Don't worry, I had to Google it as well. CISS is the abbreviation for continuous ink supply system. It's a number of tanks that reside somewhere outside the printer with tubes connected to the print head. These systems are required for printing large formats where you need lots of ink (in relative terms) for one print. If you would have the ink in the print head carrier you would need more power and have more forces working on it when you carried such a big mass.

The beauty of the system is that you have large tanks compared to the standard cartridges. Another appeal is that you can fill them with "cheap" replacement inks (and these are dirt cheap compared to the cartridges from manufacturers). The question is if the quality of the ink is comparable to the original and/or if it does damage the delicate print heads.

Hope that makes it clear and isn't complete nonsense. This is how I understood it (and yes, I had heard of the systems before but didn't know that they are called CISS).

Prieni

Being on A4 print number 6 tonight I know exactly what you mean!
Once the novelty wears off a bit I hope that I can restrain myself and use the high quality printing service that I was lucky enough to find. There I pay 1.11 EUR for A4 size (20 x 30 cm, 8" x 12") on photo paper, 2.12 EUR on metallic paper (that looks fab!). Certainly not the cheapest but I get exactly the colours as I want them and constant high quality.

I'm not sure of the exact cost of printing yet, but I'm confident that the printing service will be cheaper.

A more economical printer will only make sense if you can get the same quality prints out of it. Otherwise I think it's just a waste of money.

Prieni

I wouldn't want to go down that route. I have fared well with the original inks. However, looking at the price of the replacement inks compared to that amount of original ink it might well be worth a try. But only if you are printing a lot.

I would think that the danger of buggering up the printer is not too great. What I don't know is how good the replacement inks are. Do they fade quicker (Epson is quite good on longevity of prints)?

I'll stick to Epson ink and paper and I'm not printing enough to get a CISS. But it certainly looks tempting.

Prieni

I now have the Epson R800 and have printed two photos on Epson premium glossy photo paper.
I'm happy to say that it's brilliant so far. Cannot find fault with the prints and it seems that the colours are spot on using the R800 profile when printing from Photoshop. Of course it also is quite a bit quicker and quieter than the old one.

From all the other posts in this thread I think that all of the major brands are able to turn out photo printers capable of high quality prints.

Prieni

Give or take a week...

Same here as Tel and Matt.

Jon, Firefox is also able to interpret colour profiles. As you have to switch that on, though, and most users are probably not even aware of different profiles, I convert to sRGB for WEB posting.

Prieni

Excellent shot, love it!

Prieni

Good series, #1 being my favourite. 3 and 4 have no light left in the sky but I like the speeding ships.
With #1 I like that you see a bit of the city.

And, of course, the angle of view is far too narrow.

Prieni

I just spent 10 minutes or so penning my answer that now, that the second incarnation of this post has disappeared is lost in the eternal ether of the internet.

In short:
1.) I suggested manual use of layers and layer masks
2.) I suggested looking at "enfuse" from PanoTools (Google will help)
3.) Use gradient layers and mode soft light to brighten or darken portions of an image.

I'm p***ed off at myself as I thought "better copy what you write when you're finished as one of the two post might have disappeared"
My old pal Alzheimer kept me from doing so...

Prieni

Thanks all!
Yes, it is breathtaking scenery. Most of the island is inaccessible (or only by walking trails for more than a day), so the helicopter trip really is a "must".

Prieni