Re: Chemical nastiness

[Arthur Entlich <artistic@xxxxxxxxx>]

Chip Louie wrote:

 > Hi,
 >
 > I had to stop using my B&W darkroom due to becoming very sensitive to 
some
 > chemicals in the developer and stop bath fumes over a period of several
 > years of heavy, almost daily use.  Even with the addition of good
 > ventilation directly over the stop bath tray I would have a reaction 
to the
 > acetic acid I used for the stop bath.  My hands developed an ugly, 
painful
 > rash if I came near the developer and I could not use gloves because I
 > couldn't get a grip on the materials and the gloves would drip all 
over the
 > place.  I gave up in frustration and miss the time I used to spend in the
 > dark watching images appear on paper out of nowhere.  The digital 
darkroom
 > while not quite as satisfying is still quite enjoyable though B&W 
output on
 > consumer inkjet printers are a long way from what I would call great 
prints.
 > Is there a way to get decent B&W prints from an inkjet that won't 
break the
 > bank?
 >
 >
 > Regards,
 >
 > Chip Louie
 >
 >
 >


I find the principal problem with the inkjet printers of recent years is
that they tend to use the full color array to produce their B&W prints.
This certainly helps the inkjet ink companies but I don't think it
improves the quality of the image because it tends to create color casts.

There are a few ways of getting reasonable B&W prints.  Strangely
enough, the older inkjet printers in the Epson line seemed to have been
drivers fro true monochromic prints than the newer ones.  My old Epson
pro, for instance does a reasonable job with only black ink prints, but
it is slow and the larger dot is somewhat obvious in the very lightest
areas.  The ink carts are so huge that they are even a bargain (well,
almost) buying Epson's own, and no "chip" to fool.  However, the prints
do require quality ink jet paper because the ink isn't as dense as the
new inks, which gives better gradient results on coated papers.

You can pick up a Epson Pro XL (even new) on Ebay for under $150. That's
a 13" wide version.  The only caveat is that it is very slow, relative
to current models and because it uses the "U" curve loading, you cannot
use very heavy materials in it.

The second option is to buy an older unit, like a 900 or others that are
supports with the Piezo inksets by Jon Cone which then use 4 different
ink densities and special drivers.  The 900 has no chip, is very fast,
and uses variable ink dot size (six sizes) and goes down to 3
picolitres.  I'm not sure if Jon Cone sells ink refill kits or not.

The 900 is only 8" wide.

I'm going to have to experiment with my 850 to see if I can produce
decent B&W prints with it using just the black ink (you can force the
printer to do this via the inkjet driver)  I haven't tried yet.

Lastly, Kodak now has a film out called Portra which both develops in
C-41 chemistry and can be printed in B&W on color paper.  I haven't seen
samples, but they claim very fine grain.  The ad I saw was offset
printed and looked pretty lame, (no contrast), but that might have more
to do with the offset printing quality than the ability of this product
system.

Art

Art



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