Digital BW, The Print

Claude,

Thanks for the interesting insight.  Makes sense.  Perhaps, if the
past is a reliable indicator of the future, we'll see a new series
next year (6000 series perhaps) with nine cylinders :-)

Cheers,

Tony


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, claudej1@a... wrote:
> In a message dated 8/20/2005 11:31:23 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
> DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com writes:
> 
> I  suspect in another year,
> we'll see another 4000 series printer, maybe one  that dosen't require
> swapping out inks when we switch from luster to matte  papers.  Geesh,
> I can't believe Epson did that, a step backwards  IMO.
>  
> Historically, Epson has used their freshly tooled platforms twice.
The 5000  
> dye became the 5500 pigment printer, the 1270 became the 2000P, then
the 
> unsold  200Ps became the silver 1280 when those wouldn't sell at the
price.
>  
> the 4000 platform became the 4800. They only had 8 cynlinders to
work with  
> so the LLK took over the MK. That was the compromise. It's much
cheaper to buy 
> a  second printer if you want to print matte and glossy black. What
else would 
> you  expect them to do?
>  
> Think of the guys with 9600's that did that. An ink change with
feeder  tubes 
> is just not economical. Epson's choice to go with the glossy
preference  for 
> the 4800 is pure economics. PK outsells MK 10:1. So that's where
they put  
> their money. They probably feel that most people will stick to a
4000 for MK and  
> a 4800 for PK with the K3. Besides, you don't get the full dynamicc
range, 
> Dmax,  sharpness, and color saturation of the gloss family of papers
with ANY 
> matte  papers.
>  
> It's a different aesthetic, I know and it has it's loyal following,
but  like 
> any corporation designed to make a profit, the bean counters decide
where  
> the new tooling money goes and when. The 4800 wasn't it.
>  
> The more radical improvements will come from the 7800/9800 because
those  
> printer have had to operate as relatively slow, single pass printers
(the 4000  
> series has tighter head alignement schemes). Now they will benefit
from the 
> same  head technology as the 4000/4800, which is good news because
big roll stock 
>  printers need to get a lot more ink, faster, than these little
desktop units 
> or  the 4000/4800 machines. They'll take your ink money either way.
>  
> Claude
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]