Digital BW, The Print

I guess my definition of a fine art printer would be the following:

1. one that has both a very good gamut, good dither, with superior longevity in relation to the other offerings available today, generally twice the permanence for color without resorting to toxic uv sprays.

2. one that doesn't have to do nozzle checks every time one loads a sheet of rag paper or even a roll of 44" rag paper,  because it never misses nozzles and I never even think of doing a nozzle check. If you do have to resort to a head cleaning because you ran something full of lint through it for days at a time, it uses very little ink in the process.

3. one that can print a perfect 40x60 color image on a rag matte paper and the next print be a 40x60 black and white image on a fiber gloss paper without having to go trough some convoluted ink switch mechanism that puts valuable pigments down into the waste tank and into the land fill.

4. one that self linearizes and profiles on any media including kozo rice paper, canvas, or any media in a few minutes, while I do something on another printer because it has a built in free I-One spectro installed, that does an excellent job.

5. one that makes perfectly smooth gloss differential and bronzing free prints on rc gloss and fiber gloss media without resorting to an after coat of Premier Art spray.

6. one that allows me to pop out the print head and replace it in 2 minutes when necessary, which is very seldom by the way and the heads are good and quite cheap in price.

7. one that has 2 black and two gray inks that are not brown and can make prints without the use of any color inks at all. So easy. 

8. one that automatically monitors the condition of the nozzles and heads and if necessary self cleans without the use of tons of wasted ink.

9. one that automatically does a perfect head alignment if necessary just by pushing a button and never having to look at a single grid.

10. one that gave me a 3 year extended warranty that covers all parts and labor for $1,500.00 after the free one year warranty was up.

11. one that gives me a dmax of 1.78 on matte rag papers and way beyond that for gloss and gloss fiber media....

12. when the ink cart says it is empty, it IS empty.

Is Hp perfect?, hell no. They are a giant conglomerate, with dozens of divisions to pass the buck to,  but I"ve been going for 2 1/2 years on this one Z and got my money out of it the first six months in peace of mind alone. It makes total sense that they would discontinue earlier models because the Z3200 was so well thought out over a very long period of time by a very innovative design team.

john



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, David Kachel <david@...> wrote:
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> 
> On Apr 10, 2010, at 9:09 PM, john wrote:
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> > That old HP model, not an art printer by any means,
> 
> Your definition of art printer must be very different from mine. I have a B9180 (2 years) and a recently acquired Epson 3800. Though the B9180 virtually defines the word "unreliable" mechanically, when it behaves it produces first class prints. I have yet to make a same image, same paper print with the Epson printer that matches the depth and local contrast I get out of the B9180.
> 
> If HP would have pulled their collective heads out of their collective a***s and built a reliable 17" printer with the same ink set as The B9180/Z series, I never would have considered the Epson.
> 
> As for the Z series, I am not giving HP $3000 or more for a machine I know from experience will break down even before it becomes obsolete, which will be soon. The first manufacturer who realizes that photographers need a machine that will reliably print the way WE want it to, not the way THEY want it to, with the inks WE want to use; that manufacturer will own the market.
> 
> David Kachel
> 
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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