Epson 3800 for digital negatives?

[kees]

Hi,

Who has tried the new 3800 for digital negatives allready? If so, did you find any problems like banding, output roller marks with transparant substrates like pictorico and copyjet? As this printer does not have the vacuum mechanism for holding paper flat there might be problems with OHP curl and output rollers. Are these 2400 like or pizzawheels?

Apart from this the printer looks like a sound investment for the hybrid alt. lab but I like to read some good reports from other digital negative makers first.


kees

[Don Bryant]

Hi,

Who has tried the new 3800 for digital negatives allready? If so, did you find any problems like banding, output roller marks with transparant substrates like pictorico and copyjet? As this printer does not have the vacuum mechanism for holding paper flat there might be problems with OHP curl and output rollers. Are these 2400 like or pizzawheels?

Apart from this the printer looks like a sound investment for the hybrid alt. lab but I like to read some good reports from other digital negative makers first.


kees

Good questions Kees. I have a friend here locally that has one on order specifically to produce digi negs. As soon as his arrives I'm sure we will hear something. Apparently it may not be delivered until Jan.

Perhaps someone else has already received theirs.

Merry Christmas

[kees]

Good questions Kees. I have a friend here locally that has one on order specifically to produce digi negs. As soon as his arrives I'm sure we will hear something. Apparently it may not be delivered until Jan.

Perhaps someone else has already received theirs.

Merry Christmas

Hi Don,

I allready found out that the 3800 does have pizzawheels but according to this post on dpreview also has an option to retract them.

Merry Christmas to you too from the Netherlands

kees

[sanking]

Good questions Kees. I have a friend here locally that has one on order specifically to produce digi negs. As soon as his arrives I'm sure we will hear something. Apparently it may not be delivered until Jan.

Perhaps someone else has already received theirs.

Merry Christmas

Well, I know the person in question and he has already paid for a carbon workshop with me, which we will probably schedule sometime in February after I return from Mexico. I am hopeful that he will have received the Epson 3800 by then and that I can convince him to haul it up I-85 and we can calibrate his PDN negatives with the new printer.

I am especially interested in the issue of venetian blinds since I have a mild case of it with my 2200 and it makes digital negatives of large smooth tone areas impossible. Mark Nelson says that the R1800 is the only printer he has see so far that completely eliminate this problem, but he too is hopeful that the 3800 will eliminate the problem. I am not so concerned about the pizza wheels since there is surely a way to lift them out of the way.

Sandy King

[Don Bryant]

Well, I know the person in question and he has already paid for a carbon workshop with me, which we will probably schedule sometime in February after I return from Mexico. I am hopeful that he will have received the Epson 3800 by then and that I can convince him to haul it up I-85 and we can calibrate his PDN negatives with the new printer.

I am especially interested in the issue of venetian blinds since I have a mild case of it with my 2200 and it makes digital negatives of large smooth tone areas impossible. Mark Nelson says that the R1800 is the only printer he has see so far that completely eliminate this problem, but he too is hopeful that the 3800 will eliminate the problem. I am not so concerned about the pizza wheels since there is surely a way to lift them out of the way.

Sandy King

Sandy,

I'm sure Don will have no hesitation to bring the printer up. I've encouraged him to pick your brain about using PDN for digi negs. Sounds like you guys will have fun.

Don

[kees]

Hi,

I saw some remarks about 3800 digital negatives elsewhere on this forum but thought it might be a good idea to 'bump' this thread to get an overview of user experiences of 3800 diginegs on various substrates.

anyone?

kees

[Don Bryant]

Hi,

I saw some remarks about 3800 digital negatives elsewhere on this forum but thought it might be a good idea to 'bump' this thread to get an overview of user experiences of 3800 diginegs on various substrates.

anyone?

kees

Hi Kees,

I've seen the 3800 in action and IMO, it's the best Epson to date for making digital negatives. I've looked at silver gelatin prints made with Pictorico OHP and White Film and the results are excellent. The negatives were made with Mark Nelson's PDN software using the Epson driver so I have no idea how well it will produce digital negs. using QTR but I expect they might be very good also.

The latest version of QTR now supports the 3800.

Epson is also slated to release the 1400 using dye based inks. It is a more affordable ($400) 13x19 model with a 1.5 pico-liter dropplet size so it could also be a printer to watch.

Don Bryant

[sanking]

Hi Kees,

I've seen the 3800 in action and IMO, it's the best Epson to date for making digital negatives. I've looked at silver gelatin prints made with Pictorico OHP and White Film and the results are excellent. The negatives were made with Mark Nelson's PDN software using the Epson driver so I have no idea how well it will produce digital negs. using QTR but I expect they might be very good also.

The latest version of QTR now supports the 3800.

Epson is also slated to release the 1400 using dye based inks. It is a more affordable ($400) 13x19 model with a 1.5 pico-liter dropplet size so it could also be a printer to watch.

Don Bryant

Don,

I worked with Don this weekend in making digital negatives with the 3800. Here are my observations.

The 3800 is definitely a great printer, and an image that I could not print with a digital negative from the 2200 because of Venetian blinds printed great with a digital negative from the 3800.

Although this 3800 is very smooth in making positive prints on paper some of the colors that produce a lot of UV blocking gave a very grainy look with digital negatives on Pictorico. This may or may be true of other 3800 printers. For example, G=255 plus other combinations gave a very grainy look on Pt./Pd and carbon. The best combination for smoothness was R=255 + some Green to give a DR of about 1.70. Printing a grayscale image in RGB using all of the inks gave fine grain and UV blocking of about 2.15, more than enough for pt./pd.

Based on what I observed I am very seriously thinking about purchasing a 3800, but because of the grainy look with some colors I have decided to also look at the 1400 before making a final decision.

Sandy King

[Don Bryant]

Don,

I worked with Don this weekend in making digital negatives with the 3800. Here are my observations.

The 3800 is definitely a great printer, and an image that I could not print with a digital negative from the 2200 because of Venetian blinds printed great with a digital negative from the 3800.

Although this 3800 is very smooth in making positive prints on paper some of the colors that produce a lot of UV blocking gave a very grainy look with digital negatives on Pictorico. This may or may be true of other 3800 printers. For example, G=255 plus other combinations gave a very grainy look on Pt./Pd and carbon. The best combination for smoothness was R=255 + some Green to give a DR of about 1.70. Printing a grayscale image in RGB using all of the inks gave fine grain and UV blocking of about 2.15, more than enough for pt./pd.

Based on what I observed I am very seriously thinking about purchasing a 3800, but because of the grainy look with some colors I have decided to also look at the 1400 before making a final decision.

Sandy King

Were you able to resolve the wierd speckles he was getting on some of his palladium prints? I was kind of mystified by them. Interesting note about the Green ink branch and the Red too.

Don Bryant

[sanking]

Were you able to resolve the wierd speckles he was getting on some of his palladium prints? I was kind of mystified by them. Interesting note about the Green ink branch and the Red too.

Don Bryant

Don,

I can not remember disucssing the speckles. Perhaps I was simply too focused on the very grainy look produced by the green ink. No question but that the red branch gives a much smoother look, but the DR in UV is limited on that track to log 1.7, ok for pt./pd. but a bit low for processes such as albumen, salted paper and VDB.

Sandy