Best 8 x 10 printer for negatives

Those of you experienced in printing 8 x 10 negatives from 4 x 5 or

35mm b&w negatives for alternate printing process, what 8 x 10

printer would you recommend?

Hi Robert, I'm not quite sure what you're asking - a good printer that can be used for B&W or color is the HP 7960. If your images are pure B&W it does great out of the box. If you're putting in any color with the "alternate printing process" then you might benefit from a custom-made color profile for it - $40 bucks from Cathy's Profiles at www.cathysprofiles.com. Good luck!

He's using the printer to generate a paper neg for printing with silver-halide paper. My guess would be that dye's are better for this than pigment since they'd be more transparent in nature so you could have a better buildup of density. But that's just idle speculation on my part.

Robert,

 

Almost any inkjet printer can be made to make diginegs on Pictorico OHP for alt

processes.

 

Good places to start for info are:

 

http://www.danburkholder.com/Pages/main_pages/inkjet_companion.html

 

http://www.zianet.com/jkschreiber/articles/1280PyroDigiNegs.html

 

http://www.precisiondigitalnegatives.com/

 

I use both the Epson 1280 and 2200 - between the two I prefer the 1280. I find diginegs

made with the dye printer to produce a slightly smoother (less 'grainy') neg. Also the dye

inks seem to block uv light more than their pigment counterparts. Print times for either

are shorter than a traditional 'silver' neg.

 

Good luck!

>

- a good printer that can be used for B&W or color is the HP 7960.

>

 

HP inks don't produce enough density for alternative processes.

 

>

He's using the printer to generate a paper neg for printing with silver-halide paper.

>

 

I'm not sure why you would suggest that, transparency material will work much better.

 

 

Roger Hein's advice is right on although I don't agree with his assesment of the superiority of the 1280. I have the 1280 and 2200 and how smooth your prints look depends on the color of the negative.

 

FWIW, I think the 1280 is the best buy these days but you could also consider a C-84. An Epson 2200 would be the best desktop option (not the best buy).

 

My 2 cents,

 

Don Bryant