Digital BW, The Print

I've owned many Epson photo printers over the last 5-6 years  (1160,1270,
1280, 2200) but may be getting ready to jump ship. I'm poised to buy either
an R1800 or HP 8750 printer, but it's a tough choice. Now that it looks like
dye-based prints may have fixed the major achival issues, I may no longer be
willing to put up with the problems of pigments.

With Epson printers we bend of backwords to work around bronzing, gloss
differential, and low Dmax. The new HP dyes appear to have none of these
problems. With three densities of black ink, the HP 8750 seems likely to
print great B&W, and HP even specifically targets B&W applications while
Epson has removed black-only capability from the R800/1800.

I expect the R800/1800 to significantly improve printing glossies, but do we
have any hard facts on its matte capabilties? Rumors suggest it is not quite
as good on matte as the 2200, but I'd love to hear Roy or Paul, or a few
other of the gurus in this group, tell us something definitive. It seems
like the R800 has been out long enough that we should know by now.

Also, does anyone have experience with the currently available HP 8450,
which has some of the features of the 8750? How good is it on matte papers,
and what are the HP matte papers like?

I feel like the R1800 or 8750 will be great steps forward, but it's such a
hard choice.

Steve

Steve,

I've struggled with this one myself.  I have used pretty much every system/ink and have 
been elated and miserable - sometimes in the same day.  I switched to MPIX.com for black 
and white digital printing, but their quality has dropped in my view, as the recent prints 
are too soft or seemingly out of focus.

I currently use an HP 7660 for proofing, as it has excellent color and uses the #59 BW 
cartridge which I can pick up (expensive) locally.  As I print small, cartridge prices aren't 
really an issue; in 8 months of printing I'm on my second #59 cartridge that is 80% full.

I am tired of the printer game.  As I can't afford a 100K continuous tone printer, I just 
truck down to the local wal-mart and use theirs.  The main problem is that the Fuji 
Frontier only prints to 8x12 - but that does not affect my work.  The black and white tone 
is slightly colder than my HP prints, but is not objectionable - and exhibits no 
metamarism - a remark often made of the HP B&W prints.  As it is a continuous tone 
machine, it exhibits no banding or posterization that my HP is prone to.  The lustre 
surface is almost identical to that of Fuji's lustre, so prints hung together match - that and 
it is calibrated every morning.

Maybe in a few years I'll buy another Epson.  But the related costs are high and it is just as 
easy to drop off the files at Big Evil W.  Actually, I am heading out the door right now to 
drop off a print order.  Another good reason for the Fuji Frontier - 40 5x7's in less than an 
hour...

Don

> 
> I feel like the R1800 or 8750 will be great steps forward, but it's such a
> hard choice.
> 
> Steve