Digital BW, The Print

Peter,

You wrote:

>Anybody have any thoughts on which is a better quadtone printer, the
>Epson 1160 or the 3000? I know everyone has nice things to say about
>the 1160, but the 3000 has big ink tanks and can accommodate larger
>paper. Other than that, I don't know anything about the 3000's
>printing performance.

I use both.  The 3000 with Piezo, if the 3000 is a good one, makes great
prints.

I use both printers with the VM workflow also.  My opinion is that the 3000
with the MIS VM inks and Epson driver produces 16x20 prints that are less
grainy than my direct-enlarger prints from medium format, Tmax 100
negatives.  However, if you are bothered by the dots with a more modern
printer and that workflow, then you won't like the 3000 with VM curves.  The
Piezo software gets around the dot problem, but is more sensitive to the
banding problems.

In addition to the 3000's relatively big dots, the paper handling is not
well thought of.  Some of the banding problems come from paper feed issues.
Lots of people use thick paper, fed from the back, but I've avoided it,
sticking with EAM front-fed and cut a few inches longer than normal to
improve the grip on the roller at the end of the print.  With this procedure
I never get banding with my machine -- better than my 1160 in that regard.

Over all, for affordable 16x20s, the 3000 is the one.  I think it's a great
bargain.  For less than 16x20 I use my 1160, but with the Piezo driver, the
quality of the 3000 would still be outstanding (if you get a good sample and
can put up with the paper feed issues).

Paul