Digital BW, The Print

I guess I too was lucky - absolutely turn-key operation from the 
piezo system.  BUT... My 1160 printer suddenly croaked with ruined 
heads. Am I to drop another $50 for the Piezo 6.0 upgrade, and $390 
for the bloody hextone (the quad printers are out-of-date) inks to 
get back to square one? Or will I be just as happy with a MIS hex 
system @$76 for the inks?  
AZ



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., sturos@m... wrote:
> I am delighted that Jon Cone & Bill Bergh have so many loyal 
> supporters out there...and I certainly wish them no ill will, 
though I 
> DID find their system maddeningly frustrating and expensive, 
primarily 
> due to frequent clogs.
> 
> It may be that, as Bill Bergh once told me, that this is endemic to 
> using a fairly inexpensive printer (in my case an 1160) for a 
fairly 
> sophisticated process in a manner in which it was never intended.
> 
> Perhaps.
> 
> My only comment/observation/complaint is this: I am a photographer, 
> not a printmaker. My primary objective is to make more and better 
> images in and through the camera, whether the recording medium is 
film 
> or a CCD is increasingly a secondary concern.
> 
> PhotoShop is an amazingly powerful and precise tool, and after 
> printing black and white photos conventionally for more than 25 
years 
> it's a pleasure to be able to work on and manipulate an image in PS 
> more effectively and in a more pleasant environment than I ever 
could 
> in a darkroom doing things manually.
> And no more spotting!
> 
> So, yeah, I expected a learning curve with Piezography. I expected 
to 
> spend whatever requisite time was needed to further or additonally 
> calibrate my monitor, tweak settings for different sorts of images, 
> for instance defining PS actions to get levels to where they should 
be 
> in photos that needed more or less contrast, or at least get close; 
> but basically to do whatever it took to get this system 
standardized 
> and working.
> 
> But first and foremost, I expected the system to work, on a very 
nuts 
> and bolts level, right out of the box, just like an Epson, just 
like a 
> Pictograph....
> 
> I did not expect spend countless hours flushing the machine and 
> wasting valuable ink.
> I did not expect to find that some of the very papers that are in 
> Cones own "Sample" pack needed to be sprayed to hold the ink to 
paper.
> 
> Someone replied earlier that when these problems/frustrations 
started 
> to happen, that was when he (and I) started to check out some of 
these 
> forums, and read about other peoples experiences/solutions to these 
> problems.
> I was amazed to find all kinds of ingenous tricks to faciliate 
> unclogging the heads;
> the windex/Fantastik method, blowing out bubbles with syringes, 
etc . 
> etc.
> 
> Call me cranky; I guess I'm just not interested in that; it seems 
> unnecessarily fussy and time consuming, and frankly, on an ongoing 
> basis, I'd rather be working on the images than working on the 
> machinery used to produce them.
> 
> Maybe Lyson SG will work; maybe it will prove to be an inferior 
> product to the Piezography system and Cone inks. Maybe I'll find a 
way  
> to tweak and standardize the Epson drivers to allow me to print 
black 
> and white images to my satisfaction (they do a fantastic job in 
color, 
> and the newer generation printers are drawing raves). Regrettably, 
> even Epson readily admits that their printers are not designed for 
> black and white printing.
> 
> And who knows, maybe in the end Piezography will work out all the 
> kinks and be the wonder it claims...For the guy on the list who has 
> printed 100's (1000's???)of prints without a clog or banding...well 
> brother, I wish that I'd had your luck.
> All I'm saying is that for now it just doesn't do