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Contd.

2. The Photo 2100 in-use

With the introduction of the Photo 2100 Epson appear to have been more generous with documentation and guidance (HTML based), which probably reflects that it's a more complex printer to get up and going. The various leaflets and HTML based user guides should help the user configure the hardware and software for optimum use. Mac OS X users will also find a dedicated Supplement on the software CDROM.

The actual printer driver has changed little from that used with earlier printer models which is a great pity - many of the silly mistakes of the past remain and a few new ones have been added. Since the bulk of this web sites readership uses Microsoft Windows I will use the Windows driver in the screenshots.

Media choice is via the usual pop-down window and comprises five choices plus CDR. These choices may differ slightly depending upon whether the Photo Black or Matte Black cartridge is installed. In addition to the standard media options for the Photo 2100 I have also tried Epson Premium Glossy and it appears to produce barely acceptable prints and  not what we would normally call glossy.. Furthermore, I have been informed that the Photo 2100 produces good results on a range of Lyson Fine Art papers. Outside of North America Epson have chosen not to identify either Lustre or Epson Velvet in the menu. They also warn against the use of non Epson media and suggest that some older Epson media might not work well with the Photo 2100.

 

Epson Photo 2100 Media Options

 

With some media choices "Bronzing" can be a problem - What's "Bronzing"? It's characteristic of  the pigment based ink/paper combination and usually occurs in areas of relatively heavy black ink coverage (something similar occurs in the highlight regions). You can see it by tilting the print at an acute angle whereupon you'll observe weird surface effects. It can be reduced but not eliminated. It's a problem that Epson are still trying to resolve. The way to reduced it is to reduce the "Colour Density" setting found in the "Paper Configuration" dialog. Values between -5 and -10 appear to produce the best results.

 

Use Paper Configuration to reduce Bronzing!

 

Out of the very large box the Photo 2100 produces very nice colour prints. That is assuming the user knows how to configure Photoshop. BTW: comprehensive instructions on configuring Photoshop and printing can be found elsewhere on this web site. Actually our perception of colour accuracy really depends upon the viewing light source, and other than the Photo 2000P before it no other Epson Photo printer comes close to confusing (or should that be confounding) the uninitiated inkjet user. If we assume that the monitor is accurately calibrated then most users can expect to obtain reasonably colour accurate prints without much effort. However, to expect perfection is asking too much. Your first prints might appear mildly magenta or green and to assume that they actually are would be a mistake - give them 30 minutes and then view the prints under a range of lighting types - e.g. tungsten, fluorescent daylight, etc - ideally you should include something close to 5000K. Only then should you decide if the colour is off -  all things being equal the odds are in favour of the prints being pretty close to what you want under one of these lighting scenarios. What you are seeing is a characteristic of the pigment based inks and is usually referred to as "metamerism". It isn't anywhere near as bad as the case with the Photo 2000P but it is an issue, albeit minor.

Also, if the user compares the above prints with similar examples obtained from say a Photo 1270/1290 they will likely be disappointed (some have expressed their disappointment in stronger terms). Like all previous pigment based ink-sets the prints will tend to appear low in contrast (lack punch). However, this apparent shortcoming of the Photo 2100  is its secret weapon - the prints contain more detail and are far smoother than previous models. The colour gamut of the Photo 2100 far exceeds that of printers folk think look better. The use of the 7th ink - Light Black - ensures that shadows extend further than ever before and explains the almost endless range of shadow detail that we can now print. Shadows "blocking" or "sooting up" is not an issue with the Photo 2100.

Colour Management Options

Photo-realistic mode rather than the Automatic (not available with Mac OS X) is the default colour mode. Photo-realistic works in the same way as it did with all previous Photo series printers and has been optimised for photographic images. Vivid is the last option and is best suited to graphic images. The default gamma setting is 1.8 and remains the most appropriate. If you find yourself having to adjust any of the sliders by much more than few units then I really would question the accuracy of your monitor calibration. Personally I don't use the sliders, but for many there may be no other option. PhotoEnhance4 mode is also missing from the Mac OS X driver and currently.

 

Colour Modes	PhotoEnhnace4

 

14 February 03

No Color Adjustment mode was broken in the original Mac OS 9 Photo 2100 driver. For OS 9 users this meant that any attempt to use media profiles with the Photo 2100 would result in a horrid fluorescent magenta cast over the image - it couldn't be dialed out and any custom created profiles would also produce pretty ropey prints. This problem only effected the printer when Photo Black ink was being used and so those using Matte Black may not even be aware of a potential headache lurking in the background. Thankfully Epson have woken up from their slumber and a new fully functional Mac OS 9 driver dated 10 February 2003 can be downloaded from Epson Australia. It only took them 6 months to find the problem!

Epson have also kept faith with another previous and idiotic decision - the driver defaults to "bi-directional" printing (also known as "High Speed") when the user changes the media type. It's fairly easily fixed but why they can't just configure the defaults for quality rather than speed beats me.

One pleasant surprise is the apparent increase in image sharpness that can obtained when using 2880dpi mode rather than the more usual 1440dppi. More dots certainly appears to pay dividends, but not in the way folk would expect. I think Epson have spent a fair amount of time refining the dither patterns used by the Photo 2100 and the improvements are plain to see.

Printing Black & White Images

When first announced Epson made a big fuss about how well the new Photo 2100 reproduced Black & White prints. The older Photo 2000P was absolutely useless for B&W due to the problem of "metamerism". Although I know a few photographers who produce drop-dead-gorgeous B&W prints from it using only black ink. The caveat being that we don't get too close or the dots will jump out and bite. Another drawback being that these prints only appear neutral in tungsten lighting. BTW: using only black ink with the Photo 2100 will produce awful results. It was claimed by Epson that the GreyBalancer software would solve the "metamerism" problem, but in reality it's only a "band-aid". As I indicated above "metamerism" is not dead and is still going to cause some headaches for B& W workers! So what is GreyBalancer?

GreyBalancer is a combination of software, a pre-printed series of paper greyscale targets and a 122 page Adobe Acrobat instruction manual. The greyscale targets are supplied as a single flimsy glossy paper sheet. The user then is meant to cut it into the appropriate strips and punch four holes in one strip. GreyBalancer is supplied on the driver CD package provided with every Photo 2100 printer - yet it is not compatible with Mac OS X and likely never will be.

 

GreyBalancer Software	Pre-printed Greyscale Target

 

My first experience of GreyBalancer was in late June 2002 using a Windows based computer - I was not impressed (with Grey Balancer)! Time and use haven't caused me to change my mind. Within certain limits the software works well and certainly achieves the objective of neutralising colour casts resulting from viewing B&W (and colour) prints under non 5000K lighting. However, the methodology used to achieve this objective is clumsy. The paper greyscale targets mentioned above are a disgrace and clearly demonstrate that Epson have made only a half hearted attempt at addressing what many believe is still a serious shortcoming in pigment based inks - "metamerism" (I'm starting to sound like a broken record).

The problem with GreyBalancer, as I see it, is the fact that it fixes one problem only to create a bigger problem further down the line. By this I mean that a print corrected for neutral greys when viewed under say tungsten lighting will appear green when viewed in daylight. Quite frankly I can think of much better ways to obtain neutral B&W prints. Unfortunately they don't come cheap and are therefore beyond the means of many Photo 2100 users. That said I think Epson could have spent a few more "jelly beans" on the flimsy greyscale target and at least gave the impression that they saw GreyBalancer as being more than just a "stocking filler". If you're going to use GreyBalancer, and many will, then I recommend that you throw the Epson greyscale target in the trash and get yourself the Kodak Grey Scale; then follow the instructions provided by Vincent Oliver at photo-i

Also be warned that with GreyBalancer active and an adjustment in place all images (colour or B&W) will have that adjustment applied. If the adjustment is for matte paper and you begin using semi-gloss then the adjustment will not be correct and the final prints will likely not meet expectations. Of course the same problems exist when using media profiles - but you can usually see that they have been selected. If ever there was a case of having to read the manual then GreyBalancer is it - ideally with a full glass of your favourite tipple :-)

6 January 03

Note: Are you getting fluorescent magenta prints when using media profiles with an Epson Photo 2100/22200? If so then it is VERY likely that a GreyBalancer adjustment is active. To TOTALLY disable ALL GreyBalancer adjustments and thus completely avoid ANY possibility of you unwittingly applying an adjustment when you don't want to then make sure the main GreyBalancer is configured as shown below. Both pop-ups/drop-down windows MUST be set for ***No Adjustment***

 

Disabling GreyBalancer

 

To obtain the best B&W prints I recommend one of the matte surfaced papers and for deep blacks it is necessary to install the optional Matte Black ink cartridge. This ink cartridge is designed to improve the density of blacks when using matte media and there is no doubt that it is needed - it also works very well, but at the cost of the extended shadow detail I mentioned earlier.

For their own reasons Epson North America chose not to ship GreyBalancer with the Photo 2200. Personally I think they made the wrong decision, but they made it for the right reason, and that is the only comment I'm going to make regarding its absence.

Making it Better!

Using custom created media profiles for my printer (GretagMacbeth ProfileMaker Pro 4.1 and the Eye-One Spectrophotometer) I can achieve quite lovely colour prints that match anything produced in the conventional wet darkroom. Near perfect neutral B&W prints can be obtained without resorting to GreyBalancer. More importantly the neutrality remains across a broader range of lighting environments than is the case for a GreyBalancer corrected image. However, there is still scope for improvement as some cross-over is still evident in the 3/4 tones.

ColorByte Software ImagePrint is an even better and a lot more flexible alternative to the Epson driver. This application is actually a RIP (Raster Image Processor) that completely replaces all aspects of the Epson driver, but unlike most RIP's ImagePrint  is designed to work with RGB images. CMYK is fully supported but this is not a workflow with which I have any experience and so my observations are limited to RGB images. ImagePrint is available for both PC and Mac platforms although it was only in late 2002 that an OS X version became available. More details of ImagePrint and why it performs so much better than the Epson driver can be found in my ImagePrint review.

 

3. Conclusions

The Photo 2100 is the BEST desktop inkjet printer ever produced by Epson. Overall the print quality is "light years" better than the Photo 2000P ever achieved and in my opinion much better than models such as the cheaper Photo 1280/90. Likewise build quality is significantly better than other prosumer class inkjet printers from Epson. However, it is not without some faults and good as it is the Photo 2100 is not necessarily the best choice for everyone.

Contrary to popular belief the individual ink cartridges may actually make the Photo 2100 more expensive to run than earlier models. Remember that every time you change one cartridge the other six get purged - ink gets used and no print. Light magenta gets used quicker than most no matter what image type you print.

The final prints can lack the punch (they have lower contrast) that many seem to demand/expect. Nevertheless, shadow detail from the Photo 2100 is vastly superior to earlier models and colour gradients and greyscales are much smoother. This smoothness appears to be as a result of the improved dithering pattern. Even though it may not always seem like it the Photo 2100 also reproduces colour more accurately than any other prosumer class photo inkjet. The only real quirk in print quality is "Bronzing".

Whilst the Photo 2100 is much quicker than the Photo 2000P I don't honestly think that many professional photographers will find it a suitable alternative to outsourcing bulk prints. If they like producing their own prints in-house then the more expensive Epson Stylus PRO 7600 is a much better option. Nevertheless, for small print runs with no time limit the Photo 2100 is very hard to beat. I can just imagine the stampede if/when Epson release a 5000 series printer with similar properties to the Photo 2100.

Fine Art Photographers and Artists will look upon the Photo 2100 as a dream come true. The Photo 2100 excels at producing "limited edition" fine arts prints for sale or exhibition. I'm told that using the Matte Black ink along with matte surfaced media such  Epson Velvet (not available in the UK) clearly demonstrates just how good the Photo 2100 really is as a fine-art printer. I am also told that Lustre produces nice prints. Sadly the same cannot be said of Premium Glossy Photo Paper as it shows "Bronzing" at its worst.

As for GreyBalancer; it tries to fix a problem, but if you don't understand the problem you'll make an unholy mess of your prints and confuse yourself into the bargain. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that GreyBalancer is bad but it really should have been better thought out. It should have been integrated into the main driver and we should have been provided with a clear means by which we could tell that a correction is active. As it stands there are too many traps for unwary users; far too many opportunities for the user to apply a correction that is inappropriate for the image type or media because they have forgotten that it's active - be warned!

As I implied in my introduction I have a few gripes regarding the Photo 2100. Poor availability was one, but now appears to have been addressed. The second was the broken driver for Mac OS9 - this has now been fixed. The third (actually a long list) is full and proper support for Mac OS X. Epson claim that support for certain features remain out of reach because OS X still does not include the necessary "hooks". This may be so but the method  required to force the OS to see the Photo 2100 or even to recognise the presence of the Matte Black cartridge doesn't always work and shouldn't be necessary. Many who purchased the Photo 2100 will have waited long and paid good money for direct CDR printing, borderless printing, auto-cutting, thick paper feed, and some 15 or 16 other missing features. Whilst their absence doesn't cause me much concern it's damned annoying for many others. Likewise I don't consider the absence of GreyBalancer, PhotoQuicker or PIM a major loss. However, they are components that Epson that other reviewers chose to praise. The fact that they are absent for a large group of users is an issue that Epson needs to address. As for the other reviewers I've heard rumours that Epson will issue dark rather than rose tinted spectacles next time round :-)

In summary the Epson Stylus PHOTO 2100 is a very fine printer that produces images with a quality that knocks "nine-bells" out of every other inkjet printer under $2000. If you need quality prints there is nothing in this price bracket that even comes close. The Epson supplied "bells and whistles" can in my opinion be done without, but that's me - you may well have a different view and they may well be exactly what attracts you to the Photo 2100; if so who am I to argue? Finally and as mentioned earlier ImagePrint by ColorByte Software takes the Photo 2100 to an even higher quality level (Note: that ImagePrint is available for a wide range of printers including those from vendors other than Epson).