When I bought my 8300 a year ago I decided I would dedicate my 3800 to black and white printing. It was a good way to upgrade from the 2200 that I've used for dedicated b/w work for years, and it would allow me to make larger prints. I have the refillable carts from InkJet Mall and will soon be loading them up.
Over the last few months I set out to confirm that I still needed a dedicated printer. The 8300 produces excellent prints, and my quest was to see if this platform was "good enough" for b/w for me. I have run Cone Piezography inks for years, both his matte and glossy variants, and I've been very happy with them.
I selected a set of benchmark images and made prints using Canon's b/w mode, True Black and White on the 8300 and Cone Selenium. These were all done on the same paper, Epson Exhibition Fiber, to ensure "apples to apples". I've been in a gloss space lately, btw.
Concurrent with this I also mixed a custom set of b/w inks based on HP's PK (5 dilutions), and most recently I developed something similar using Canons BK and GY (their PK and LK equivalents). Part of what drove me this direction was that Cone's Selenium is too warm for me on gloss. I prefer split tones, with a mix of sepia shadows and neutral highlights. I am right now madly building QTR curves for the Canon based ink-set, and it appears I will be able to do exactly that. I can make prints without the need for colour toners, that I expect to be very lightfast, that for all intents and purposes are neutral. I can warm the shadows and split from there to neutral highlights. It also looks like I will be able to go from cool shadows to warm mid-tones, into neutral highlights. For me, these toning options are part of my creative process.
When I laid all the prints out I observed the following:
- Prints made with Canon's b/w mode looked nice, until I set the print beside one done using True Black & White. The b/w mode print clearly had a colour cast, one that I did not find particularly attractive. To be fair, this was not a Canon paper, which may or may not have made a difference. I had also tried Epson's Advanced b/w mode in the past and found it to be OK, but not great (relative to Piezography prints).
- True Black & White prints looked very nice. They were without a colour cast and to my eye appeared neutral. My spectro tells me they are slightly on the cool side, but not by much. Canon has done a good job creating a neutral set of blacks and a very deep black, which is what prompted me to experiment with dilutions of their inks. I could be reasonably happy making b/w prints on my 8300 with True Black & White. You can ensure for example, that prints are made using only the black inks. With Epson's Advanced B/W mode on my 3800 some colour had to be added to create a neutral print.
- When I placed either of the above prints next to my 2200 Cone selenium prints they both fell short. To my eye the Cone inks produce a print with more detail, depth and punch. IMHO, the Cone inks produce output that is visibly better than the OEM based solutions, Canon in this case.
- My last benchmark was laying prints made with my own ink mixes next to the three above. I had wondered if 5 dilutions would be enough. Prints made with the HP dilutions are very close to the Cone prints, but not quite as good. With the Canon dilutions I don't see much difference at all. The Canon PK is very deep, which may account for the improvement.
I will be loading my 3800 with a 5 dilution ink-set, based primarily on Canon inks. To my eye, 5 dilutions is now within spitting distance of 7, and the extra two spots mean I can load (for example) different carbon pigments for toning. This flexibility is a big part of why I've chosen to go this direction. I am also encouraged by how well Canon (and HP) have done in the Aardenburg testing (and by extrapolation my dilutions), and I feel I will be in a better place in terms of light fastness.
How much is "good enough" is very individual. I hope that I've broken my thoughts down enough to be useful for those with a different set of priorities.
BTW, if memory serves me right I was getting a Dmax of 2.15 to 2.20 with Cone selenium on glossy media. I believe Epson is in and around 2.30 (depending on media). My Canon based dilute ink-set produces a Dmax of 2.45 on Platine. it looks like I will get upwards of 2.7 on Harman Gloss Baryta, assuming numbers that high are actually valid for my spectro (yes, it's really black!).
BTW, I need to acknowledge Paul Roark for his pioneering work, and on-going help, with the dilute OEM PK approach.
Good luck with your decision. It's a great time to be making black and white prints! We have a number of legitimate options now, to suit a variety of needs.
Terry.
