Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/06/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Peter, I had similar issues with the MIS inks (in an Epson 1160). If I had not used the printer for a couple of weeks, it was clog city. I now use an Epson R800, with the standard Epson inks. It is the first printer I have owned that gives me good B&W and color, with the same set of inks. I have the monitor and printer calibrated, and the results are very nice. I am sticking to this with a couple of papers, and that's it. Like you, I do not want to spend half of my free time fiddling with settings. Also like you, I do not have a need to print many prints beyond A4/letter size, so financially it makes much more sense for me to let a lab make the 5-10 prints per year that I need in A3 or bigger sizes. Nathan On 14-jun-2007, at 20:22, Peter Klein wrote: > I've just wasted another evening and about $15 worth of ink dealing > with a print head Clog From Hell. My Epson 1280 printer with MIS > Ultratone 2 grayscale inks produces beautiful B&W prints--when it > works. But I've just about had it with the periodic clogs, banding > and mysterious goings-on. I just had to flush out my print heads > with a special cleaning cartridge, put cleaning fluid on the pad > that the heads rest on, and hope that that clears it. > > Part of the problem is using the pigmented MIS inks on a printer > designed for dye ink. There are other issues. My workflow with the > Paul Roarke curves worked beautifully for several years, then > stopped working when I changed to a new cartridge, and hasn't > worked since. Fortunately, the "easy way" method still works, so > I've been using that. But why this happened has never been explained. > > I have two printers. I used the 1280 for color for a while, then > dedicated it to B&W. I got an Epson R200 for a song, and dedicated > that to color. Neither printer ever gave me WYSIWYG color. The > Epson-provided profiles (I've downloaded several) don't work with > Epson's own papers. Always much too dark. I've had to resort to > manually creating curves that work with some slider settings I > downloaded from the Norman Koren site. > > All in all, it's feels like time to think about another printer. > Here are my requirements: > > 1. I do a lot of B&W, so my printer must print B&W well. A later > Epson printer (designed for pigmented ink) with either its own > grayscale inks or MIS would be OK. But I'm not wedded to Epson if > another company has a better solution. > > 2. I just want the printer to work. If I send it a profiled > grayscale file, and tell it to print grayscale, it should produce a > print that looks like what I see on my profiled monitor. Ditto > color. I understand that perfection requires customization. But I > don't want to have to spend weeks tweaking curves and profiles just > for decent basic performance. > > 3. A printer wider than letter-size is nice, but it's not an > absolute requirement. I rarely print bigger than 8.5 x 11. If the > best printer for me has a letter-sized carriage, I can always > outsource the few big prints I do per year. On the other hand, if a > bigger printer means bigger cartridges that don't need changing as > often, that might be better. Cost of consumables matters, too. > > 4. The high-end, $1000-plus printers are really not an option. I > don't print enough to justify them, just as I didn't print enough > to justify cartridge refilling or a continuous flow system. So > we're talking a $100 - $800-ish printer. > > I have heard that many people get good results with MIS inks and > the Epson R200 or R300. If that's a good way to go, I could always > revert back to color with the 1280 and convert the R200 to B&W. > But if I'm just going to get more clogs, forget it, I might as well > try something else. > > Advice welcome! > > --Peter > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > Nathan Wajsman nathan@nathanfoto.com General photography: http://www.nathanfoto.com http://www.greatpix.eu http://www.frozenlight.eu Picture-A-Week: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog