Digital BW, The Print

I've been following this discussion of the R1800 and BO capabilities with
some interest, as I'm looking at possibly getting an R1800 (at some
point...) for color printing and would love to be able to turn out great B&W
prints on it as well. There's been a lot of discussion about how Epson
engineers have no idea of the demand, how out of touch they are, etc.

If that's true, why don't we, as a group, let them know how much demand
there is for BO printing, or any kind of genuine B&W support for that
matter? Let's send them a letter signed by everyone on this list who's
interested. Maybe they'll listen. Imagine if even one fifth of the 5,550
people currently subscribed to this list participated. Even one tenth!

If you want, I'd be happy to compose a draft letter, if people can suggest
(and then, um, *agree upon*) what to say... and then somehow we could figure
out later how everyone can "sign" it - maybe people could e-mail me their
names and postal addresses offline and I could just list them. Something
like that.

My humble suggestion would be to start simple, for example just first
letting them know that there's this huge B&W-printing community, and asking
if BO features could be enabled and if not, why not, and/or asking why light
gray was removed, etc. Also maybe we could ask for the contact information
of someone whom we in the B&W printing community can contact directly. Then
once we've gotten an answer from them, we'll have opened a dialogue and
perhaps will be able to get answers more easily in the future.

What do you all think of the idea?

Of course another option would be that everyone just sends in their own
letters. I just called Epson's public relations office and the woman there
suggested writing a letter first to Epson USA's corporate headquarters, and
in the letter that we request some specific e-mail addresses for
corresponding in the future. The address she gave me is:

Epson America Inc.
3840 Kilroy Airport Way
Long Beach, CA 90806
(USA)

I also found this contact information for Epson R&D which I thought might
possibly be useful in getting in contact with engineers:

EPSON Research and Development, Inc.
Corporate Headquarters
150 River Oaks Parkway, Suite 225
San Jose, CA 95134
(USA)
Tel (408) 952-6000 (country code for U.S. is 1)
Fax (408) 952-6001

And this:
Epson Palo Alto Laboratory (EPAL): The focus of EPAL, a Silicon Valley
establishment with a tremendous reputation, is on cutting-edge work in
digital imaging technologies for cameras, copiers, printers, scanners,
projectors and the Internet.

Epson Palo Alto Laboratory
3145 Porter Drive, Suite 104
Palo Alto, CA 94304
(650) 843-9100, (650) 843-9106 (Fax)
Email: epal.info@...

So anyway, there you go, hope this starts something interesting... and if
anybody already has contacts for Epson engineers, please let us know. Or
maybe someone will be able to find some Epson engineers at the PMA show and
get their business cards (hey, don't tell them you're going to post their
contact info on an Internet list!)

--
Peter Aronson
Mexico City

I would say that a letter from the moderators of this group inviting Epson
to join the group and outlining the broad discussion that has taken place on
this forum regarding the subject and a request for certain functions to be
retained would be very worthwhile.  But maybe I am a little more punchy - I
like the barrage approach - or both.  A couple of hundred requests in each
country ought to wake them up.


> From: Peter Aronson <groups@...>
 able to get answers more easily in the future.

> 
> What do you all think of the idea?
>

Steve Kale wrote:
> I would say that a letter from the moderators of this group inviting Epson
> to join the group and outlining the broad discussion that has taken place on
> this forum regarding the subject and a request for certain functions to be
> retained would be very worthwhile.  But maybe I am a little more punchy - I
> like the barrage approach - or both.  A couple of hundred requests in each
> country ought to wake them up.

Almost all the bigger lists on inkjet printing are checked by 
Epson people. Occasionaly one gets the 'on holidays' message 
that reveals the Epson origin of the lurker. They don't mingle 
in with a few exceptions like the European Wide Format printer 
manager did some years back at the 9600 introduction. That was 
on the Epson wide format list.

The Coolscan list had a Nikon US representative, he is very 
quiet though.

Ernst

I think the relevant issue is whether they lurk in a forum which is specific
for B&W issues, like this one.  Personally I gave up on the general Epson
list because so many of the issues discussed were of a very basic nature.
In contrast, this list deals with people seeking something more than "what
they are delivered" albeit in a specialist category and hence I find the
discussion and general knowledge level here to be extremely good.  In the
end, we would all like to see Epson giving a little more focus to B&W
issues.  Alerting them to the content and general opinions of this list
can't hurt.  This list is a big supporter of Epson product, despite their
lack of focus on B&W.

Steve

> From: Ernst Dinkla <E.Dinkla@...>
> Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 12:06:44 +0100
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Re: Epson R800 & 1800: let's tell Epson
> 
> 
> Steve Kale wrote:
>> I would say that a letter from the moderators of this group inviting Epson
>> to join the group and outlining the broad discussion that has taken place on
>> this forum regarding the subject and a request for certain functions to be
>> retained would be very worthwhile.  But maybe I am a little more punchy - I
>> like the barrage approach - or both.  A couple of hundred requests in each
>> country ought to wake them up.
> 
> Almost all the bigger lists on inkjet printing are checked by
> Epson people. Occasionaly one gets the 'on holidays' message
> that reveals the Epson origin of the lurker. They don't mingle
> in with a few exceptions like the European Wide Format printer
> manager did some years back at the 9600 introduction. That was
> on the Epson wide format list.
> 
> The Coolscan list had a Nikon US representative, he is very
> quiet though.
> 
> Ernst
>

At 08:52 AM 2/17/2005, Steve Kale wrote:
>I think the relevant issue is whether they lurk in a forum which is specific
>for B&W issues, like this one.  Personally I gave up on the general Epson
>list because so many of the issues discussed were of a very basic nature.
>In contrast, this list deals with people seeking something more than "what
>they are delivered" albeit in a specialist category and hence I find the
>discussion and general knowledge level here to be extremely good.  In the
>end, we would all like to see Epson giving a little more focus to B&W
>issues.  Alerting them to the content and general opinions of this list
>can't hurt.  This list is a big supporter of Epson product, despite their
>lack of focus on B&W.

Two things would generally help a company like Epson respond:

1. A realization of the size of the actual and potential market for their 
printers primarily as black and white devices.  (The fact that I bought an 
R800 and use it primarily for color, but may do some black and white 
printing on it, does not matter so much.)

2. A realization of the potential influence in the market place of some of 
the skilled photographers and printers on this list -- whether in the black 
and white or color realm.

		A r t h u r    F i n k     P h o t o g r a p h y
		------------------------------------------------
		Ten New Island Avenue               207.766.5722
		Peaks Island, Maine 04108  arthur@...

I haven't seen anyone announce it, but I just updated my Qimage to xxx.118.

READ the update notes and he tells you what he has done --and recommends--
for QTR.

Seth