Digital BW, The Print

Ok, I was recently challenged toquestions, so the following is a 
couple that I have. 


My used 3000 is now producing fine prints after I did a stack of 
head adjustments. The Peizo inks that i had in my 1160 CIS system I 
transferred to some empty 3000 cartridges and everything is 
wonderful apart from a slight cast from the magenta postion. My 
question to the forum is, "Why use Joe Cones inks when I can get MIS 
inks much cheaper?" I am sure that there must be a good reason. 
If I do use the MIS inks will they intermix with the Joe Cone inks?

I notice in all the workflows that the conversion from RGB color to 
grayscale is easy using the mixer channel or using the desaturated 
color method. But some of my prints look muddy, when I tried to 
correct with the sliders,indeed when I did the RGB to grayscale 
conversion in PS I end up often with gaps in the histogram on the 
dark end, which resulted in the shadow area of my prints looking 
like they had been posterised. Selection and applying noise helped a 
bit, but not a great deal. Any comments on this one?

I also notice that the Photo section of this forum is empty,how 
about putting some examples of our work there to see what others 
might aspire to? 
My current interest is in infrared. I am personally new to using the 
Piezo/MIS system, but I feel that I am getting there!



Nodbo

Check out message 8547 where Michael Kravit replied to my very 
similar question.

Regards,

James

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "flyfishingusa2002" 
<tflyfish@c...> wrote:
> Ok, I was recently challenged toquestions, so the following is a 
> couple that I have. 
> 
> 
> My used 3000 is now producing fine prints after I did a stack of 
> head adjustments. The Peizo inks that i had in my 1160 CIS system I 
> transferred to some empty 3000 cartridges and everything is 
> wonderful apart from a slight cast from the magenta postion. My 
> question to the forum is, "Why use Joe Cones inks when I can get 
MIS 
> inks much cheaper?" I am sure that there must be a good reason. 
> If I do use the MIS inks will they intermix with the Joe Cone inks?
> 
> I notice in all the workflows that the conversion from RGB color to 
> grayscale is easy using the mixer channel or using the desaturated 
> color method. But some of my prints look muddy, when I tried to 
> correct with the sliders,indeed when I did the RGB to grayscale 
> conversion in PS I end up often with gaps in the histogram on the 
> dark end, which resulted in the shadow area of my prints looking 
> like they had been posterised. Selection and applying noise helped 
a 
> bit, but not a great deal. Any comments on this one?
> 
> I also notice that the Photo section of this forum is empty,how 
> about putting some examples of our work there to see what others 
> might aspire to? 
> My current interest is in infrared. I am personally new to using 
the 

> Piezo/MIS system, but I feel that I am getting there!
> 
> 
> 
> Nodbo

The inks may be compatible and interchangeable, as many people on this
list have found, but one major difference is that with the Cone system
you get tech support, with MIS it is virtually non-existent, or at
best, slow.  This may not matter to you but for some it is important
enough.  The cost per print is not that significant compared to time
spent figuring out problems on your own, and of course, paper.

Best,
Phil
http://philbard.com

> > My used 3000 is now producing fine prints after I did a stack of 
> > head adjustments. The Peizo inks that i had in my 1160 CIS system I 
> > transferred to some empty 3000 cartridges and everything is 
> > wonderful apart from a slight cast from the magenta postion. My 
> > question to the forum is, "Why use Joe Cones inks when I can get 
> MIS 
> > inks much cheaper?" I am sure that there must be a good reason.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "pbard2002" <phil@p...> 
wrote:
> The inks may be compatible and interchangeable, as many people on 
this
> list have found, but one major difference is that with the Cone 
system
> you get tech support, with MIS it is virtually non-existent, or at
> best, slow.  This may not matter to you but for some it is important
> enough.  The cost per print is not that significant compared to time
> spent figuring out problems on your own, and of course, paper.
> 
> Best,
> Phil
> http://philbard.com
> 

I would respectfully disagree with this. I've had great tech support 
from both, probably bending their collective ears more  then was my 
due. At one point in time, Cone tech support was not as good, as they 
had shifted personal around, and I had problems getting through to the 
folks who REALLY knew stuff there. This remedied itself somewhat, and 
I then continued to learn a lot of things from Bill Bergh, for which 
I am most grateful.

I would say that Cone's tech support page on their website is more 
extensive than the equivilent on MIS site. And the information on MIS 
site from a user that details his REMOVING 1160 print heads to clean 
them is dangerous to have on there, as I have shop manuals on these 
things, and one thing you do not want to do (without special 
technician software from Epson) is remove a printhead. This is very 
detrimental to people to have this blithely put on their website. That 
is my main complaint with MIS. E-mails and even telephone calls have 
been done with MIS and I learned a lot from them too as well as the 
Cone folks.

Recently, I called the WeInk folks to ask them about a product. I got 
about an hour long converstion with them about the physical geometry 
of Epson printheads vs Canon and Lexmark, and the exact points in an 
Epson printhead where clogging might occur, and ways to diagnose them. 
Even the fact that the inside passages for ink to flow in the Epson 
2000 are kinder than the passages in their other printers (1160 and 
1280, etc). I didn't even ask for any details. This guy at WeInk knew 
his stuff- maybe more than MIS OR Cone.

This is my personal experience, of course YMMV,
Jim H.