultimately, if possible, I'd like to get away from using color inks. 
That's it for now. 


Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm