Digital BW, The Print

Hi fellows 


Yes I am frustrated. I have bee searching for the holy Grail for so 
long and finally I am close to give up. After many tries I am still 
very far from a decent B&W photo. I have not tried 2200 yet and some 
people find the result quite good but I don't think I would get rid 
of the terrible metamerism that ALL printer suffer. 

Some say That Image Print 5 solves the problem. May be but after 
spending so much money on printers,inks and papers I think I have to 
put a limit on my spendings. My girlfriend is already going crazy 
with all the money that I have pulled out in my holy task. 

After trying different papers on HP and Epson ( HP designjet 10ps 
and EPSON 1290 ) I can say that they badly suffer from 
metamerism...even if I print only black ink. Both printer have a 
nice resolution and make stuning colour pictures but not in B&W when 
you have a nice neutral print under tungsten light it get an awful 
green cast under daylight. This happens also with only black ink. By 
the way of all the combinations I tried...1290 only black ink with 
Premium Semigloss Photo Paper gives the best result, second is Color 
Life and third Premium Glossy photo. But the black ink is not 
metamerism free so again it's not an option for me. Also with only 
black ink you get lots of dots on highlight areas.

With colour ink metamerism is even worse.......but you get better 
transitions and no dots.

I also bought MIS Quadtones VM and worked with Paul Roark workflow 
with Epson Archival Matte and Crane's Museo. I tell you I was never 
more dissapointed in my life. Now I understand that so many 
galleries don't want inkjet prints. It's not about longevity, it's 
about quality. Pictures with MIS and EAM are drawings not photos. 
Under my point of view they are sooooo far away from Fiber based 
prints. 

Tomorrow I will get some photos done on a LAMBDA Laser Lab. With R4 
photographic process and on a luster paper I cross my hands that 
finally I will get some decent results (I would be happy if they are 
decent not even good).

I know that 2200 with IP5 might be the solution but as I said my 
wallet is too tired. 

So....I don't know....may be Epson will come out with great B&W inks 
some day. The resolution is there, the papers are there......the 
INKS ARE NOT THERE. 

By the way...I am photojournalist. I have been developing my B&W 
photo for 6 years now. And I think that a good fiber or even RC is 
light years ahead of any ink print I have seen so far. That's only 
my radical point of view. I guess some will support this statement 
and some will think I am crazy. 

I can only tell you I am frustrated.