Dedicated B&W inksets
2016-07-21 by roark.paul@...
Those of us who use these are at a point of being the "alt process" segment of the digital B&W printing field. It's a very small market. We use these inksets for a variety of reasons, with low cost being a primary reason for some and high quality being the primary reason for others.
I have one foot in each segment. For my own work, I want the highest quality. NO commercial seller can match the longevity of what individuals can put together using carbon pigments in combination with the best color pigments. (Using less than the best color pigments is where all the third party B&W sellers fall short.)
The low cost end of the market is also, important, however. For some it really does matter, and I'd hate to cost become a barrier to pursuing their passion of B&W photography.
There are competing sources of carbon pigments. MIS, Cone, and Epson come to mind. (I have noted that Epson makes an EcoTank carbon black that is very cheap and readily available. Most EcoTank ink is cheap dye, so one has to be careful here.)
I started down this dedicated B&W inkset road with Jon's early Piezo inkset, found that a color toner improved the look, published that on the Piezo forum, and was quickly banned from that forum in terms of talking about the "variable Piezo" approach. That is why this forum came into existence. This is the forum where we can openly discuss all sorts of alternative B&W inkset approaches. There seem to be less of these as the OEM products become better, but I suspect there will always be a small niche of us "control enthusiasts" who want to do something different.
MIS? They'll just have to make it or not. It's not my problem. I wish them well and am making (actually it's done) an MIS-based toner for them so the non-ink mixers will have it available. (I will still use my Canon color based toner -- until something better comes along.) If MIS pulls out of the B&W market (which is a small part of their business now), it won't have any significant impact on me. I'll continue to make and publish the approaches I use to achieve what I consider the best and most lightfast approaches to B&W printing.
Alternative (non-OEM), dedicated B&W inksets are alive and well, and still achieving goals that no commercial vendor is willing to target -- because those of us who care about the best B&W are too small a segment of the market.
FWIW
Paul