Digital BW, The Print

Ron,

Thanks for the correction on the Piezo Pro24 pricing. It is currently 
$2,130 on their website. I did not realize that it included a RIP (a 
software RIP I assume and not hardware?) I was under the impression 
the Epson X2 Fiery RIP or third party hardware RIP was required. (I 
did leave out the issue for Mac users of needing to purchase some 
sort of PC to drive it.)

This makes it even move tantalizing of course but no less out of 
reach at the moment! Sigh. Well a least it has farther to fall to get 
into the $2,000 to $3,000 range.

The other issue I have is that I rarely print larger than 11X14 and 
the 7000 would be overkill. (Of course if I could, no doubt I would!) 
I wish the 5000 would take 17" paper and was about $2,500 instead of 
only about $500 less than the 7000 and of course that Piezo Pro24 was 
available for it.

I was a little confused by your last comment, "BTW, I also use the 
1160 and the 3000 for Piezography. There's no difference in print 
quality with the printers I have." Were you just referring to the 
1160 and 3000 being equal in quality or was the 7000 also included in 
that assessment?

Other than the ability to print larger, how do you rate the 
price/performance return of spending the extra $4,200 over the $1,200 
to $1,500 spent for a regular Piezo with CIS?

Thanks,
Martin

P.S. Apologies for the double post. Serve lag problem.


 --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Ron Landucci" <ron@p...> 
wrote:
> Martin,
> 
> I agree with your post but just want to correct some of your cost 
estimates
> for the 7000 system, which I also use with immense satisfaction.  
The 7000
> printer with stand cost me $3500 delivered to my door, after the 
$500
> rebate.  Jon Cone's Piezography Pro RIP package, (RIP, flushing 
carts, and
> inkset), was less than $2200.  Total cost for the 7000 system is 
thus less
> than $5700.  My first impression of the RIP was that it is sort of
> amateurish, comparing it to my Wasatch SoftRip; but you know, after 
you see
> the prints, it doesn't matter.  I have been a silver and platinum 
printer
> for over 25 years, and now, without question, I'm making the best 
monochrome
> prints of my life with PiezoPro.  In fact, I'm slowly going back 
through
> thousands of my 4x5 and 8x10 negatives and reprinting them.   FYI, 
my
> workflow for B&W negs is as follows:  scan on my Howtek HR 8000 in 
16-bit
> grayscale-green at 4000 spi optical resolution.  This lets me feed 
the
> printer 8-bit files with resolutions over 1000 dpi .  The results 
are
> stunning at 23x29.  BTW, I also use the 1160 and the 3000 for 
Piezography.
> There's no difference in print quality with the printers I have.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Ron Landucci
> Golden, Colorado
> 
> 
> >  I know we are talking $2,580 for the Piezo side of these 
systems. I
> >  have heard about $4,000 for the 7000 and an additional $5,000 
for the
> > RIP. So I am assuming a total investment of $11,000 to $12,000.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]