Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/06/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Thanks Darrell. Would it be impolite to ask for some sort of estimate as to cost for such a project? Elliot - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darrell Jennings" <darrell_jennings@yahoo.com> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2002 5:09 PM Subject: [Leica] Report on putting in a digital darkroom.... > I mentioned a few days ago that I would get back with > a posting on my experience putting in a digital > darkroom over the past 10 days. > > I used Tina Manley's set up as a bench mark, and > installed: > > -Gateway 700 series Windows XP with 2.36GHz Pentium 4 > with a 120 Gig hard drive. > -Photoshop 7.0 > -Genuine Fractals 2.5 > -(2) Epson 3000 printers > -(2) Epson supplied parallel to USB cables > - Epson 2450 scanner > - An old HP Laser Jet for printing plain text > documents. > -John Cones Quad Black inks with the custom Cones > Plugin for Photoshop. > -Generations Color inks with Cones profiles for the > various Cones supplied papers. > > The driving item in this was the desire to use the > Cones and Generations inks and their plugin/profile > software. I would probably have gone with an Apple, > but the Cones plugin was having trouble in the Mac OS > X environment and PS7 that they were not having in PS7 > and XP (though PS7 is still not officially supported > on either platform). > > I discovered that one of the major concerns facing > anyone wanting to get a digital darkroom is the issue > of compatability. > > All the vendors only sell their "current" > product...none will sell you their previous release > unless you happen to find a retailer that has an old > one sitting around. None of the programs you buy (or > hardware for that matter) will "officially" work with > anything but the previous releases. Bottom line is > that you can not buy a digital darkroom from scratch > with "offical" support. > > ...Luckily reality is not quite that bad. I never had > my request for tech support turned down because "we > don't support that yet"... > > I now have everything working (with the exception of > having to wait for a new release of Quad Black inks > that are supposed to be here tomorrow). > > The big problems were. > 1. Getting the Epson 3000's to work using Epson inks > (a requirement BEFORE you install the Cones inks). > Issues were: (a)my confusion over the fact that XP > adds printer drivers if you don't use the default > drivers that come in XP...so you appear to have four > Epson 3000 printers instead of two; (b) using USB > ports to run the printers (some at Epson said no > problem, others disagreed...in the end USB worked if > you buy the Epson cable at $40 each);and, (c)the > biggie...getting Cones Wells River paper to feed > through the printers (a trip to the local Epson repair > facility and instruction on cleaning the feeder "feet" > from a kindly technician fixed it). Seems that (at > least the box that I got) Wells River paper has a lot > of residue on it and requires the printer feeders to > be cleaned with Q-Tips about every three > prints...think I'll switch to another paper when this > box is done. And to be fair...if you brush the paper > before feeding it you only have to clean the printer > about every 10 prints. > > 2. Clogged print heads from the Cones Quad Black inks. > First print looked nice, but needed a bit of PS > tweaking to bring up the contrast. Second print was > outstanding. Third print...heads were clogged. > Multiple cleanings, "Windexing" the heads over night, > reloading Cones cleaning fluid twice, and finally > reloading the original Epson inks and then the Cones > cleaning fluid again have cleaned out the clogs. Cones > have just brought out new (this week) Quad Black inks > that are supposed to be much less prone to clogging > and I should get my replacements tomorrow. > > 3. Documention on the Generations inks needs to > improve. A 10 minute call to tech support at Ink Jet > Mall and my prints went from bad to great, but a few > pages of text telling me what the support guy covered > would help. The documentation is generally written > around a slightly differnent Epson printer and > different Epson driver...makes it tough to follow, and > still doesn't cover what you need to know to get the > print done. > > Overall I am happy with the results. If you plan to > implement something like the above, plan on spening > quite a bit of time (in my case over a week at 4 to 8 > hours a day) getting everything hooked up, > loaded/tested/reloaded, and reading enough of the > documentation to at least get started. Also plan on: > (a) a steep learning curve if you (like me) had very > limited experience with PS and digital imagaging, and; > (b)lots of experience learning to clean print heads > and feeder "feet" on the 3000. If you use a different > Epson printer your experience may be a bit differnt. I > went with the 3000 both on Tina's recommendation, and > because it holds up to 17X44 inch paper. > > Finally, I'd like to thank Tina, Sonny, and several > others on the list that helped me out over long hours > of trying to get this stuff to work. > > I'd be happy to help anyone attempting this for the > first time with anything I learned in the process. > I'm sure no expert, but I did enough stuff wrong to > have picked up a few tips on the front end. DJ > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup > http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html