B&W dedicated printer

L

lscaglio

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After many attempts with the r800 and reading various forum I decided to buy a dedicated B&W printer with appropriate inks (MIS or UT); two economic options are the c86 and the r220; anyones in the forum may help to choose a good printer/ink combination?
Thanks
Luca :rolleyes:
 
Do not overlook the HP 7960 which uses 8.5X11 paper. It will do very nice B&W with the supplied HP inks. You might find these reviews of various printers handy http://www.photo-i.co.uk/ .

Bob
 
Nikon Bob said:
Do not overlook the HP 7960 which uses 8.5X11 paper. It will do very nice B&W with the supplied HP inks. You might find these reviews of various printers handy http://www.photo-i.co.uk/ .

Bob
Click to expand...

I agree. I have one of these and I like the results. Very inexpensive too. IIRC, Mike Johnston had a review of this printer in one of his SMP articles.
 
C86 with MIS inks is what I use and love. You can get a printer (refurbished) for about $19-20 on evil site and the set of MIS cartridges is $50 shipped.

The advantage of this set up compared to HP is lower initial cost as well as lower cost of ink. Plus you get archival quality pigment inks if you use archival matte papers.
 
Ditto

Ditto

lido said:
C86 with MIS inks is what I use and love. You can get a printer (refurbished) for about $19-20 on evil site and the set of MIS cartridges is $50 shipped.

The advantage of this set up compared to HP is lower initial cost as well as lower cost of ink. Plus you get archival quality pigment inks if you use archival matte papers.
Click to expand...

This is a great combination, especially if you are on a budget.
 
I've read that one of those small Epsons is slightly better with glossy and the other is slightly better with matte...but I can't remember which. The Yahoo B&W inkjet site discusses this today. They're both supposed to be superb either way, and neither is supposed to do better with MIS inksets...which are the best, according to Clayton Jones (ultimate expert).
 
Thanks for all the info on the 7960. I'd been looking at the Epson R2400 but disliking the fact that it costs more than my M2 did. The 7960 seems like a very good way to get started on the printing side. I have one on order.

Gene
 
The HP 7960 is not exactly cheap to operate. However, the machine always works for me, and it works extremely well. I think the peace of mind and ease of use is worth the expense.
 
I use mine almost exclusively for black and white. What I find most appealing is that it will print black blacks and beautiful gradations of gray with the HP cartridges, without the need for custom inks and tweaking programs. I don't know much about those things and I really don't want to spend the time to learn it.

The way I see it, if I have a "special" image, I just have the guy at my custom lab do it. For the rest, the HP is more than good enough. Never had a problem with mine.

If it is just for B/W, a more economical alternative is the 7660. I had one and "upgraded" because of some controversy regarding its producing inferior results compared to the more expensive 7960. I didn't see any difference.
 
Well, to be fair, the C86 option with the MIS inkset (the EZ B&W) is extremely simple to get going, and does not require any special software. Actually, even if you decide to go hardcore with it with curves and whatnot, you still don't need any special software.

I still prefer a full 4-6 tone inkset rather, which is why I'm using the ultratone2 set from MIS in my Epson 1280.

allan
 
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