Digital Home Thoughts: Digital Black & White Printers: Where Are They?

"One of the ways it’s wrong is what one might call “the tyranny of the majority.” Basically, this means that we all get what most people want. If 98% of car buyers wanted blue cars, for instance, people who preferred yellow ones would be out of luck. Most people are not connoisseurs of any particular consumer good, so, when we need something, we find out what other people buy, and what’s available, and we buy that. The trouble with this is that a few people are connoisseurs, and they are often out of luck, because, by definition, they’re a small minority — in some cases too small for any manufacturer to profitably service. Another aspect of this is that high quality costs a lot of money, and people who have lots of money to spend on any one type of good are always relatively few in number. Again, they are sometimes too small a group to be catered to. One of the most certain ways of going out of business is to try to make any given widget to the highest possible quality standards in very small numbers. And if your high-quality widget doesn’t have popularity or prestige going for it, well, forget it. But then what are people who want widgets of high quality to do?"

This is an interesting rant from a photographer who's looking for a dedicated black and white photo printer. I haven't done many B&W prints lately, but when I was doing them on my then cutting-edge Epson C80, they looked "ok". Not great, the blacks had a blue-ish tint, but to the casual observer it would pass. I haven't tried this on my Canon i950 yet - I think it's time for a little experiment!