AND, they are advertising 1.5 pl drops.
See full review here:
http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Epson R800/page_1.htm
"Colours on the R800 are nothing short of superb. I have never had a
better quality from the photo-i test print, skin tones are more lifelike
than anything I have seen before and I have seen allot of printers over
the years."
"Would I buy one? - Yes,
The R800 is for the creative photographer who wants the highest quality
pigment ink printer currently available. I hope Epson don't leave it too
long before they introduce a larger format printer using the new
UltraChrome inks and Gloss Optimizer. Wouldn't it be nice if the delay
on the 4000 printer was due to a re-design to incorporate the new inks.
All we need now is the announcement of the Epson Stylus Pro 2300 - just
wishful thinking."
1. How do they get the same tonal scale? e.g. is the red and
blue ink a lighter shade? Or is it the much smaller drop size that
compensates for fewer colors?
The R800 is basically the same as the Japanese PX-G900.
See expanded color gamut picture showing you how the extra colors help
here:
http://www.photo-i.co.uk/News/Nov03/images/Gamut.jpg
and here:
http://www.i-love-epson.co.jp/products/printer/inkjet/pxg900/img/tech/t_pic4.jpg
on this page:
http://www.i-love-epson.co.jp/products/printer/inkjet/pxg900/pxg9002.htm
Basically, the Red and Blue help cover areas of the sRGB gamut that
previously could not be covered by a 6+ color printer, and basically
expands the print range to cover more of the standard sRGB gamut.
2. What motivated this seemingly radical change in the
technology? I can't find anyone else that has done it. What
performance issue were they trying to address?
What technology change? Smaller dots? That's been shrinking for the
past 10+ years of color inkjet printing. More colors? That's already
been done 10+ years ago in the press world with 6-color Hexachrome and
other 6+color systems, so desktop printers are only 'catching up'. (And
even they don't use lighter shades of a color.)
Different ink colors? Nobody's agreed what's the 'best' set of
colors to use beyond CYMK - every maker will disagree and every printer
will have a different goal in mind.
Encapsulated inks? Epson introduced this years ago with their
widebody, archival printers (2200 series and older), so that's not new
news. Of course, the 'heat' they received over the Epson 870/1270etc
prints fading quickly to orange (
http://www.p-o-v-image.com/epson/)
probably was a big motivator to move to more archival ink sets.
(Of course, even on Epson Japan's website, they toot how their latest
printers with the new PX/PM series of 'improved' inks last far longer
than their prior Epson printer prints - which they show fading in less
than a year in their advertisements even!!.
eg. see this comparison between new Epson and old Epson
http://www.i-love-epson.co.jp/products/printer/inkjet/pmg800/img/tech/t_pic1.jpg)
Sucks when you think all of those older Epson prints aren't that long
lasting (and if you remember, they initially were tooting these older
printer models to make long-lasting prints! - something they retracted
after the orange-fading fiasco became well-known.)
3. Now we have to readjust out thinking. If you thought you
understood subtractive primaries in printing, how do you relate to
mixing red ink and cyan ink? Sound like black to me.
Actually, think crayola's and pointilism. Basically, if you have
just 4-colors, there's no way you'd make a true blue or red just by
mixing the 4-colors you have. You can get close, but never quite a pure
blue or red. Adding these two colors allows prints to contain these
shades, and you simply do what has been done before - dither and space
out the dots to get lighter shades.
On the page, the dots can be placed side-by-side, and when you use
different colors beside each other, they'll combine together when viewed
at regular viewing distances just like an impressionist painting or
CRT/LCD monitor to produce an apparent shade of color in between.
This apparent 'mixing' of colors when viewing small 'dots' of color
at long distances is in play in CRTs, LCDs, magazine prints and inkjet
prints.
That said, it works, and you get more shades of color and an expanded
print color gamut with more ink colors used.
Of course, one of the colors that they still would need to put in to
truely make people happy is a good orange, one of the tougher colors to
produce from other colors they're using today in inkjet printers. (ala
Hexachrome, which I believe introduced a nice green and orange - correct
me if I'm mistaken)
Interesting side note: The HP 7960 is staying with the old 6-color
paradigm (CMYKphCphM) + the extra gray and black. Curiously, this is
not immediately available on their website---I found it at Reinks.
Thus is seems that Epson's move is not a reaction---unless they are
just doing something to be different.
HP is targeting the B&W print market with their extra gray/black
colors, but for real - how many of us out there print B&W? Yes, a few,
but a very small minority vs. the many other color users. (just like
those who still use B&W film vs. color)
While it's interesting to see HP target what is still Epson's market
for B&W prints (
www.inkjetmall.com was selling the Piezography BW system
for Epson printers many years before HP even got into this; still a
great, gorgeous system for B&W enthusiasts if you're into making
archival, museum quality B&W prints), they haven't tacked the other
issues of having a large selection of archival, museum type paper
choices quite like the Epson + Piezeography BW system has with 3rd party
papers and archival ink sets.
Full details of the Piezography BW system for the B&W print enthusiast here:
http://inkjetmall.com/store/bw/piezographyBW.html
History of Piezography BW system here:
http://inkjetmall.com/store/bw/bwtimeline.html
(See Yahoo! Groups for the Epson Inkjet forum for very lengthy,
in-depth discussions on this B&W Piezography system if you're interested
in making quality B&W, archival inkjet prints.)
( Of course, with 4 ink cartridges in the 7960 system, one of which
you must swap out and keep unused in the spare storage compartment, it's
a bit silly when you think about it -- why not simply have all four
cartridges colors available all the time like the Canons and Epsons? A
pain in the butt if you think about it - I want nice B&W prints - swap
cartidige, I want nice color prints - swap cartridge, oh, I want nice
B&W prints again - swap cartridge...
Still, it is not a bad printer by far (see review):
http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/HP 7960/page_1.htm )