Digital BW, The Print

Hi Richard!

Well, I upgraded to a 2400 earlier this year and have mixed feelings
about it. The print head probably needs replacement, as I have banding
problems that won't go away even when using the service utility. I've
read several accounts online of people having banding problems with
this printer, and the solution usually seems to be having the printer
serviced and the print head replaced. 

I've managed to get mostly decent results on Permajet Alpha which is
my favorite paper, but I can't make glossy prints without severe
banding, and even on Permajet Alpha there is fant banding in the
shadows and slight streaking in very smooth gradients.

The paper feed is definitely a step down from the 2100. It seems to
pick up paper dust more easily and I can't trust it to even pick up
regular office paper reliably. Wetting a piece of cloth and running
the paper feed a few times while holding the cloth in place to clean
the wheels helps a lot though. It will run well for a while after
doing such a cleaning. This procedure is recommended in the service
manual for the printer when having paper feed problems.

I don't like that there is no separate paper thickness setting like
there was on the 2100. The thickness is controlled by which paper you
select in the driver. It's usually not that big a problem though. For
the matte third party papers I've tried both Archival Matte and Velvet
Fine Art seems to produce good results in ABW mode.

I often have to run some head cleanings if the printer sits for
several days. But I haven't yet experienced a clog while printing. 

The printer was given to me for free - Even with the cost of a service
to have the print head replaced I will have saved a lot of money. But
if I paid full price for it I would not be happy with the current
banding problems and would have it replaced or serviced under warranty.

That said, I love ABW mode and the ability to make great BW prints
directly from Photoshop and the Epson driver instead of relying on
third party utilities and custom profiles.

I wouldn't something other than Epson simply for the lack of third
party inkset and CIS support. Running the 2400 on original inks would
be outrageously expensive, and I'm very happy with the CIS I'm using
on it. It's reducing my ink costs to almost 1/10 of the price.

There is also much better community supprt for the Epsons.

I'm considering a 3800 for my next upgrade. It's more expensive than
the 2400, but considering the included full 80ml inkset the price gap
is actually much smaller than it seems.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Richard
Smallfield <r.smallfield@...> wrote:
>
> Hi,
> I've been wondering how the newer Epsons such as the 2400 or the
2880 compare with the old ones like the 2100 for reliability.
> 
> Before just about every exhibition print I have to run a cleaning
cycle on my 2100 (which has OEM ink). And even that doesn't guarantee
a good print.
> 
> Yesterday I was printing an 850mm panorama and it was fine until the
last 100mm, which had banding. What a waste of paper.
> 
> But I've grown to expect this sort of thing from my Epsons.
> 
> Have they improved with the 2880 or am I right to think that the
HP9180 might indeed be a better option from this standpoint?
> 
> thanks,
> Richard
> 
> --
> richard smallfield photography
> http://smallfield.vze.com
> http://www.photoforum-nz.org/gallery/thumbnails.php?pageID=19&showID=50 
> 
>    "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at
>    the same level of thinking we were at when we created
>    them." 
>    --Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
>