Digital BW, The Print

Hi,

I would like to share with you the result of a rather primitive light 
exposure experiment that I have done with Piezotone SE ink and 
MIS FS ink on PhotoRag 308 paper.  

The images you are about to see were printed on two different 
Epson 1160 printers, one with MIS FS ink the other with the 
PiezoTone SE ink; the SE printer was flushed as per IJM's 
instructions prior to cartridge installation.  The Randall workflow 
was used because it produces a much darker D-Max than the 
Piezo driver; 2.00 compared to 1.77.  The prints were taped to a 
climate controlled office wall in a uniformly lit area.  The office 
has a large panel of windows leading to the outside and the 
walls and ceiling are painted white; it is quite a bright room, 
bright enough to not have to use the overhead lights at all. The 
prints were taped to the wall adjacent to the windows 
approximately two feet from them.  At no time during the days of 
the exposure did the prints see any direct sunlight; only reflected 
light.  The right side of each of the prints was covered with black 
opaque paper taken from a box of old photographic paper for the 
duration of the exposure.  The prints were mounted from 8/15/02 
- 9/4/02 or three weeks total.  Since the test, the prints were kept 
in a dark drawer and scanned on 9/10/02 on a flatbed scanner.  
Both prints were scanned in RGB color with the same scanning 
parameters.

The Piezotone SE image is here:

http://users.rcn.com/chervinsky/Photography/People/PiezoSE.jpg

The MIS FS image is here:

http://users.rcn.com/chervinsky/Photography/People/MIS.jpg

The D-Max of the PiezoTone SE print went from 2.0 to 1.63 in the 
exposed area and stayed the same in the covered area.  The 
D-Max of the MIS print went from 1.73 to 1.72 in the exposed area 
and stayed the same in the covered area.  Densitometry 
measurements were done with a calibrated X-Rite 810 
densitometer.

Subjective Assessment: I am greatly impressed with the general 
appearance of PeizoTone SE print as it comes out of the printer; 
the blacks are just spectacular, MUCH better the MIS FS ink.  I 
am also impressed with the inks overall neutrality.  I am, 
however, quite disappointed with the inks lightfastness.  Further, 
when the PiezoTone ink fades it tends to turn pink.  As I 
mentioned earlier the office is bright but I do not believe that it 
could be three stops brighter than display conditions.  I worry that 
after 6 months in display light that my prints will fade in a similar 
way.

I hope this has been helpful to all.

Thanks for your time.

-John Chervinsky

John,

I don't know if you saw my earlier post on this matter. I found a whole set of  
my PiezoTone prints turned to junk after 2 months of exposure to normal room 
light (no sun). The culprit is the black ink. 

These were my first large scale prints with the new inks from a 7000. I had 
bought the hype that these were all pigment and extensively tested etc. When 
Paul Roark first posted his fade tests proving that the black ink is the worst in 
the industry, Jon Cone considered it yet another malicious attempt on this list 
at sabotaging his sales. He countered with the argument that only a small 
amount of pure black is used in the driver and any fade would be of minor 
consequence. And I bought that too.
Then he had to explain how the black ink is not all pigment as originally 
promised in the sales pitch, but contains "dyestuff" which is supposedly 
different from "dye". I thought, OK, whatever, it's proprietary technology, we 
can't expect details. So, in the end, I bought the inks trusting that if they fade it 
would still be better than the old inks.

Well,  now it turns out that the black self destructs in only a couple of months. 
Probably faster than Epson dyes! It turns out that Paul's tests were telling the 
truth and there was no sabotage intended. Your prints failed far worse than 
mine, because, as Martin noted, you are using RGB curves and can't keep the 
black from coming all the way up the scale. 

Regardless, the solution for now is to use the MIS-FS black and return the 
PT-K to Inkjetmall for refund. In fact they should issue a recall - or at least 
place a warning on their site. Realizing that you bought the inks based on 
posted reviews (one of which comes from Martin here) I should think these 
reviews should now be amended to prevent people from buying this stuff 
unaware of the unstable black ink - common to all the PT inksets. At best 
PiezoTones, as they currently stand, can be used for boxed portfolios which 
will mostly stay in  the dark.

I would think twice about using the Gen4 black as substitute, either, since 
Mediastreet was honest enough to say that it contains 25% dye. 

Maybe the conclusion is that if you need truly high dmax, you must coat your 
prints. After seeing many samples recently from a local source, uncoated 
prints seem weak and fragile by comparison. But I digress....


Antonis



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "chervinsky02144" 
<chervinsky@d...> wrote:
 I am, 
> however, quite disappointed with the inks lightfastness.  Further, 
> when the PiezoTone ink fades it tends to turn pink.

To: "Martin Wesley" <mwesley250@...>

> I have run several test prints and wedges with the
>MIS-FSN black replacing the PT black and this makes a nice ink
>set.

I thought that the MIS-FSN inks could be a straight replacement for the original Piezo inks, while the latter were "incompatible" with the new Piezotones. I, therefore, thought that the MIS-FSN inks would be incompatible with the Piezotones as well.

Having seen the Piezotone Selenium ink, I love the tones and would like to start using it but am concerned about the fast fading of the blacks. Are you sure that the MIS-FSN black is indeed compatible with the Piezotones? Have you discussed this with the InkJetMall people?


>As of today I would still recommend the PiezoTone inks
>if you replace the black with MIS-FSN black or Gen 4 black, if you want to
>get better Dmax and accept a shorter life.

Huh? I thought that replacing the Piezotone black with MIS-FSN black would give longer life.

--Mitch