Re: 1280 going berserkers

From: Etienne Garbaux ^lt;photographeur@softhome.net>
Date: 04/08/05-07:47:44 AM Z
Message-id: <p05210600be7c333294e8@[192.168.1.100]>

Clay wrote:

> In the last few weeks, my heretofore dependable epson 1280 is creating
> striping on my diginegs.
>
> My question is this: Has anyone experienced or heard of printers
> developing this problem as they age?
>
> My printer is now about 3 years old. And before you ask - yes, I ran
> multiple cleaning cycles - yes, I changed the ink cartridge, and yes, i
> ran the alignment utility.

Having moved to Canon printers several generations ago because of
persistent Epson banding problems, I'm not familiar with the 1280, but I
suspect it has a "permanent" print head (separate ink cartridges, print
head is part of the printer rather than part of the cartridge). Try many,
many more cleaning cycles (several dozen or more), testing periodically.
If you still have the problem after 50 cleaning cycles, it's time for
either a new print head or a new printer. My guess is that the economics
favor buying a new printer and selling the 1280 on one of the auction sites
(with full disclosure of the banding, of course!).

If you are handy with tools, willing to write off the printer if your
surgery fails, and have an ultrasonic cleaner, you might try pulling out
the print head and giving it a bath in the ultrasonic tank. Last time I
did this with an Epson, I had a devil of a time getting the head aligned
mechanically within the rather narrow operating range of the electronic
alignment adjustors.

Having said all that, I vote for making negatives the old fashioned way.
I have yet to see a digineg made with a home printer (as opposed to
high-resolution linescanner diginegs on film) that would not betray its
heritage when printed on a high-resolution medium (gelatin silver, albumen,
or carbon). I can almost always tell prints from home-printer diginegs
even on lower-resolution Pt/kalli/salt/cyano prints, and prefer the look of
an all-analog printing chain. One day, we will have the digital output
tools we need, although I doubt that home-printer diginegs will ever get
there -- but someone will make an affordable linescanner or equivalent, and
we will all be admitted to digital heaven. But that day is not here yet!

Best regards,

etienne
Received on Fri Apr 8 07:49:02 2005

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