Re: [APML] Printer Horror Story

["Joseph O'Neil" <joneil@multiboard.com>]

At 21:53 6/22/03 -0700, you wrote:
>Chris, which printer are your referring to? I have used an Epson Stylus 
>Colour 800 for at least 5 years now. When I bought it it was the only 
>inkjet I could find that would print a real black background to match a 
>B+W print.  It certainly does not print archival quality but I have 5 year 
>old prints that have been printed on Kodak photo-weight matte paper and 
>they are still quite nice.

-snip-

         i cannot prove it, but ten years in desktop publishing has led me 
to beleive all the computer gear we are using, with the exception of the 
higher end, professional grade stufff, is getting cheaper in ways both seen 
and unseen.  Even for the supposedly "pro" grade stuff, ia m a wondering 
some days.

         For exmapel, I jsut had a gear go in a flatbed scanner on me.  Yet 
my old, old HP flatbed scanner I bought 8 to 9 years ago is built like a 
tank, and still works - if I could get drivers for Win 95 and on 
up.  :(   Seriously, when you pick it up, it weigh about 4 times what new 
ones do,b ut then it was built in Japan, not China like some of the newer 
ones are.

         Back on topic howeer, I notice that "photo quality" printers are 
just flodding the market anymore, manyof them for under $100.  They have to 
be cutting corners to do this.  The problem is, once the "mass" of the 
market goes this way, everythgn else follows, IMO, on some level or another.

         IMO, this is not a problem limited to computer or digital 
output.  Film and 'wet" darkroom is suffering, to a smaller degree, a 
similar fate.  Companies like Agfa and Kodak have dropped production of 
many of their premium B&W papers, so you are forced into smaller, specialty 
companies to fill the gap.  The whole thrust of consumer imaging goods, 
digital or wet darkroom, seems to be "do it fast, do it cheap, and don't 
worry if it has to last more than a week."
:(
joe





http://www.oneilphoto.on.ca
http://www.multiboard.com/~joneil
Una salus victis, nullam sperare salutem


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