So I did end up ordering the Pro 1100, and decided to get it with the CarePak they offer just in case for warranty issues.
Anyway I'm very impressed with these prints. In the past I have disliked inkjet because I still felt if I did a nose to the print inspection...which I know you're not supposed to do...you could still see little speckling patterns and it just broke the realism I want to see in my prints. Coming from the darkroom I love an analog print that appears to have depth within it.
I made a letter sized print on Canson Platine from a vividly colored image of fall leaves on the ground. Not a super special shot or anything but I made it with the Hasselblad X2D2 and 55/2.5 so it's quite sharp and more importantly...in focus! Anyway I printed it at 600dpi which AFAIK is Canon's upper limit for dpi. This is a very high resolution digital image and not a huge print target but still, I'm incredibly impressed with the quality. None of the speckle that I mentioned above, just pure detail.
Just tonight I made a print from a film scan. I have a (yes I am weird and use custom cut large format sizes) 8x8" FP4+ negative that I shot this Summer and I scanned it with my Creo Eversmart Supreme II. The scan is 108mp so I was easily able to print this 12x12 at 600dpi again. This time I used Hahnamuhle Baryta FB with the Canon B&W print mode, so no ICC profile. Again, really happy with the output. The blacks are so inky and the detail is complete. No visible grain or speckling. The clear coat is also very effective.
I've been profiling with the Spyder Print software and hardware. It is a little bit clunky when reading the patches occasionally but I like the software and my finished Platine profile is very effective. I felt the screen match was right on. I'm not sure how or if I'm going to use it for B&W printing. It does actually have some pre-set ways to edit the ICC profiles to give a warmer tone, one pre-set is called 'carbon' actually. I'll play with that a little bit. You can also of course apply warm tones from the Canon Print and Layout software, or just use the color grading feature in LR to do what you need. I'm not really an extensive toner but I do like a slight warmth at times.
Interestingly when using the Canon B&W mode on Platine, you end up with a very slightly magenta tone. This is nearly exactly matched by my custom profile, which also gives a slightly magenta B&W image. This is also visible in the LR soft proof...maybe an expert at profiling can tell me but I think this means the Spyder software made an extremely accurate ICC profile. I was able to simply hit -5 in the Tint slider and the cast was gone.
Anyway at this time, fully recommend the Pro 1100 and the Spyder Print software.
Maybe someone can suggest what I should do about warm tone printing. Should I fiddle with the ICC profile or just use B&W mode and apply the tone in the driver?
Have never used the Pro-1100, but I recently picked up a used example of its predecessor, the Pro-1000. I’ve dabbled in home printing for years, with a Canon Pro 9500 mkII, and a Pro-100, but was never satisfied with the B+W output of either. With the Pro-1000, I have finally been able to produce a couple prints approaching my best wet darkroom output from years back. From what I read, the Pro-1100 would provide a subtle improvement,
As for toning, I have found my most pleasing warmtone results simply by playing with the Blue curve a bit. For a very slight tone, pull the upper range down (160-200ish), towards Yellow about 5 points. You can even push the lower end up a few points towards Blue to get cool shadows with warm mid and high tones. You can also fine tune some in the Red and Green channels, if you wish. I typically don’t mess with Green, but may push Red up a few points. Dabble at will and save your curves when happy.
