A3 printers

[Rob C]

Hi folks

Okay, we have had a lot of collective experience  with Epson, Canon and HP (?) printers, so I pose the question to anyone who has tried them all: of these marques, which is the best option for black/white printing on matte paper in your opinion (A3 format max.)?

Rob C

[ericbullock]

Hi folks

Okay, we have had a lot of collective experience  with Epson, Canon and HP (?) printers, so I pose the question to anyone who has tried them all: of these marques, which is the best option for black/white printing on matte paper in your opinion (A3 format max.)?

Rob C
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Its hard to beat the Epson K3 machines. The Advanced B&W option is really nice, and you have a lot of options with paper and so forth. The HP Z3100 is also quite striking, but a lot more money. I haven't tried to do any serious B&W on the Canon yet, but it appears to be a capable device.

I'd say for ease of use its hard to beat the Epson.

-eric-

[Rob C]

Its hard to beat the Epson K3 machines. The Advanced B&W option is really nice, and you have a lot of options with paper and so forth. The HP Z3100 is also quite striking, but a lot more money. I haven't tried to do any serious B&W on the Canon yet, but it appears to be a capable device.

I'd say for ease of use its hard to beat the Epson.

-eric-
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Thanks, Eric, I had intended to go for the 2400 some time ago, but have been put off by the waste with the inks - this HP offering seems to read very nicely, but there, too, there are problems related to supply of both ink and papers. I get the feeling that manufacturers are so afraid of one another that they jump into the marketplace without having the slightest chance of satisfying the demand that they induce, the priority being to stall sales of the competition's product.

I suppose that this has also been part of the problem with the M8 - perhaps Epson has another similar camera in its pipeline...!  

Ciao - Rob C

[tgphoto]

I agree with everything eric said.  I have the 7800 and when using some of the better B/W papers in concert with Advanced B/W mode, the results are striking.

The other thing to keep in mind is that Epson has about 10 years on its competition, which if I was looking to buy now would be a determining factor.  Give Canon and HP a few years to work out the kinks.  It'd be fair to say that 4 years from now, that experience gap will be a moot point and you'll be able to achieve excellent quality regardless of the manufacturer.

I recently saw Photographs by the Score at The Art Institute of Chicago.  The main gallery space had a mix of silver gelatin and archival inkjet prints which I was able to closely inspect.  After viewing/comparing the values between an Imogen Cunnigham silver gelatin print and an archival inkjet print by Dawoud Bey, it became clear to me that digital B/W has quickly approached (and in the case of these two prints, surpassed) the tonal range of silver gelatin prints.

It's a wonderful and exciting time to be a photographer, to say the least.