I wouldn't bother with anything in a printer that doesn't use the Epson K3 inkset for B&W printing, if you're using a standard driver. Nothing else I've tried is as consistent and useful. That limits you to the Epson R2400 or above, but it's well worth that limitation.
That said, you can get very good results with several other printers if you use the QuadTone RIP software ($50 from Roy Harrington, see http://www.quadtonerip.com/ for details). Best thing to do, if you don't want to spend for an R2400: pick a printer from his requirements page and buy QTR. Regards scanners, the V700 cannot be beat for its price. I've measured with it carefully and find it returns about 2600-2800 ppi actual resolution, on par with my Minolta Scan Dual II and Nikon Coolscan IV dedicated film scanners. The only way to get significant improvement on that for medium format scans is a Nikon Coolscan 9000 or Imacon Flextight... Godfrey On Feb 24, 2008, at 12:05 PM, Scott Loveless wrote: > ...or, I can't make up my mind. > > So the darkroom project is pretty much dead in the water. Besides the > expense, there's the matter of satisfying the landlord that the > plumbing > and wiring is done properly. Now, I'm perfectly capable of doing > it all > myself, and he knows that, but the state seems to think I need to be > licensed. Something about residency permits and unlicensed > contractors > and rental properties or some crap. It's more of a hassle than I want > to deal with. So until we decide to buy a home I'll just keep > hoarding > enlargers and safe lights. Which leads me to the alternative... > > I'd like to get a printer specifically for black & white. An Epson > C88 > looks like it should do the job with MIS Ultratone inks. > Single-black-ink printing might work, too. (Christie says I go > through > too much black ink with "her" printer.) I have no immediate plans to > print anything larger than 8x10. > > While we're at it, my scanner sucks. Since I need to scan medium > format > negs, this pretty much leaves me with flatbed scanners. (Sure, I'd > like > a Flextight X5 on my desk, but Christie seems to think that 20K > might be > better spent on something else. Like a car.) Currently considering a > couple of Epson's offerings - 4490 and V500. The V700 looks nice, > but I > don't really need the LF capability. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
