Re: Digital Negatives and new Epson printers
Title: Re: Digital Negatives and new Epson
printers
Hi Markek,
I used the very inexpensive Ultrafine OHP from PhotoWarehouse
with the Epson 1400 and there was no problem at all. In fact, the
Claria inks of the 1400 appear to dry a lot faster on this substrate
than when printing with my Epson 2200. I have not seen any sign at all
of smearing and puddling with any of the colors, nor of any pizza
wheel marks.
With the 3800 I used both Picorico and the Ultrafine OHP. The
inks did noit smear or puddle, but there were some pizza wheel marks
on the Ultrafine with some of the colors, but not on Pictorico. I
think this is because some of the colors of the 3800 dry slower than
others.
So far I have not made any color prints with the 1400, but
reviews are very good. B&W printing will be another issue,
however, as so far I have been unable to print a neutral tone step
wedge, though this is not relevant to my anticipated use of the
printer for making digital negatives. However, I plan to use the 1400
primarily for printing digital negatives and early tests
strongly suggest that it will print smoother than the 2200.
Sandy King
At 3:53 PM +0000 2/21/07, Marek Matusz wrote:
Sandy,
What transparenices did you use for
printing? Did you see any evidence of ink smearing and puddling when
printing high density with all colours? I would be more
interested in hearing if it can handle both cheap and expensive
transparencies. I use cheap transparencies for negatives for gum
prinitng and pictorico for palladium and everything else. I currently
use 2200 so it is a benchmark for me.
This seems like potantially a perfect
printer replacement for me as density of 1.8 is exacty what I need for
Pd and I have been using curves to adjust density lower for gum.
How is the quality of the color print on
that 1400 printer. Are the dye inks producing really deep rich
colour?
Marek
From: SusanV
<susanvoss3@gmail.com>
Reply-To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: Re: Digital Negatives and new Epson
printers
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:25:14 -0500
>Sandy, thanks for posting your reviews. Really helpful
info. I'm
>still using my 1280, which seems to work well on OHP for
polymer
>gravure process, but of course I wonder about the new
printers...
>It's invaluable to have an alphoto person review them for our
>purposes.
>
>susan voss
>Polymer gravure process trials -
>http://sssusans-studio.blogspot.com/
>www.dalyvoss.com
>
>
>On 2/20/07, Sandy King <sanking@clemson.edu> wrote:
>>Over the past two weeks I have had a chance to test two of the
new
>>Epson printers with digital negatives, the 3800 and 1400.
There is
>>good and not so good news.
>>
>>First, the 3800. The 3800 has a 17" carriage and comes in
a
>>relatively small footprint, just a tad larger than the 2400
and
>>costs
>>just a tad more at $1300. It prints very smooth monochrome
and
>>color
>>prints with great detail. The pigmented ink set also gives
good UV
>>blocking, so at first glance it might seem ideal for Mark's
PDN
>>system. However, what I found with the printer tested was that
the
>>Green branch, where UV blocking is greatest, gave a fairly
grainy
>>look with both pt/pd and carbon. Quite a bit more than my
2200, for
>>example. Choosing another color in the Red branch that gave
a
>>maximum
>>density of about 1.7 gave very smooth prints. However, from
what I
>>observed with this printer the options for alternative work
are
>>somewhat limited. Perhaps the grainy look from this printer
was an
>>anomaly, or if not, maybe there is a solution.
>>
>>OK, then there is the 1400, a 13" carriage printer that
uses Claria
>>high definition dye inks. The dye inks have very low UV
blocking,
>>for
>>example a density in green that reads in UV about 2.3 with the
3800
>>reads only 1.05 with the 1400. Same low values for all of the
other
>>colors. However, printing a B&W negative in RGB with color
chosen
>>on
>>the print menu gave a maximum density to UV light of about
1.8.
>>This
>>turns out to be almost exactly I have been using for
digital
>>negatives with various processes. However, the lack of UV
blocking
>>in
>>the Green and Red branch makes impossible the use of many of
PDNs
>>features. Still, the 1400 prints with a lot of definition, and
when
>>I
>>printed a 100 Step Table (in Photoshop percentages) the
mid-value
>>high tones, which look fairly grainy with my 2200, were smooth
as a
>>baby's butt, and there is also good definition even in a 1
pixel
>>grid
>>on the scale. This is one of Mark's earlier step tables
(prints
>>about
>>7" X 7") so he will know what I am talking about in
terms of the
>>detail.
>>
>
>
>--
>Susan Daly Voss
>www.dalyvoss.com
Want a degree but
can't afford to quit? Top school degrees online - in as fast as 1
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