Printers?

K

Kyle

Guest
OK, since you guys were so kind to me in the scanner thread, I figured I'd try pushing my luck with a printer thread. :) Anyways, I'm getting a Minolta Dual Scan IV since I do mostly B&W work. Later on I might be picking up a decent flatbed to scan the occasional medium format shooting that I do. I'm wondering which would be the best printer for B&W work, capable of printing larger than 8x10? As far as budget goes, I could afford something as nice as an Epson R2400, but that price tag isn't very appealing, so if I could get away with something cheaper that'd be great. Thanks guys :)
 
There was a thread on this just last week. Lots of folks here like the HP 7960 for B&W printing, and it's significantly cheaper than the Epsons.

Gene
 
My recommendation based on actual use is a HP 7660/7960 or the later replacement model.

You can get their B+W photo grey cartridges and this does lovely B+W without colour shifts and without messing around. Because the printheads are in the cartridge, you can swap back and forth between B+W and colour. Colour printing is also pretty pain free. Results are really nice on Ilford's Smooth Pearl paper. If you print on maximum quality, it can chew through the ink, but print on the next quality level down, and it uses way less ink for no appreciable loss in quality.

The other advantage of the HP is that you can leave the printer for weeks without printing, and it'll print perfectly well the next time out - no clogging (Yay!! unlike an epson I had that I very nearly took a hammer to).

Edit: Sorry I read your post as printing up to 8x10 not bigger. In that case, the above models won't do, but HP have released a couple of A3 printers.
 
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won't clog, but also not archival. boo! hiss! :) to each his own, though. I am not on a soapbox about epsons and b&w. it's just what I use.

allan
 
I've not tried the bigger A3 printers, but I have had major problems with getting neutral B&W prints with Canon A4 printers. Tried Lyson inks too, but my printheads didn't like these. After months of colour profiling/fiddling/shouting & screaming, I bought a HP 8450. Magic. B&W prints are fantastic. I understand that the A3 printers from HP are even better. However, the Epson R2400 seems to beat the HP - have a look at the phot-i review at http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Epson R2400/page-1.htm

Good luck

Ray
 
kaiyen said:
won't clog, but also not archival. boo! hiss! :) to each his own, though. I am not on a soapbox about epsons and b&w. it's just what I use.

allan
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Maybe yes and maybe no according to this http://www.photo-i.co.uk/News/Jan04/HPFade.htm .

I was a little timid with this tread as the last thread was a little heated. I get very defensive about HP printers and having a HP 7960 that works wonderfully think that they are a good alternative to what used to be the photo hobby standard, the Epsons. The HP 7960 does not do the size print you want but they have other printers that are similar that will do larger sizes. Printers that will do larger sizes seem to be much more expensive to buy and run. If it is worth it is something only you can answer. Again they are an alternative but only one of many.

Bob
 
kaiyen said:
won't clog, but also not archival. boo! hiss! :) to each his own, though. I am not on a soapbox about epsons and b&w. it's just what I use.

allan
Click to expand...

I'd rather something that prints out easily every time rather than worrying if something is going to be around in 100 years time. :D As you say, to each his own.
 
Bob,
Thanks for the lnk to the article on the wilhelm testing. I did not know that, and I will alter my future arguments accordingly :)

Truth be told, I have been very lucky. For whatever reason, the combination of my particular environmental factors has led to no clogs with my 1280 with the UT2 inkset, even with the CFS installed. I know there are a LOT of stories out there with less success.

allan
 
allen

A friend of mine does weddings as a sideline and when I showed him the B&W prints I was getting from the Hp 7960 he said that he had trouble getting B&W from his Epson. I was amazed at how easy it was with the HP. There are many different ways to arrive at B&W with inkjet printers so everyone has to find one that fits their needs etc.

Bob
 
Bob,
Absolutely. There was another thread that got a bit heated, and I have no interest in doing that here. I'm glad we can talk about this.

I have used epsons in all three of the major ways - RIP, black-only (BO), and dedicated inkset. For me, only the RIP and inkset worked out the way I wanted. Going straight out of box to B&W using the epson driver never gave me the results I wanted. I know that folks get some nice stuff out of (BO) printing, but I gathered that it took a lot more tweaking than I had time to do.

**the introduction of the 2400 with the black, light black and light light black inks and the built-in settings in the driver is the first true out of the box solution from epson.

Using the QuadTone RIP with both the Epson 2200 and the wide-format 9600 gave some amazing results, and the flexibiilty to control shadows and midtones from the RIP are great. I am very impressed with it, and the learnign curve is remarkably shallow.

I use the MIS Ultratone2 inkset right now in my 1280. I feel that I get the best tonal control with this dedicated inkset, but now I obviously have lost color capability. I use QTR with it for maximum control.

The HP option does seem like it's awfully trouble-free. Though the MIS EZ BW solution is very inexpensive and easy, it isn't OEM.

allan
 
I don't have any experience with HP printers. But my R2400 produces neutral B&W prints right out of the box, without any fiddling with curves. I used to do Black Only printing with my Epson 895, by applying a custom dot gain curve. I got very decent prints with great tonality, but somehow the colour was always slightly on the cool side.
 
Seems like with the Epson R2400 they went the same route as HP ( or vise versa ) with various shades of black/grey inks and that seems to give a better tonal range and neutral prints right out of the box. It is very hard to keep up with changes and nobody is in the front position for any length of time. Yep, it does get heated when it is intimated that only one of anything is the only way to go be it camera/lens/scanner or printer. It is good to have options and is just a matter of what set of pluses and minuses fit you as no one solution is perfect.

Bob
 
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