Digital BW, The Print

On Feb 3, 2010, at 5:06 PM, David Kachel wrote:

>> Thats certainly a concern even amongst the biggest advocates of such
>> sets (many of whom you will find on this list). Between legal
>> decisions favoring the printer companies, newer models that are
>> progressively harder to hack third party inks into,
>
> So how have Cone and MIS escaped the corporate wrath of Epson?

By reducing their product lines to only items that do not cross the  
legal line, such as prefilled cartridges...
>
>> and the fact that
>> the OEM B&W options are "good enough" for many users
>
> Ah, the ever present lowest common denominator photographer who is  
> always eager to display his ignorance and loudly announce how this  
> or that product is "good enough".
> I think he started shouting "good enough" when cameras reached 1  
> megapixel.

Photogs come in all favors, and most deserve more respect than you are  
offering them. Many create images that don't interest me, but that  
meet their own needs. And they provide the size market required to  
justify the product development that has produced the amazing inkjet  
printers now available to us, for quite reasonable prices. So we can  
be screaming snobs about this, but without those people, we would  
still be in the darkroom (and for that matter, most of our favorite  
darkroom products were developed under similar circumstances...)
>
>> , the overall B&W
>> specialty market is shrinking. I worked with multiple suppliers on
>> multiple different B&W inksets over the years, and have watched these
>> companies leave the field, or cease further development. MIS and Cone
>> would be the main survivors at this point in time.
>
>
> That is REALLY discouraging. They don't make adequate inks yet they  
> don't want anyone to get them elsewhere.
> I am tempted to buy a set of inks if for no other reason than to  
> thumb my nose in Epson's general direction. How much business do  
> they think they would lose to B&W photographers who demand higher  
> quality than they can deliver!

Yawn... I've been living in this world for the better part of two  
decades, as have many others on this list. Forgive me of your  
newcomer's angst  and radical zeal does not excite much response any  
longer.

C. David Tobie
Global Product Technology Manager
Digital Imaging & Home Theater
CDTobie@...


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