Digital BW, The Print

One of my C88+ printers is starting to act up, as is typical after a few thousand prints.  When they were available refurbed from Epson for $50 delivered I just replaced 'em without much thought (got that much color ink in the box, which I used in another printer) but now that they're $85 plus shipping I think a bit harder.  I've been using C88 printers (and C84s before that) for many years, with a MIS CIS and EZ inks for my B&W work, which is mostly photo books for family at Christmas (8x8 prints bound in mat board covers - 850 total prints last year of about 100 different images, plus 100 Christmas cards.)

I'm wondering if the $200 price on the 1400 that will be available this weekend in some stores (and appears to be available direct from Epson) would make it worth stepping up to the bigger printer?  I do NOT need wide carriage, and am not sure I need 6 colors, but would sure like to get more reliability and longevity out of a printer.  Also, if it's any faster than a C88, that would be nice when producing hundreds of prints in a short period of time.  Finally, I realize that I'd need different inks, and would have a learning curve to go through, which might not be the best thing with a deadline 30 days away.

All of which may argue against switching right now.  But if the learning curve isn't too bad, and if there is a real speed increase, I'd be prepared to make the investment of time and money.

May I have some thoughts from those with 1400 experience, especially if you have any C88 experience to compare?

Many thank in advance.

Cheers,
Kip

"cbabing3@..." <cbabing3@...> wrote:

> One of my C88+ printers is starting to act up, ...
> 
> I'm wondering if the $200 price on the 1400 ...
> would make it worth stepping up to the bigger printer?  
> I do NOT need wide carriage, ...

Nothing is easier or cheaper than the C88+ and the "EZ" ink approach.

I use the 1400 for its size, Eboni/Carbon-6 fine art, and HP PK black only glossy (which requires a 1.5 picoliter drop size that the C88+ lacks).

For my family members I buy C88+ printers and use home-brew EZ variants.

Both of these printers are great values, in my view.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

The 1400 in my opinion is the best 13" printer Epson has produced, and at $200 is a bargain. 

The 1400 doesn't clog at all, and produces really fine prints. But you have to do your homework to get an ideal curve set, like any other printer.  (Look up "chartthrob" a free script, to get a really ideal curve before running qtr if you have a pc and photoshop.)

I'm running 3 diff. densities of the MIS eboni black ink in the K-Y-M slots, (with water in the other carts), along with QTR, following Paul Roark's instructions on mixing your own ink densities w/the MIS carbon black ink.

Couldn't be happier with this printer, but it takes a learning curve on your part, but it's worth it...buying a pint of Eboni from MIS, a gallon of distilled water, and a $2 pint of Ecover surfacant at Walmart, makes your ink cost trivial.

troutfly24 schreef:
> The 1400 in my opinion is the best 13" printer Epson has produced, and at $200 is a bargain. 

It always surprises me that the lowest EU price for the 1400 is way 
above that, right now 334.- Euro which is the equivalent of 500 $.
Even if VAT isn't counted you still have a price of 420 $

Compared with a Canon iPF5100 (another category, I know) that you can 
get for 1300 Euro including VAT versus 1925 $ in the US which is 
representing the $ rate more or less.

-- 
Met vriendelijke groeten,   Ernst


Dinkla Gallery Canvas Wrap Actions

|      Dinkla Grafische Techniek      |
|         www.pigment-print.com        |
|                 ( unvollendet )                 |

Correction: the Ecover Rinse was purchased at Vitamin Cottage, while the Glycerol was from Walmart; sorry for any confusion. The ratios I use are:
65% distilled water
25% glycerol
10% Ecover 
this mix forms the base to mix w/the Eboni ink for the different dilutions, as per Mr. Roark's instructions.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "troutfly24" <troutfly24@...> wrote:

>
> 
> The 1400 in my opinion is the best 13" printer Epson has produced, and at $200 is a bargain. 
> 
> The 1400 doesn't clog at all, and produces really fine prints. But you have to do your homework to get an ideal curve set, like any other printer.  (Look up "chartthrob" a free script, to get a really ideal curve before running qtr if you have a pc and photoshop.)
> 
> I'm running 3 diff. densities of the MIS eboni black ink in the K-Y-M slots, (with water in the other carts), along with QTR, following Paul Roark's instructions on mixing your own ink densities w/the MIS carbon black ink.
> 
> Couldn't be happier with this printer, but it takes a learning curve on your part, but it's worth it...buying a pint of Eboni from MIS, a gallon of distilled water, and a $2 pint of Ecover surfacant at Walmart, makes your ink cost trivial.
>

Kip,
I designed an ink for the 1400 printer called Piezography Special Edition K6 influenced considerably by the triple split toning I did on the Ashes and Snow prints for Gregory Colbert's Nomadic Museum. The QTR download comes with a number of built-in K6 curves I produced for the ink set. They cover all the popular papers. The starter kit is sold at InkjetMall and includes everything you need. You just need to give it really good quality images - select the paper profile from QTR - and we do all the work for you.

http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.362672/it.A/id.3205/.f

it includes a 4oz bottle set CIS. You will be very happy with the output and how plug and play it is. You can go over to the Piezography Users list to ask opinions of its users there if you like. The print quality is amazing with K6 - the paper feed is challenging as it is with all of the desktop Epsons.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/piezography3000/

best regards,

Jon Cone
Piezography

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "cbabing3@..." <cbabing3@...> wrote:

>
> One of my C88+ printers is starting to act up, as is typical after a few thousand prints.  When they were available refurbed from Epson for $50 delivered I just replaced 'em without much thought (got that much color ink in the box, which I used in another printer) but now that they're $85 plus shipping I think a bit harder.  I've been using C88 printers (and C84s before that) for many years, with a MIS CIS and EZ inks for my B&W work, which is mostly photo books for family at Christmas (8x8 prints bound in mat board covers - 850 total prints last year of about 100 different images, plus 100 Christmas cards.)
> 
> I'm wondering if the $200 price on the 1400 that will be available this weekend in some stores (and appears to be available direct from Epson) would make it worth stepping up to the bigger printer?  I do NOT need wide carriage, and am not sure I need 6 colors, but would sure like to get more reliability and longevity out of a printer.  Also, if it's any faster than a C88, that would be nice when producing hundreds of prints in a short period of time.  Finally, I realize that I'd need different inks, and would have a learning curve to go through, which might not be the best thing with a deadline 30 days away.
> 
> All of which may argue against switching right now.  But if the learning curve isn't too bad, and if there is a real speed increase, I'd be prepared to make the investment of time and money.
> 
> May I have some thoughts from those with 1400 experience, especially if you have any C88 experience to compare?
> 
> Many thank in advance.
> 
> Cheers,
> Kip
>