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Re:[OM] OT: Alps/Epson Print Comparison

Subject: Re:[OM] OT: Alps/Epson Print Comparison
From: Joel Wilcox <jowilcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 1999 08:05:57 -0500
At 10:57 PM 7/9/99 -0400, Tomoko you wrote:
>
>Let me say at the outset I bought an Alps MD1300 printer about a year ago
>because I was unhappy with an Epson Stylus Pro printer.  My biggest gripe
about
>the inkjet printer in general is that the print head gets clogged easily.
>

There has certainly been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth about clogs
in the Epson list and the printer newsgroups.  The Epson Stylus Color 600
was particularly skewered for this, although I suspect it was because so
many of them were sold.  Still, relative to the number sold, there seem to
have been a lot of them that clogged.  My 600 sits for weeks at a time
without being used because I'm lucky enough to have a Photo EX at work, and
it never misses a beat. (Knock wood.)  I've come to believe not that the
printers generically are prone to clogging but that if you got a good one,
you got a good one, and vice versa.

>Since I never saw Joel's trial prints, I
>don't know what happens if you try to darken the Epson print.  My own
experience
>with the Epson printer was the frustration of emulating the color
rendition in
>the Ilfochrome print.  I've tried this with the Alps printer, but still a
>difficult task.

I think this is often just the problem of printing in general.  The source
photo is frequently brilliant, the scan throws several veils over the
source photo, and the print process veils it further.  I monkey a lot with
curves and saturation controls in Photoshop to approximate some of the
original brilliance of the source photo.  It can be very hard work.

Tomoko seems to be a little modest about her own work however. 

Tomoko's first print of the famous Photoshop Fruit Lady I thought was
magnificent and beautiful, but I didn't hold that opinion indefinitely.  As
I did my best to match colors with both the 600 and Stylus Photo EX, I felt
the Epson prints were more vibrant and exciting and the skin tones more
natural.  When we traded comments about this, Tomoko reprinted and came up
with a lighter and more satisfying version which I felt could be an Alps
"poster child."  I would have used it as a reference print but she wanted
it back!

The Alps is not nearly as versatile as the Epson printers, as Phillip
Franklin pointed out in his post, but the results can be photographically
realistic and convincing. I think the Epson prints can be very beautiful,
but if you put them under a loupe, as Tomoko says, you'll see dots.  Which
is why I don't do that.  I have a friend who when I show her a print will
say, "What a gorgeous photograph!  Is this from your inkjet printer?" Then
she will take off her glasses, put the print about 3 inches from her
eyeball and look for dots.  I occasionally have to throw in a Cibachrome to
thwart this behavior.  The Epson prints hold up well when people act
normally around them.

Except for the fact that I don't really need a new photo printer right now,
I'd certainly consider the Alps, but I don't think I'd want it to be my
only printer.

Joel Wilcox
Iowa City, Iowa USA

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