Digital BW, The Print

I am an occasional reader of these postings and have a far 'simpler'
understanding of the technological issues explored here than most.  It is
therefore logical that I would be attracted to the thread 'WHEN will we...'.
I want to raise the question of the Epson 960 on colorlife paper.  You
supposedly get 27 yrs. of display life, NO metamerism and 'plug and play'
ease for the simple ones like me.  What's really wrong here?  Can someone
tell me that the 'beauty' of an 8x10 produced in this manner is far less
than the best an 1160 with MIS or other inksets can yield (I know 'beauty'
is subjective).  If so, I'll dedicated myself to the rather arduous task of
mastering it.  If, however, the two are quite close, count me among those
who will go to the store, buy a 960 and hopefully, devote themseves to the
rest of BW photography.  I mean no insult to the 'craft' of it all and
admire you all for your intelligence and 'pioneering' spirit!
While you're at it, if it came down to choosing the 2200 vs. the 960 on ONLY
aesthetic qualities (ie not longevity ) which would it be?
Thanks,
Marcello

At 03:54 PM 2/11/2003 +0000, DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com 
wrote:
>Now then, being a newbie this thread appealed when I saw it appear.
>Save to say that I now feel overwhelmed by the wide and various ideas,
>systems, software and such.

Exactly!   And that fact alone - that there are a zillion different
approaches and no approach is endorsed by more than a tiny
minority of people - is a symptom of the problem.   Most people
are desperate on this issue so they try all kinds of things.
One sign of maturity on black and white digital printing will
be when we start to see some significant convergence.