A Printer for B&W

S

Shadesofgrey

Happiness, is a darkroom
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Evening all.

Anyone out there recommend a printer (preferably in the canon range as the inks are cheaper and individual) that can produce good B&W prints. Max price is as cheap as possible and definitely not more than £100 GBP as I’m still a dip and dunk man at heart. :angel:

All the best.

B.
 
I'm not aware of any of the canons being particularly good at doing B&W. Why not an Epson C88 or whatever the EZBW option is now from MIS?

allan
 
I received a free Canon printer with my last Mac and even with some color mode tweaks I couldn't get the purple cast out. The price per photo on the cheap ones is pretty high, so I didn't play around much. Color is fine. I had similar B+W results with a friend's iP6600. I'm saving up for one of the Epsons.
 
Give a try to HP9180B or the Epson R1800 B&W configuration.
I'm saving for the HP, I saw some real prints on Matte paper.. just WOW!
No Mesmrizing!
 
I get results from my Pixma 4000 which aren't too bad when I print monochrome.

I've used Lyson Quadblack in an Epson for some time, the results where pretty good but very expensive, I've wasted more ink on head cleaning then on prints.

When I find a source for MIS inks in germany, I might start again with an Epson R200, although a 6 colour set costs some $65 :(
 
migtex said:
Give a try to HP9180B or the Epson R1800 B&W configuration.
I'm saving for the HP, I saw some real prints on Matte paper.. just WOW!
No Mesmrizing!
Click to expand...
I have been using the "sister" printer (actually, slight older sister) to the HP B9180, the Photosmart 8750. Same format (13 x 19" max. print size), but with a twist: whereas the B9180 has one black and one grey ink in its setup, the 8750 uses one black and two grey inks in its set. There's been some debate about whether the 8750's additional grey ink gives it an edge in b/w printing, but I love the results I've been getting in the year an a half I've owned mine. Several B9180 owners have reported very good b/w results as well.

Other differences:

- The 8750's inks are dye-based, while the B9180's inks are pigment. Normally, you might think this gives the 9180 a big edge in terms of lightfastness, but it doesn't, at least according to the Wilhelm gang: both printers, used with HP's better papers (Premium or Premium Plus for the 8750; Advanced for the 9180), longevity figures go past the century mark, with the B9180 edging toward 200 years, depanding on the specific paper. The only disadvantgage the 8750 prints show is in terms of waterfastness: don't get those prints wet. (You ought not get any inkjet print wet, for that matter, but some are more fragile than others). In either case, just treat your prints the way you'd treat any fine-art piece, and you'll be fine.

- One nice perk with the B9180 is the size of the ink tanks: big, at least for this format of printer (around 22-25ml or so...don't have the precise spec on hand). these tanks (there are eight) are mounted in a stationary compartment in the printer and connected via hoses to a set of combination cart/print heads, which are also user-replaceable. The 8750 has a more conventional trio of smaller three-ink carts (total of nine colors), each with built-in heads, meaning, effectively, that when you replace a cart, you're also replacing the print head...an idea I'm seriously sold on after nine years of using nothing but Epsons, my last one a 2200.

(Edit: Like Socke, I also had an older, four-color Epson – an 1160, in my case – loaded with Lyson Quad Black inks for b/w, which worked okay most of the time, but not ideally. Ultimately, I wanted to get truly good color and b/w prints from a single printer, and now I have it.)

Both printers are Really Good, particularly with black-and-white. One might suit you better, depending.


- Barrett
 
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I have the HP Photosmart D7160 on my Mac and I get excellent quality B&W prints without any purple cast using either Premium Plus HP photo paper or Premium paper.
 
I also use MIS inks in a dedicated C87 Epson printer. In Australia the C87 sells for $99, which would be about 40 pounds sterling. The MIS inks are cheaper than Epson if bought in bulk even with the airmail costs added. The results are excellent. Look for Paul Rouark's site for more info.
 
Inspired by this thread I did some research on the HP website, they offen a new light grey, grey, black cartridge which can be used in 6 colour printers alongside a 344 or 343 cartridge and in 8 colour printers alongside a 344, 343 or 348 cartridge.
The cheapest way to get this combo in A4 seems to be the 5160 printer for some 95 Euro and the No. 100 grey cartridge is available at 25 Euro.
 
I have an older HP 7960 that produces very good B&W prints in the 8x10 inch size. If I were to get a printer to produce larger print sizes you can bet I will go with HP again.

Bob
 
Nikon Bob said:
I have an older HP 7960 that produces very good B&W prints in the 8x10 inch size. If I were to get a printer to produce larger print sizes you can bet I will go with HP again.

Bob
Click to expand...
I also had a 7960 (great printer, BTW). I replaced it with the 8750. Bigger, and better, and at a non-lethal price.


- Barrett
 
I use a cheap Epson r200 with MIS Eboni for black only printing. The results are really great [though just a tad on the warm side] if you like matte papers. A prefilled spongeless cartridge [easier to refil later than with an empty one], a bottle of ink and a chip resetter [epson printers stop printing when any of the cartridges is empty] won't set you back too much, the ink lasts for months and if you opt for black only printing, your printer can still be used for colour, should you need that. Plus no need to setup printer profiles etc.
 
amateriat said:
I also had a 7960 (great printer, BTW). I replaced it with the 8750. Bigger, and better, and at a non-lethal price.


- Barrett
Click to expand...

Thanks, I am going to keep both the HP 8750 and HP B9180 in mind when I up grade.

Bob
 
WOW! A lot of food for thought:eek :eek: Thanks guys I'll spend a while pondering over all your remarks. Question. MIS? Why so high rated. Not up on printer or ink tech as you can no doubt see :eek:

Really appreciate the help.
All the best.
B.
 
Socke said:
I get results from my Pixma 4000 which aren't too bad when I print monochrome.

(
Click to expand...

I'm using the same ip4000, which has three color ink carts and two blacks, and have no trouble getting color-neutral prints on Canon's papers. Epson seems to turn a little purplish. Office Max sells a set of four Canon carts for about $45; you have to buy the extra black separately. Not cheap, but it probably matches the paper I used to waste in the darkroom.
 
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