Digital BW, The Print

I would choose the Epson R2400 but qualify that by saying I have not seen prints from the 
Canon.  My reasons are as follows - the Epson's 3 black inks will most likely produce a 
better B&W print and more important you can run QuadToneRIP with the Epson. I am using 
an Epson 2200 (2 black inks).  B&W prints with the Epson driver were lousy until I got QTR 
which transformed the prints to really great (not just my opinion, got 2nd place B&W print 
in the New England Camera Club Council competition recently).  I also have used the 
R2400 at Santa Fe Workshops for B&Ws, just using the Epson software (no QTR) and the 
prints were very good.  Ditto that with the equivalent HP printers SFW now has.

My digital SLR is a Canon 20D which I'm very happy with, so I have nothing against Canon.  
Hope the above info is helpful, if not quite what you asked.

Walk in Beauty, Bob Gaunt



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Robert" <rczire@...> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone, 
> 
> I'd like to ask for your feedback on choosing a B/W printer. 
> 
> Background: I have purchased a refurbished 1280 from Epson over a 
> year ago, with UT2 inks from MIS. This was my first attempt to making 
> the leap from darkroom to digital printing. Unfortunately I was never 
> able to make this solution work, I constantly got lines across my 
> prints, but only with the MIS inks, not the stock Epson ones. I'm not 
> faulting the ink, maybe it was my refurb'ed printer. But after 
> countless hours of research and troubleshooting (removing pizza 
> wheels, etc) I've given up in dissapointment. I should say that I 
> would only print maybe once a week to a few times per month. 
> 
> I am now on a new quest, this time I thought I won't cut corners with 
> refurbished printers, etc, so I've been looking at the Epson R2400 
> and the Canon PIXMA Pro 9500. Not because I necessarily need an A3 
> printer, but because smaller ones don't come equipped with separate 
> grey cartridge. With current rebates they can be had for under $600. 
> After many hours of reading reviews, I am leaning towards the 9500 as 
> that seems to have better d-max (and the fact that I'm a EOS D30 
> user). Though the Epson has 3 black/grey inks vs only 2 for the Canon.
> 
> So my questions are:
> 1. has anyone compared prints from these two printers (R2400 & PIXMA 
> Pro 9500), or has any feedback on choosing one vs the other?
> 
> 2. has anyone compared print quality between one of the above 
> printers, and Roark's workflow with the Epson 800/1800?
> 
> Thanks,
> Robert.
>