DSF

I need a printer just to make negatives, so it needs to print BLACK - so no light penetrates it at all.

The problem is I need to print onto Film, to make negatives - my Ricoh's will not recognise the film.. had all sorts of problems today, tried all sorts but now realise it's not worth the hassle and I certainly don't want to put one of my beloved Ricoh's out of action.

So I think the best course of action is to find a Laser Printer.

Found an OKI B2200 for £35 and wondering if anyone knows this machine (and any possible problems it has) or if anyone can recommend an alternative ?

Do also look at the toner cart costs along with the actual price of the printer - try and work out the TCO

I'd be surprised if you got a black from a laser printer that no light penetrates when producing a neg.
I use an old Minolta 2300DL to produce positives to make screens for screen printing, and get good results - but its not as dense as a camera posi would be, and for a full background, or neg, it would struggle. I still have to touch my posi's in with a touch up pen for large solids.

Cheers John

The toners for this Oki are inexpensive, chips are readily available too.

The reason I thought a Laser printer would be good for this John is because you can set the 'Blackness' (searching for the correct term here) - for what I saw yesterday there was no way I was going to get anywhere close to black with the Ricoh's - I found 'Postcard - High Quality' to lay down the most ink and that was no where near enough.

I just purchased this Oki for testing, its £35 so not a lot lost - in any case I will find another use for it if this idea fails.

Everything else with this project is coming together - I didnt expect to have this problem but if it were that straight forward there would be no fun in it..

What are the negs going to be used for?

For exposing stamp plates, polymer stamps.

You could always use an inkjet printer and folex opaque transparency sheets. You'd maybe get a better black.

Hi Nik

How about cutting vinyl or any similar opaque material as a neg?


Arthur

too small to weed and probably too intricate for a plotter - stamp size. If it was possible the material to use would be something like amber.

Little Oki arrived - still no where near good enough at producing a negative.

Is smoke supposed to come out of the top of the printer when printing? It smells like burning electronics..

I have never seen a printer print as fast as this little thing - really happy with it for the price but I still cant make negatives.

Just tried printing on some Acetate with my Richo - this is the best result so-far but still not good enough - going to order some of the opaque paper John suggested next and whilst waiting for that to arrive I will get some spray mount and work on getting the 'imageblack' film I have through the Ricoh.