Affordable printer for digital negatives

[LesleyNowlin]

Third, you would be able to make digital negatives with the Epson inkset of the P8000, using either the Epson driver or QTR, with the 1430 you would need to run QTR with a third party ink all gray ink set to get sufficient blocking density for most alternative processes.
Sandy

I printed some negatives yesterday on the 1430 with Claria ink (Epson's ink) and using the QTR driver. I haven't been able to make a Pt/Pd print yet, but I think that will tell me the answer if it works with that combo.

[stewe]

News from the P600 issue "printer head movement without printing" (Lesley and me both faced the issue in a very frustrating way):
I had some successful negative prints yesterday without the "sandwiching" approach, just by changing printer settings.

Michael gave me the the right direction with his post in the "Alt-Process Prints..."-Thread:

Is there a setting to test for the paper? On my old 4800, there is a setting in the controls somewhere that does this if I recall... You have to turn it off to print consistently with film.

I changed the following parameters in the printer menu (not in the driver):
System Administration / Printer Settings:
- Paper Source Setting / Paper Setup Display = Off
- Paper Skew Check = Off
- Paper Size Check = Off
It seems that one of this parameters led to the issue. I hope that Lesley can do a trial with her P600 and confirm the influence. And I hope that my P600 stays reliable now.
If I should face the issue again, I will keep you updated.

[Erik Larsen]

That's encouraging news Stewe! I hope it helps those whose p600 won't work out of the box.

[LesleyNowlin]

News from the P600 issue "printer head movement without printing" (Lesley and me both faced the issue in a very frustrating way):
I had some successful negative prints yesterday without the "sandwiching" approach, just by changing printer settings.

Michael gave me the the right direction with his post in the "Alt-Process Prints..."-Thread:

I changed the following parameters in the printer menu (not in the driver):
System Administration / Printer Settings:
- Paper Source Setting / Paper Setup Display = Off
- Paper Skew Check = Off
- Paper Size Check = Off
It seems that one of this parameters led to the issue. I hope that Lesley can do a trial with her P600 and confirm the influence. And I hope that my P600 stays reliable now.
If I should face the issue again, I will keep you updated.

As you know already, stewe it did!! I'm so relieved. I think someone else suggested it but I didn't know how to make the changes on my computer. So for anyone who's confused, the changes need to be made on the physical printer, not the computer screen thanks again to everyone. Huge help!


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[WalkerBlackwell]

@LesleyNowlin just fyi, the CISS that comes with the 1430 may make Piezography printing easier depending upon how much you print. We haven't released it yet but shot the instructions video and should have it up on the youtube by early next week.

Otherwise, just refill carts suffice in the interim (they just run out super-fast).

best,
Walker

[WalkerBlackwell]

Both SCP600 and SCP800 have dither problems with QTR no matter what ink and dig-neg is a no-go until that is fixed. Working on tracking this down.

best,
Walker

[Richard Boutwell]

Both SCP600 and SCP800 have dither problems with QTR no matter what ink and dig-neg is a no-go until that is fixed. Working on tracking this down.

best,
Walker

with "any ink" do you mean even with Epson K3?

How do you guys check for that when testing things with QTR?

[WalkerBlackwell]

yeah, all ink.

We test with our eyeballs

[Tyler Boley]

... We test with our eyeballs

[joncone@cone-editions.com]

Lesley, if it's not too late I would not buy a printer if I were you. Just get a free one locally.

The 4900, 7900, 9900 have a tendency to lose ink channels when on OEM inks and then become useless to the person/studio owning it for color work. Many people are upgrading and junking these printers. PiezoDN needs only 7 working channels and these X900 printers all have 10 channels (11 inks). We can then show you how to map out the unused channels. So, instead of buying a printer, you buy a set of Piezography glossy compatible inks and the PiezoDN software and use those on a free printer.

This is not actually far-fetched as it sounds.

When we were at Maine Media installing our system it was on a 4900 missing a channel. While there, Alan Vlach put an ad on a users group asking for a free 7900 to use with our system and he got one in less than an hour. There are tons of these discarded X900 printers out there.

So, you will be doing an incredible service to someone to go and pick up their useless printer and recycle it for your own needs. Avoid ones that have been sitting in corners for years. Try and get a fresher one that has been recently demised. Piezography pigment is ground finer and obviously filtered more than OEM. So, you can extend the life of a demised printer many years. And if you have one with only one missing channel. Put the other two in PiezoFlush and reserve them for future use.

That's my two cents worth.

Jon Cone

Hi, I have to buy a printer make digital negatives but unfortunately i can't try every printers with every kind of films, i have to buy the printer first, then pray, then try different kinds of films and chose the one which work the best for me. So i saw the epson SC P400 and the SC P600 but and i was wondering if someone tried them to make digital negatives or what your choice would be?
PS: i'm also looking for a densitometer
Thanks.