Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Hello Folks,
This is an area I would like to hear some inputs of how do you guys print your photos,I understand some of us, use services like Pikto,Henrys and Vistek or use our own dark room for printing purposes.

But wondering is there a strictly a black and white printers which prints good quality black and white photographs. If yes what are your experiences with them how many prints do you get out for a brand new set of cartridges and how expensive is going this road.

Thanks in advance for your inputs.
yeshwanth

The Epson R2400 is one of the best black and white printers for the home printing market... the quality is good, I've seen nice prints produced by that printer.

Depending on the size you are looking at going I would recommend the Epson Pro 3880 which is a 17" wide format with Photo(or gloss) black, Matte black, Light Black, and Light Light Black which reproduce a phenomenal amount of detail in all areas of a black and white image (and it helps make amazing colour prints too!) and with the larger ink tanks (80ml) you get more bang for your buck when printing volume.

Alternatively you could get the cheaper Epson R3000 which is the brand new replacement for the R2880 and is just a smaller version (13" wide output) of the Pro 3880 with 25ml ink cartridges and the same ink set. I would recommend it over the R2880 solely because of the much larger ink set (R2880 uses 11ml cartridges) and the updated hardware such as the new printhead and ink repellant coatings on it which greatly reduce ink clogs (a problem I have had with my R1900 and 1400's which do not have this and over time they clog a lot unless used constantly)

I wonder if its possible to replace the manufacturer's inks with a whole set of black inks, think 6 or 8 or 12 shades of black. Then using a RIP program print with that much more B&W awesomeness.

First, The older models will dump inks when switching from color to b&w printing so print color in batches and b&w in batches as opposed to printing what's in front of you.

Second, the paper itself will absorb more inks (fiber) or less if it is coated. The diffference is inks on fiber will seep through the paper while it sits on the paper surface for coated ones.

The bigger the cartridge the more economical it will be for you. $63 per cartridge for my model but I only bought 2 for blacks since I had it. None for the color ones yet although they are getting low.

Get to know the paper. If your are interested mainly in B&W, the paper varieties for monochrome is vast. Buy small (25 sheets or less) and in smaller sizes to try out.

The best thing of all you have full control of what you are doing. Lessen your print mistakes by soft proofing it first. In my experience, it takes 2-3 prints for me to settle on the one that I really like and the difference may be subtle but obvious to me.

Good luck!

Thank you David,Poborsa,Myxamop and Randy...

Currently doing my research haven't settled on anything yet, but the 3880 is very impressive.

Yes Randy choosing the paper is an separate thing altogether,
Thank you all again for your inputs...
cheers
Yeshwanth

And also as a comment on papers to match your choice of printer. I highly recommend anything by Inkpress and especially their Pro line which includes the nicest satin fibre paper that I have ever used for digital printing. They make extremely nice black and whites and they also have baryta papers which add a nice rich tone to your prints. They also have custom icc profiles made up for all the Epson printers which helps until you can create your own for your monitor and printer combo.