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Ben Calwell
4-Jul-2008, 08:37
As my dank, basement darkroom is becoming more of a breeding ground for cave crickets and becoming a storage area for junk, I'm considering the plunge into digital printing and was wondering if the Epson R1900 printer (it falls within my budget) is a good choice for black-and-white and color. I checked past threads, but couldn't find any comments on this printer. Maybe it would be a lousy choice, but I can't afford the more expensive Epson models.
Thanks in advance for comments.

RPNugent
4-Jul-2008, 09:56
For what it's worth, Shutterbug had a review this month. Given all the Epson advertising they have and the resulting less than objective reviews it was clear they were trying to say as nicely as possible that it is a great color printer, but not a great B&W printer. They were clearly recommending the 2400 and 3800 for B&W.

Oren Grad
4-Jul-2008, 10:07
If the R1900 is within your price range, you might also look at the new HP B8850, which is essentially a slightly stripped-down version of the B9180. I believe it uses the same print engine.

I've done a bit of tinkering with monochrome printing using my B9180. Although the prints I've made using just the black and gray inks (either photo black + light gray or matte black + light gray, depending on the paper) usually look dull and uninteresting to me, I've had some promising initial results using a quadtone technique. Adding in a whiff of some of the other colors can create the illusion of greater tonal smoothness and depth, at the expense of losing an eensy bit of sharpness on very close inspection because the dither becomes more complex.

pherold
7-Jul-2008, 11:24
We don't have a 1900 in-house, but we've profiled them. Even without a profile, the 1900 prints fairly neutrally. If you get a good custom profile, it should reproduce your BW very well.

Patrick Herold

Daniel Geiger
9-Jul-2008, 11:42
I have the previous model, the R1800 and am quite happy with it. Model choice will also depend on how you plan on using it: daily high volume, or once in a while a few sheets. For me it is the latter. Also consider cost of consumables. The smaller cartridges will cost more per ml ink than the larger ones in the 2400. If you only print occasionally, then the smaller ones may be fine.

Don't know about those new inks called "Ultrachrome HiGloss 2" and how it compares to the K3 set of the 2400. So that may be yet another factor, but if you go for B&W printing, then rather look for available B&W sets. I mainly print color. I have noticed on the occasional B&W (from SEM images) on the R1800 color casts depending on ink levels. As B&W is not what I care about, I did not bother fiddling with it.

SVAGUY
9-Jul-2008, 13:02
I own the R1800 and I love it, but I use it for color. A friend of mine owns the 2400 and she kept telling me how great it was for BW and she was right. Even though the 1800 is great, and the 1900 is a newer version, I think your better off with the 2400. But if the 1900 is within your budget then go for it. A printer is what you make of it. If you profile it correctly then you should be fine.


GOOD LUCK!

Ron Marshall
9-Jul-2008, 13:55
Check the clearance center on the Epson site, where they sell factory refurbs. I got my 2200 for $450.

If you plan to do b/w you might be interested in the six or seven grayscale tone inks from Jon Cone (Inkjetmall). With the Quadtone RIP they give excellent b/w output, but of course you loose the ability to print color.