Epson Printers for B&W printing

[Derrick]

Does anybody have any experience printing out b&w photos using epson printers. I've been reading some articles on the net about the use of quadtone inks, Piezography system, duotone in photoshop, etc in order to get very good quality b&w prints using epson printers and their epson archival matte paper. With the latest printers like the 1290 would i still need to buy the special inks? Very confused now. Any help is appreciated.

Duotones article
Piezography article
Epson 1270 commentary
Printing B&W
Digital B&W Printing

 

[sriram]

The Lyson quad black inks are now available at Cathay. B&W prints on Lyson paper look quite good, though not close to real B&W prints.

 

[Derrick]

I'll probably have to read up more before deciding whether to get a printer. Anybody currently using the Epson Stylus Photo 830 or 1290? Any experiences to share?