[Leica] Second printer? Talk me into/out of it. . .

[scott at adrenaline.com (Scott McLoughlin)]

I'll vote for the wonderful little C84 (C86 now,
I believe).  I've converted mine to use with the MIS
EZ inks, but made some nice color prints with her
before I did that.  Very cheap, nice DuraBrite inks,
and takes up very little space. 

After futzing with the MIS inks and paper combo's,
starting over with a RIP or with another solution like
HP's color/B&W combo sort of scares me :-) If it ain't
broke....

Scott

Peter Klein wrote:

> For the last couple of years I have been a printing on an Epson 1280.  
> Had to replace the print head once due to a clog that wouldn't clear.  
> I'm very pleased with it now, with some anxiety about future clogs.  
> I've mostly printed  B&W with MIS grayscale inks.  I recently upgraded 
> to the best solution I've used yet--the "Ultratone 2" hextone inks.  
> Haven't yet tried this with semi-gloss or glossy paper, but matte is 
> great.
>
> Lately I've been getting more of an urge to print some of my color 
> work.  Especially now that I have the Olympus E-1, which does really 
> nice color right out of the camera.  Color will not replace B&W, 
> though--I'll probably print substantially more B&W.
>
> I rarely print bigger than letter size, but having the 1280 is nice 
> for that occasional 11x14 or 13x19.
>
> I am not interested in going to a RIP-type workflow for B&W.  If I 
> were to get a printer for both color and B&W, it would have to have 
> some sort of grey-ink ability, like the Canon  7660.
>
> So, what to do?  Some possibilities:
>
> 1. Get an inexpensive printer like the Epson C84 and use it for color 
> right now.  It would even do B&W later with the above Ultratone inks, 
> if the 1280 died.
>
> 2. Go for a newer printer, either just for color, or for both B&W and 
> color (the Canons).
>
> 3. Go have a nice glass of wine, forget this dual printer nonsense, 
> stick with what I have for B&W.  Take my best color pictures to a 
> local lab with a good printer on CD, CF card or "jump drive."  It 
> might be more economical.
>
> It strikes me that the next couple of weeks might be a good time to 
> buy something if I'm going to, since a lot of businesses will want to 
> clear unsold Christmas stock, and there may be rebates as well.  It 
> also strikes me that having two printers might be having three times 
> the worries.  If I do it, I probably should keep them the same brand 
> so as not to have to stock two different brands of paper.
>
> Any thoughts, suggestions, gentle questionings of my sanity. . . ?
>
> --Peter
>
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