which 17-24 inch printer is best for B&W

[EricWHiss]

Hi All,
Last year I sold my epson 4000, 7600 and 3000 (configured for piezotones).  Now I only have a HPb9180.  I was planning on buying a z3100 for my larger prints but kept putting it off waiting for the saturated red story, then the new firmware, then well I dunno just didn't get a printer.

So I had been using piezotones and felt that they offered me a better black and white print in terms of tonality than anything the epsons could do with the ultrachrome inks.    With the piezotones, I could literally see the difference between 0,0,0 and 1,1,1 and 2,2,2.   I realize that with a good profile, that I should be able to but never did with the epson ultrachrome inks even with Imageprint and their great profiles.  The piezotones were great, but made me keep two printers and two printers that clogged and gave me fits.    

Well I've heard great things about both the canon and the hp3100... but not printed with either.  I know that there are a vast array of paper choices but what I want to know is how well both of these handle subtle changes in tonality with black and white?

Thanks in advance for you help,
Eric

[Geoff Wittig]

For what it's worth, more than half my work is black & white, and I've been delighted with the Z3100. Tonal transitions seem quite nice on both semigloss/satin papers as well as rag/matte papers. They're much better than results I got from an Epson 2400 using the Epson driver's advanced BW mode. D-max is as good as it gets on either type of paper. The HP driver's BW controls don't provide a truly accurate preview, but the toning options are good enough for me. It's the best currently available BW solution out of the box. I suspect you may be able to do slightly better using the full Piezotone system with a late model Epson and a lot of experimentation, but for me that is well past the point of diminishing returns. True experts on this site like Tyler Boley could give you a better notion of whether it's worth the trouble.

I too gave up on Piezography due to repeated head clogs, but that was with the original inks through an Epson 1280, "back in the day".

[Roscolo]

What Geoff said. I'm in complete agreement. My z3100 B&W prints on HP ID Satin are virtually indistinguishable from darkroom prints made from same negs. Dialing in just a tad of warmth looks really nice. A few tries and you can emulate any warm tone you may have used in the past with wet process. No special skills required, you will be making really, really nice prints right out of the box.

[Scott Martin]

FWIW, I have some wet darkroom fiber base prints along with B&W fiber base inkjet prints from Epson K3 printers, HP Z series printers and Canon iPF x100 printers that I carry around with me and all the photographers that I have shown them to have preferred the x100 prints thusfar.