Some pieces of equipment come along and they have it all – quality, price, reliability. I love our Epson 4900 and I love the film and ink we get from SPSI, I love the Wasatch RIP (well here I exaggerate slightly,) and I love our chip resetter.

Basically I don’t think about film any longer. I know I’ll get an Olec or KIWO direct to screen unit eventually, but for now I get all the results from my $5,000 Epson that we formerly got from our $30,000 imagesetter.

It is a bit complicated to set up the RIP, but the Wasatch is worth it, I see it outperforming any other RIP. Don’t get the cheap film. You want dimensional stability and you want it to be waterproof. Get the good black ink. You don’t want film problems in search of saving a couple bucks. One screwed up job and you’ll regret pinching that penny.

Shameless plug because he is worthy – Do business with SPSI in Minnesota if you can. Tom Codute, the owner, is an awesome guy and a stand-up guy. Buy your unit and supplies from him. You won’t regret it.

Also get a chip resetter off Ebay. Unless you have some crazy reason to print color with your Epson all the time, you don’t need color cartridges. However, the unit in doing its head cleaning will use up the color cartridges and the unit won’t run when they get empty and you’ll spend hundreds of dollars a year for nothing. The resetter fools the machine into thinking the cartridges are full when they are empty. Wonderful device. For about $20 you will save literally thousands over the life of your Epson. However, repeat, it will cause your color heads to dry up and die. If you just make film positives like us, who cares?