Digital BW, The Print

Marc,

I currently use a 4800 and previously used the 2200. I think the main
difference in quality with the new printers (inks) is the lack of
bronzing and metamerism on glossy papers. I could never get what I
considered to be really great results with the 2200 (for B&W). With
the 4800, it has become almost effortless. The ABW driver in the Epson
software does, in my opinion, an excellent job. The B&W prints are
completely neutral, absolutely no metamerism, and the bronzing is all
but eliminated. I've heard some folks say that on matte papers, the
difference is not all that much. However, I think one reason a lot of
fine art photo printers chose to use matte papers in the first place
was the poor quality obtained on glossy papers with previous inkjets.
That is really no longer the case, and I think you'll see a lot of
photographers going back to the more "traditional" look of the
glossier papers. I know I have, and my clients have responded very
well. Again, this is all very much my opinion and I'm sure there are
many others who disagree, however, hope it helps.

Ben