Re: venetian blinds, Epson 1280
Title: Re: venetian blinds, Epson 1280 Susan,
I am hesitant to recommend any printer because none of the ones I know do everything I want. If you want the large negative the 3800 is very smooth, but one is limited to a maximum negative DR of about 2.05, ok for most alternative processes but not quite high enough for albumen, salted paper, VDB, etc. The R1800 also prints very smooth, but has the same limitation in terms of DR as the 3800. Also, the pigmented inks don't dry fast which makes it problematic for me since I u se the Ultrafine OHP instead of Pictorico. The 1400 is also very smooth, but has low UV blocking with the colors, so the only way to get adequate density for alt printing is to desaturate the RGB file and print in color, which gives a neutral black tone negative with a maximum DR of about 1.80. This worked out perfect for me since with the Epson 2200 I had settled on a combination of Green and Blue that also gave a DR of 1.8, and this is also the DR to which I develop my in-camera negatives. And the dye inks of the 1400 dry very fast so pizza wheel marks is not a problem. And the 1400 is a good candidate for making digital negatives for silver printing because the tones are so smooth. The pigment ink set of the 2400 gives more UV blocking density than any of the other current Epson printers, but it too is subject to the Venetian blind disease. In fact, according to Mark Nelson, the only printer that is not subject to Venetian blinds is the R1800. We can not say yet about the 3800 and 1400 because this disease usually strikes when the printer has some age on it. In any event, the Venetian blind problem is my biggest concern. I have a perfectly wonderful Epson 2200 that does everything I want from it and can print negatives of the right DR for any alternative process, but it has a very mile case of Venetian blind disease that shows up with scenes where there is a lot of broad areas of upper mid-tones and highlights. You can try running the head alignment, as others have suggested, but this may not cure the problem if the printer has some age on it. But by all means give it a try. Sandy King At 10:24 PM -0500 3/2/07, SusanV wrote: Sandy... I know you've been testing several printers lately, and I've
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