Digital BW, The Print

This post is a message to the printer and ink manufacturers to 
complain about the current limited availability of printer/ink 
combinations for B&W output.

In recent posts Nij and George DeWolfe have both mentioned their 
Epson 7000 24" printers setup with Piezo Pro24 software and inks.

http://prographics.epson.com/products/stypro7000/index.html
http://www.inkjetmall.com/store/piezographyBW.html

(Now my EAM Piezo prints are still warm-neutral but I am taking on a 
definite greenish tinge of envy. I hope you guys will keep us updated 
on your experiences and offer some quality comparisons to other 
methods.)

I know we are talking $2,580 for the Piezo side of these systems. I 
have heard about $4,000 for the 7000 and an additional $5,000 for the 
RIP. So I am assuming a total investment of $11,000 to $12,000.

Now at the other end of the scale we have people using native CYMK 
inks in their desktop printers with price points as low as $129 for 
say an Epson Stylus Photo 780. (HP, Canon and others are also making 
better and better inkjet printers that are competitive in price and 
quality) I don't want to debate the merits of this approach at the 
moment but I do want to point out that people such as John Paul 
Caponigro, have written articles on how to do this and should be 
taken seriously.

Moving up the price curve from there to a more solid, wider inkjet 
such as the Epson Stylus Photo 1280 at $499 with a CIS ($225) and 
alternate quad/hex inks (MIS, Piezo,…???) $225 to $390, perhaps the 
Piezo software $375, this hits a price of $1,150 to $1,500. The next 
step would be an Epson 3000 (ancient technology but wider) at $995 
with a set of quad ink cartridges hits $1,500.

So where do we go from $1,500? The next step would be an Epson 5000 
($3,500) or and Epson 7000 ($4,000) with MIS quad cartridges and 
refill kits.

(I would really like to hear from anyone using these printer/inks 
combinations. Big question, is the $5,000 rip required?)

After that it looks like a jump to over $10,000 to get into the Epson 
7000, 9000, 10000 type professional printers with the Piezo Pro 24 
and RIPs.

Hello manufacturers!!! Are you listening?!? There are some rather 
huge price range gaps that appear to be dead empty of any products 
for making B&W prints! There is a lesson for you in the recent mid-
format scanner price drops of the Nikon 8000 and Polaroid 120. People 
literally lined up to pay the $2,700 to $3,200 prices for these 
units. I believe there is a strong market for a B&W printing system 
in the $2,000 to $3,000 range that offers improved paper handling and 
tonality over the $1,500 and lower priced systems.

There is a huge market that has been identified by the horrible 
term "prosumer" which I take to mean advanced amateurs, part time 
pros, and beginning pros that are willing to purchase photo equipment 
one or two steps below full-blown professional equipment. The 35mm 
camera companies seem to have pegged this rather well and are 
offering many great products to this market.

The digital printer and the B&W ink manufactures need to realize that 
there is this a large customer base that is absolutely devoted to 
photography but derive little or no income from their 
efforts. "Amateur" is not a word to describe these people because 
their level of skill and passion often meets or exceeds many 
professionals. However, their buying decisions are very different.

A professional you can sit down and do a cost analysis to determine 
if it is a good business decision. This other group of non-profit 
artists are forced to examine their "disposable income" to make their 
decision.

I think the market exists. Please fill it and make yourselves some 
money. And let us hear from you!

Sincerely,
Martin Wesley