Andrew,
Hello again. Are you intending to dedicate your R1800 to B&W, or do you want to print colour as well?
I thought that the K7 inks would be the thing - until I bought a sample print. Note 'bought' not 'was given'. I was seriously unimpressed. I used to use early Cone Piezography inks (that was a K4 set) in an Epson 3000 a few years ago, then used Sundance Septone inks (which were originally formulated for Cone) in a 2200 for a couple of years. I never had clogging problems with those, as long as I printed regularly. So after using the Septone inks (which is a sort of K4 x 2 ink set - one neutral K4 set and one warm K4 set, with a common full black) I was very keen to see the K7 set.
There is a very smooth tonality, but at a cost. You can't control the ink tone - ie you are stuck with that near-neutral tone, with a little control being possible by changing the paper. Other solutions (which I'll come to in a minute) allow a choice of image tone, as well as duotone and tritone. It depends on what you like. I don't like wild departures from neutral, but I do like some control between warm-neutral and cool-neutral.
The other thing that surprised me was that I didn't like the highlights - that's where the K7 set ought to shine. They just seemed to lack brilliance. I have a theory that it's the subtle difference between a thin spray of dense ink and a thick spray of thin ink.
Anyway, back to more concrete issues. Gloss. I don't think that the K7 inks will do very well on gloss paper. That may not bother some people, but it bothers me. I like the sheer brilliance of a finely detailed image with a wide density range - you just don't get that with matte paper. But you could leave a gloss optimizer cartridge in the R1800, or use Krystal Topkote in the GO slot.
Cone claims that you can switch between OEM inks and K7 on the desktop printers quite easily. That might be worth thinking about.
The K7 set uses QTR as the printing software. You can download a trial version - it only costs $50 if you decide to buy it. QTR can be used to print B&W on an R1800 with the standard Epson inks, and it will do a better job than the Epson driver. You already have a densitometer, and the fact that you shoot LF suggests that you are the kind of person who will take to QTR and refine the profiles to your liking.
If you are not happy with the results from QTR and the Epson inks then you have a few choices - and K7 is one of them. Making up your own ink set is another.
An drastic alternative would be to sell the R1800 and buy an R2400.
If you haven't already tried QTR, I suggest that as the first step, with the Epson inks. Then take it from there.
If you want a more opinions, ask this question on the Yahoo DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint group.
Best,
Helen
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