First print from Epson compatible ink

Well, I used the new Epson Stylus 1280 compatible ink I purchased from http://www.123inkcartridges.ca/ with Epson premium glossy paper. I ran the nozzle head cleaning utility once. I could see it was clogged up prior to the cleaning. After cleaning, the light blue head was still not fully clean--all the colours came out fine except for the light blue. I decided to go ahead with a print job of a flower I took in 2007 with my D80 anyway.

The colour rendition is superb with the compatible ink. All the colours came through vibrant and sharp. The glossy paper makes for a nice photo quality touch. From a couple of feet away, the photo looks flawless. The only problem, if I were to pixel-peep from a foot away, is that I can see is the banding (and remember this is on premium glossy paper) and some black streaks. I have a feeling that the banding is caused by the black ink print head or the dpi resolution (currently set at 720dpi).

Photo paper

In my brief search for 11"x14" Epson glossy paper, I came to a conclusion that this format is not very popular. A number of reputable manufacturers make this format:

• Epson
• Inkpress
• Ilford

I wanted this format only because I have a couple of large frames. The minimum photo size required is 11"x11".

My search ended after I decided to go for the 11"x17" format which matches more with the aspect ratio of pictures from my D7000. I ordered a pack of 100 no-name sheets of glossy/matte paper (glossy on one side and matte on the other) for $65USD (including shipping) from an eBay seller from Waterloo, ON. We will see how the glossy side works with the Epson-compatible colour ink I purchased from Montreal--the ink cartridge was less than $3. If everything works out fine, I will post the eBay seller and the store name I bought the ink cartridges from.

First prints from the Epson Stylus 1280

I finally printed my first five photos on this Epson Stylus 1280 using the original Epson ink cartridges. The first two photos were printed on Epson glossy 4"x6" photo paper. I was expecting a perfect print. The colours came out superb but the photos were far from perfect. I could clearly see colour banding (I think I see blue banding more than any other colour) and the print head skipped one line of pixels too. Maybe the print nozzles are slightly clogged up? In any case, I thought I'd see those bands only on plain paper. I thought glossy photo paper would fix that problem, but it does not appear to.

I then tried Epson matte 8.5"x11" paper. Same thing. Bands of colours are obvious. Maybe it's because I did not choose the right settings when printing?

For the glossy paper, I chose glossy photo paper type and even chose quality printing vs. high speed printing. (I also selected to borderless printing which worked great by the way.)

For the matte paper, I chose the heavyweight matte paper type but here I chose high speed printing.

For what I use these photos for though, I'm ok with the quality. If the photos are for a wedding, well, that's another story.

Epson Stylus 1280

Well, despite what I have read online, I went ahead with a purchase of a wide carriage Epson Stylus 1280 printer from someone on Craigslist. It was cheap. The problem that many people have reported was how much ink this printer will suck out of the ink cartridges and how frequently the print head will clog up--if you don't use the printer for a couple of weeks, expect the print head to clog up. We will see.

I have a wide carriage printer. Now I need to find some wide format photo glossy/matte paper. More shopping on the way...

Oh, and with the purchase, I also got a stack of games (e.g. Ultima, Age of Empire, some Atari games, a bunch of kids games) and software (OS, Office, CAD, etc.) that I will probably never use.

Q-Strap

Well, I am anxious to get my hands on the Q-Strap.  This is a problem with purchasing gears oversea.  Not only are you not helping the local economy, except for keeping Canada customs employed, you have to endure the long wait.

Nigerian scam

I moved this post off this blog as it has nothing to do with photography. Just be aware of the many Nigerian scams that happen everyday on Craigslist and Kijiji and other classified ad venues. You should never accept payments over PayPal and ship your gears to Nigeria. It may be an obvious thing for most of us but I suspect some people still get taken by these scams.

Quick Strap

In December, I saw a cousin of mine carrying his Nikon D3 over his shoulder but something was different. There was only one connection on his camera, where the tripod mount is.

I thought that was super cool because I hate the standard Nikon strap. There is no easy to carry the camera with the standard strap. Yes, I swing the strap over my left shoulder but it tends to slide off my shoulder. I could swing it over my head, like a necklace, but I will get a sore neck after a while. I could also just leave it dangling down to the floor when I use the hand strap. It became annoying enough I removed the strap altogether.

I ran into the R-Strap while searching for a quick strap. The price slowed down my impulse to buy one. I then came across the Q-Strap, another quick strap, made in China. Alright, should I buy the original R-Strap or this knock off at half the original strap's price?

Well, the Q-Strap is on its way.