Digital BW, The Print

In December Epson updated the firmware for the 4800 and in early February Epson UK 
updated the driver.  This has caused an annoying drop in the performance I am getting 
from Epson Advanced B&W, namely a reduced dMax and a collpase in step separation in 
the very dark end of the scale.  Previously here is what the shadows looked like in my prior 
patch measurement for profiles:

90.00	1.524	20.01	0.32	0.98	-           L                 |a b                          +
91.00	1.556	19.15	0.40	1.01	-          L                  |a  b                         +
92.00	1.577	18.58	0.47	1.09	-          L                  |a  b                         +
93.00	1.589	18.27	0.51	1.14	-         L                   | a b                         +
94.00	1.616	17.55	0.58	1.13	-         L                   | a b                         +
95.00	1.630	17.19	0.61	1.12	-         L                   | a b                         +
96.00	1.653	16.63	0.61	1.13	-        L                    | a b                         +
97.00	1.666	16.30	0.58	1.11	-        L                    | a b                         +
98.00	1.692	15.65	0.58	1.00	-        L                    | a b                         +
99.00	1.698	15.51	0.55	0.96	-        L                    | ab                          +
100.00	1.718	15.04	0.50	0.91	-        L                    | ab                          +

It now looks like this:

90.00	1.595	18.10	0.24	0.47	-         L                   ab                            +
91.00	1.609	17.75	0.29	0.47	-         L                   |b                            +
92.00	1.631	17.18	0.30	0.42	-         L                   |b                            +
93.00	1.642	16.90	0.33	0.49	-         L                   |b                            +
94.00	1.655	16.57	0.35	0.47	-        L                    |b                            +
95.00	1.665	16.31	0.35	0.48	-        L                    |b                            +
96.00	1.667	16.26	0.31	0.50	-        L                    |ab                           +
97.00	1.677	16.03	0.28	0.47	-        L                    |b                            +
98.00	1.674	16.09	0.28	0.47	-        L                    |b                            +
99.00	1.678	16.01	0.26	0.45	-        L                    |b                            +
100.00	1.677	16.02	0.26	0.37	-        L                    |b                            +


Has anyone else noticed this sort of change?

Cheers

Steve