Bruce, I am hesitant to say "better than" because I've only done a few one-on-one comparisons. Further, when it comes to prints "bettr than" can be a very subjective statement.
My initial point is that if this meets your needs and you are in the market for a printer you can save on initial outlay and on the cost of consumables; as someone who prints thousands of sheets of paper in smaller sizes cost considerations are very important.
More to come.
Ted,
interestingly, I've compared a few prints from my 8750 with a couple of epson prints when I was first looking for a printer. To my eyes, the out of the box prints (i.e. no QTR, aftermarket inks, etc.) the HP was dead neutral to very, very slightly warm. The HP output was dead on with the image on my calibrated monitor, using HP's paper, I have since tried Kodak's professional papers and Ilford and found that the Kodak paper was ideal for my tastes, giving a slightly warmer tone, while the Ilford output (using Ilford's profiles) was indistinguishable from the HP paper. I find that I don't have to work very hard to get a print that is exactly what I visualized, a vastly different experience from my wet darkroom work, I may use 8-10 sheets of paper printing a negative zeroing in on the perfect image, until I get what I saw in my minds eye when I shot the image. I only wish that the 8190 was available when I bought my printer, as the individual ink cartridges probably offset what little cost difference there is in the printers, especially if you print larger volumes.
erie
Ted, any word on a 17" vivera printer coming down the pipeline?
Price seems to have gone up to $595 (Amazon) and $630 (B&H).
That's not supposed to happen, is it?
My understanding from HP was that the prices we saw through the end of March were basically introduductory prices that were going to disappear in April. There will, according to HP, still be lower prices available as show specials (e.g. printers purchased at PMA, View Camera Conference, Photo Plus, etc.). Having said that, Sandy got one for under 500 a few weeks ago and I still see some price in the the low $500 range.
I have had the HP 9180 here for about three weeks and am impressed, to put it mildly. I made some 20+ monochrome prints on 11X17 enhanced matte paper this past weekend and I could not have been more pleased. The prints had great apparent sharpness, superb tonal qualities and absolutely neutral tone. And this was with the very simple to use Photoshop automated driver where I just checked a few boxes. Time will tell, but at this point this is looking like some of the best money I have ever spent.Originally Posted by Ted Harris
Sandy King
Hello,
any experience/opinion on the much rumored pizza wheels marks that some suffer with this printer?
Lino
Lino,
I have followed the discussions on pizza wheel marks with interest for three months. I have also noted that in almost every case there has been a fix to the problem. Further not e that it is a small numbr of very vocal folks making most of the complaints.
For my part, and I have run several hundred sheets of paper through the printer testing it ... all sizes and types and from both the tray and the slot ... I have had no problems and I have been carefully looking for pizza wheel marks.
The only paper feed/marking problem I had was when I tried feeding a very heavy sheet of 13x19 paper through the tray and it got skewed and chewed up a bit ... my fault there, should hve known the paper was too heavy.
Generally, my experience has been the same as Sandy's; best sharpness I have seen from a printers and very nice neutral tones. One more point that Sandy didn't mention ... before he bought the printer he send me some color step tablet files to print on Pictorico film to test the B9180's value as a printer for digital negatives. It did an excellent job but sine that is his thing I will let him weigh in with the details.
In addition to a printer that would make nice neutral tone B&W prints I was also interested in the HP 9180 for making digital negatives for alternative printing. There are many good systems for making digital negatives but I have been using Mark Nelson's PDN system for a long time and want to continue to do so. However, PDN requires an ink set with good UV blocking, and the ink sets of current generation Epson printers are marginal with some processes.
The initial test that Ted sent me of a color palette printed on Pictorico indicated that the pigment ink set of the 9180 has very good UV blocking, which in theory should provide a fairly wide range of possibilities from which to pick a suitable color for printing digital negatives. By suitable I mean a color that would not only print with the right contrast, but that would also print smoothly, i.e. without a grit or sand look that you sometimes see in printing with certain color with UV processes. You also want a color that will dry fast on the OHP material, because if it does not you will get pizza wheel marks. At this point in my testing I am reasonably certain that the 9180 will meet my needs as it prints very smoothly with the green and red paths of the PDN system.
Regarding pizza wheel marks and the 9180, I have not seen them on any of the prints on paper I have made, nor have I seen them on Pictorico OHP.
Sandy King
Could you elaborate on that a little ? I am planning to make some digital negatives (for Pt/Pd prints under UV) using my Epson R2400. I figured I would print with black ink onto Pictorio.
Is that a good idea, or are certain ink colors better than others ?
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks