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Inkjet B&W inksets (Lyson, Permajet, Piezography)


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Hi

 

I've printed Black & White in a darkroom for some years now but an

allergic reaction to the chemicals has forced me to move to digital

printing.

 

I started with an Epson C80 and have now bought an Epson 1290 which I

hope to dedicate to Black & White.

 

My questions:

 

1. It seems that using a specific Black & White inkset seems to be

the way to go and the options (in the UK) seem to be:

 

- Lyson Hex Neutral

- Permajet VT Black

- Piezography

 

Can anybody give me a view on their relative merits - The Piezography

system seem very expensive compared to the other two (more than

double) does it justify this expense? I am interested in image

quality and archival properties.

 

2. I will be scanning 6x6 negatives and currently have an Epson 2450;

I am not getting anywhere near the quality of darkroom printing but

accept that is mainly due to inexperience in the process but I am

interested in knowing what the limitations/upper limits of this

approach will be given that I hope to print 16x12 on matt papers and

would like to achieve quality results.

 

 

Many Thanks

 

Tapas Maiti

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I have an old Epson 1200 using Piezography. I think the big price difference is the fact that they have done all of the profiling for different papers. I also use the 2450 and I think that my prints after scanning are better than anything that I could make in the darkroom, but then again, my printing wasn't all that good.
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I can't give you a direct comparison between all the inkset that you have mentioned here but i can offer some observations from my experience with Piezography.

 

Piezography works great right out of the box. If you are new to digital printing this it is very nice to elimate one variable. The system contains profiles for printing on about 40 papers. These profiles allow you to experiment with new papers without worrying about creating new profiles or other nonsense required to get the prints to look OK.

 

You can create beautiful prints with piezography. They are different than air dried fiber prints but can be just as nice. If you are trying to duplicate exactly what you produced in the darkroom you will not be able to do it. The digital prints are not inferior - just different. The tonal range and shadow detail is amazing with piezography but the blacks are not as deep as silver.

 

www.mwords.co.uk is a great resource in the UK and a good company (reportedly) to deal with.

 

I think the scanner will work well for you but you may find that it becomes a limiting factor as you get better at the digital side. The quality of the scan is very important in creating a high quality print. Having said that, you will certainly be able to produce good quality results at 12x12 from a 6x6 negative.

 

You may want to take a look at this Yahoo group for more information and access to heaps of excellent digital black and white printers.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalblackandwhitetheprint

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I also use Piezography to print with an Epson printer (1160 in my case) and am occasionally still astonished by the tonal range. I agree with a previous post that you may soon exceed the capabilities of your 2450 scanner. I have a Nikon coolscan IV and a 2450 and for 35mm negs scanned on both, the advantage clearly goes to the film scanner. Relative to the Nikon, the Epson scans just aren't as sharp.

 

Cone also just released some new black position inks with a small amount of dye compound that gives them blacks similar to a silver print (according to their site). I use the selenium ink set and am very pleased with the blacks.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Iam also interested in B&W printing and Piezography seems to be the way to go but I dont think I can efford it at the moment. However I look at some US sites and the prices seemd much better. Dose anyone know if getting inks and soft from US wil add extra duty costs ?

Thanks...

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