Forum: Photography


Subject: New Tool In My Digital Darkroom

DHolman opened this issue on Apr 12, 2004 ยท 13 posts


DHolman posted Mon, 12 April 2004 at 2:50 PM

Attached Link: http://www.photo-i.co.uk/index.html

Wow ... just a few typos in this. Never post when half asleep. :) That should say Epson 2200 up there and not 2000. It's the 2200 with the Epson Ultrachome inks that most people looked too for great b&w printing with minimal metamerism. I also forgot to mention another big reason, besides B&W printing ability, that I got this one. It uses the AdobeRGB colorspace (which is my default Photoshop workspace) - it can also use sRGB colorspace if you want. That is my biggest complaint with my current HP 7150, that it uses the smaller sRGB colorspace. Quinn - Never used the 2200 (except in a store) so couldn't really say. Are you using Windows 2000 or XP? What happens if you turn off all color management (even in Windows)? 3D - If you have one like the 2200 that has the photo black and light black (or opt matte black) then yeah, but most printers use a CMY combination to print b&w (the K or black ink is usually not used as it is normally different from the color inks - one being pigment-based and the others dye-based or vice versa). Jack - Paper size is the one weakness I see so far (just in the stats). It only goes up to 8.5 x 11". Ink costs, as normal with HP ink carts, is higher than some many other printers; but I have always accepted that as a good tradeoff because everytime I buy a cartridge I get brand new print heads with it. I still have nightmares about my old Canon printer and the ink nozzle jams. HP designed the inks to work perfectly with their Premium Plus Glossy and Matte papers. I have seen reviews saying it works with other papers, but they can give you a warmer or colder print. Some of the users liked that because they said it felt like changing papers in a darkroom to get warmer or colder prints. I'd say from what I've seen, they would be high enough quality to sell. Check out the site linked above. This guy really puts stuff through its paces when he reviews them. 7960 is down towards the bottom of this list of reviews (about 21 reviews down). Check it out, has a LOT of info. For the 7960's B&W ability, Vincent Oliver (the guy who owns the above site) had this to say at the end of his 18 webpage review: "The No 59 photo grey cartridge is in a league of its own. I have been a working photographer for over 30 years and have gained considerable skill in b/w printing. The prints I have produced with the 7960 are every bit as good as anything I have ever produced in the darkroom. I would buy the 7960 on the strength of its b/w printing ability alone. Of course the 7960 also prints up to 72.9 million colours as an added bonus." -=>Donald PS. I think I'll try printing on different papers to see how it does myself on them. Besides a bunch of HP Premium Plus I have a lot of other papers sitting on my shelves that I can try: Ilford Fine Art, Lumijet Woven Fiber, Pictorico Premium Photo Glossy Pear, Burlington Ultra Premium High Gloss, Konica Premium Weight Satin, Epson Glossy Photo, Kodak Ultima High Gloss and Satin, Avery Matte Photo, Mead Premium Matte and two strange Japanese fiber papers.