Ink Bay Door, Again

Early this week, at a time when the 7900 was not in use, I noticed the machine was awake, light from its LCD glowing through the machine's cover. I'd not used the printer in several days.

The message on the LCD indicated the left ink bay door was unlatched. And it was. This has happened twice before (noted here, and most recently, here), both times with the left bay door. The printer has not been moved, bounced, rattled, or otherwise agitated, we've had no earthquakes lately. There's no external reason the door should unlatch.

I have to assume there's an issue with the locking pin (or its solenoid). Perhaps the pin is a bit shorter than nominal, or the solenoid (or whatever actuator is used) is slightly out of optimal alignment. Or, there's a ghost in the machine.

In any case, I've found the left bay door unlatched three times since April, 2013.

Simply pushing the door fully closed solves the problem. The LCD returns to its normal status display, and the machine goes to sleep as it should.

  --Jay

The End of Ilford?

I can hardly believe it's been nearly two months since my last posting. An injury and brief hospital stay are part of my excuse, but just a tiny part (I'm on the mend). December was quite busy for me. I was fortunate to have several printing jobs, including one for more than 30 prints on mat paper. This was a very interesting job for a client who'd been hired to do a series on underground street racing in Havana, Cuba. He sorted through 20,000 raw files, brought me a few to work up in Photoshop, and then print. Cool stuff. I also had a couple of commissions for prints of my own work, followed by a couple more contract jobs after the first of the year. The 7900 did what it does in its usual way. Mostly it "just worked". I did have a couple of start-ups with stubborn clogs, but the usual cleanings or powerful cleanings resolved those. All's well with the printer, now several months past its second birthday.

The printer still has its original maintenance cartridge. That has finally dropped below 10% capacity, but I suspect that's still adequate for several months of normal use.

This posting on the Luminous-Landscape forums once again reports the demise of Ilford, or at least, the Ilford that produces the Gallery Prestige Fibre Silk (formerly Gallery Gold Fibre Silk, or GGFS) baryta paper. Ilford has been struggling for some time, and making bizarre business decisions during this period. They've reduced the sheet count in the boxes, raised prices to make up for that, and they've eliminated the plastic bags that had protected, at least a little, the paper from the inside of the carton. This has long been my favorite paper, but I've received enough damaged product, and have mainly stopped buying it.

My most recent purchase was of a 24-inch roll of GGFS, which was beautifully packaged by the supplier (IT Supplies), and arrived here in perfect condition.

Looking about for a replacement, I sampled Canson's Infinity Baryta Photographique. As you'll see in the LuLa postings linked above, consensus is that the Canson and the GGFS are extremely similar. My own experience confirms that. The papers are not quite identical, but if I print the same image on both, put them aside for a week, and then give them a look, I can't tell which paper is which. Close enough.

The Canson is also packaged in a more rational way, with the sheets being inside a plastic bag inside the carton. And finally, the Canson has been, so far, just a bit less expensive.

We'll see where this goes. I have a pretty decent inventory of the Ilford, but even if supplies are available for a while, I'll likely be buying the Canson as needed.

--Jay