Best 8x10printer (on a budget) with B&W MIS inks

Given practical budget considerations (christmas present) which of

the current stock of 8x10 printers (any brand) would make the best

combination when dedicated with B&W MIS inks?

 

Any quality advantage when printing in B&W of going 6 vs 4 colors

(Epson C84 vs 890)? Note again I'm talking about using the UltraTone

inks dedicated with the printer, and likely sticking with a single

ink tone.

I've only tried one so can't say what's "best", but I'm very happy with my Epson C86 with MIS EZ inkset. I have both neutral and warm inksets, and both matte and glossy blacks - though I rarely use the latter. It's quite easy to swap cartridges in and out.

 

I'm happy to recommend it - I don't think you'd be disappointed. Since the C86 is a cheap printer, you should run a color print or two through it before switching to B&W inkset, just to make sure it's functioning correctly.

 

Epson may have replaced the C86 with C88 - if that's all that's available I guess you should check with MIS that the C86 carts will work with the C88.

The C86 (NOT C88) is known to work very well with the MIS EZ inks.... Note: I would not

run a color print or 2 before as you would then need to purge the ink ... Regarding 6 vs 4

color ink sets, the EZ inks only really use 2 inks -- Eboni black and a grey ink.

 

Alternatively you could use the Piezography K7 system which has more finely graded inks.

 

The UT-7 set allows you to vary from sepia to cool tones depending on slightly colored

inks but for straight black and white (untoned) the EZ system is really "EZ" :-)

 

Jonathan

Scott, you definitely should read through the archives of the Digital B&W printing group at Yahoo (if you have not already done so), where this stuff is discussed ad nauseam. The address is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/

 

The standard advice given there is to go for the C86 with the MIS EZ inks. I use this setup and it produces very nice prints. Ink tone will vary a little with paper type. I found the EZ-N series too cool-looking. The EZ-W series is a little too warm for my tests, but still very pleasant.

 

There was some discussion recently on that mailing list about whether the C88 could use the C86 cartridges. I'm not sure what the conclusion was.

Guess I was looking for concensus as to if the 6 color printers offer an advantage over the 4 color printers with MIS, but even here it seems there's some debate.

 

My printing would be strictly to matte based papers with a bias to the warm side. I don't like Black only printing with conventional Epson dye based inks (gritty highlights), and haven't been thrilled with the dmax of the older pigment based ink-sets.

Scott, as mentioned above, the EZ inkset is really only two inks (black and gray). The same ink goes into the C, Y and M positions. I guess there's some way of re-jigging the low-end printers to take a more full set of grays, but then you'll be dealing with curves, drivers, etc. and the system becomes a lot less turn-key. If it's a gift for someone who doesn't necessarily want to fiddle with settings a lot, the C86 with EZ inks would be good. Otherwise, you'd probably get better answers at the Digital B&W forum...

Scott,

 

Check out this web site. I have an Epson R200 just waiting for the MIS inksets for this printer to be available. Also discussed in this article is the Epson C86...and a lot more.

 

Roger

 

 

http://home1.gte.net/res09aij/

Scott: Since you mentioned the obsolete 890, I have to chime in. Since it a simply a narrow frame 1280, there is tremendous infrastructure in place in the form on inksets, workflows, and profiles. I'm on my 4th 1280 (I killed one, one had a in warranty electronic failure, and I wore out one) and find that the 1280 still prints just as good as a 2200 or anything else. I also have a 890 that I use interchangably. And I have always used pigment MIS inks exclusively. The 1280/890 are a bit higher maintenance using pigment inks but not unbearably so. You do have to run an occasional nozzle cleaning cycle but that's about it. Needless to say, I'm sold on them.

 

I believe Epson has no more refurb 890's. I paid $69 for mine after rebate. But you can get a refurb 1280 (good or better than new) for $225 direct from Epson.

 

Re: your 4 vs 6 ink for B&W, it makes no difference. The MIS EZ b&w inks for the C8X series really uses the same light K in all the color positions. So that seems to work well with just full K and one dilution. Remember the 2400 prints b&w with just full K and two K dilutions.

 

There is a wealth of information at PaulRoark.com You must read that. He raves about the C86 with MIS inks. If you don't know Paul, he's a fine art photographer who is a retired scientist. He's has developed all the MIS b&w inksets (at no cost to MIS) just so he can print with them.

Exellent resources guys. Much appreciated.

I use the C84 with the MIS EZ inks and am very please with them. If you want warmer tone than the neutral inks, you can use just the Y-gray (in the yellow slot) for a mild warm, or the M-gray for warmer or the M+Y carts for even warmer. I can't remeber what the C-gray cartridge meant warmth-wise. I tried the M-warm, and it was too warm for me. The Y-gray was about right, but on the matte papers I use the neutral gray aren't too cold for me, so I've gone back to them.