Printer Wanted

[guzzijim]

Wanted Epson 3880 or possibly 2880

[Jonny2morsos]

You may well have looked bit there are some fairly heavily discounted deals on the 2880 at the moment. Fotosense were the cheapest in January.

[stcstc]

the difference between the 2 of them is quite a bit

in terms of running costs the ink cost about a 1/3 less on the 3880 , which can make a big difference

but

the next step to the next printer in the range can save you over 2/3 of the ink price

either the 4880 or new 4900 will save you this when using 220ml ink carts

but also can save on paper by using 17" rolls

[loch ryan]

I have an Epsom 9880 for sale, with a pile of papers which might well interest you.

[johnwphotography]

Look out on a well known e-auction site for ex Max Spielman Hewlett Packard Z3100 24" roll printers, approx £600. Any Epson is a liability when the inevitable printhead fails. With their roll printers you are looking at a 4 figure engineers job; thats why so many are for sale as spares. For the HP it is as simple as replacing an A4 printer cartridge , about £55. Spare paper roll holder bars are £36+vat so ideal to run paper and canvas. My costs on a 20x24 print are less than an A3 on an Epson R1800 desk photo printer.

[stcstc]

actually thats not quite correct

i replaced the head in one of my 44" Epsons recently the total bill was 350 euros, so less that 300 stg


its a myth that they cost an arm and a leg, and it only took 1 hr to do

[johnwphotography]

Surprised to hear of an economic Epson repair these days, but good for you, which model? My info was from a very reliable local printer engineer I consulted about HPs after being tipped off by Steve Goodall that HP was the one to go for. Steve has a long photographic retailing history like me. I have lost count of how many friends and customers Epson A3s have been binned as economically unrepairable after 2or 3 years amateur use, and believe me I did try to source spares for the 3 or 4 I have dumped. Barrie Thomas, sadly no longer with us, was saying long ago HP were doing a huge amount of work in the late 90s/ early noughties to try to overtake Epson and was the one to watch. Max Spielman did replace over 200 of those HPs that now fill said e-auction site either from themselves or done up by resellers, with the very latest Epsons from DCP. So the advise is to take your pick with caution. Talk to large format printer engineers and seek their advice. Any other FF members with anything to add please input now. I do hope the originator of the thread finds this helpful, I think it is well worth thinking big in printers when looking for the best buy. The money the used HPs are going at is the same as you would pay for a new A3 2880 Epson, and substantially less than the price of the A2 Epsons all of which are a non starter for canvases or rolls. The HP does not need rip software and has auto profiling and I would highly recommend them.

[stcstc]

i run a 7800, 9800 and 11880.

there are some subtle things differing between all the 3 main manufacturers

for example the hp large format printers roll feed is awkward in a production facility, as the load from the back , meaning you either move the machine or dont have it against a wall, this isnt a big deal when doing limited runs etc, but for me would be a complete pain

another is the longevity is longer on the hp, but the compromise to gain longevity is colour gamut. I prefer the colour gamut

auto profiling, is a joke on all of the main brand printers, real profiling is not just an automatic mechanical process, it takes a skill and a trained eye to do well.

there are lots more issues but these are some

i would say any A2 printer is useless for canvas wraps as the realistic max print size is 12 inches on the long side.


there will be people who advocate each of the big brands of printers. each to their own.

[Framerpicture]

I run and Epson 9800 and an Canon Ipf8100- Both great machines although the colour gamut on the Cannon is far greater than the Epson but it is a slightly newer machine.

I have had to change print heads on both machines in the last year . The Epson required an engineer visit and a total bill of £900.00. The Cannon was orderd on line and fitted in minutes myself at a cost about £450.00.

From a Ink point of view they cost about the same to run.

[CanvasChris]

The Canon was orderd on line and fitted in minutes myself at a cost about £450.00.

Was that for 1 head? there are 2 in this baby and the cheapest i've found is £295 +vat each. Had to put 2 in my iPF8000 a while ago...OUCH!

If you want to use photo black or mat black, then the epsons have to be drained and the tank swapped, where as the Canon has both online. (caveat: not sure re the 38**)

For the size of printer you are after, have you considered the iPF5100?? it's a 17" It has the same 12 inks as the iPF8100,the same heads ... and the same wide gamut. http://www.canon.co.uk/Images/iPF5100_i ... 505810.pdf

[johnwphotography]

Interesting input re replacement printheads being altogether vastly more expensive than HP. OK it does have 6, but Epsons and Canons only ever go on one of the shades. Does anyone else use big HPs? The input suggests buyers may not have even considered HPs, certainly I was initially inclined to look at Canon until pointed in the HP direction by Steve and the Luminous Landscape review. Yes, definately A1 size has a substantially greater commercial potential, Julie at Lion said they sell far far far more 24". I checked on ebay, Max Spielman in Chester have no Z3100s on offer currently. They did buy 230 Epsons recently so there should be more coming up. They are being snapped up by companies in the Manchester area and sold on as refurbished with a 90 day guaruntee for over £1000 compared to Max's £600! So guys these are worth looking out for as a good step up from an A3 photoprinter and very easy to run, even on an occasional basis. Yes, changing paper rolls is awkward on all printers, and you do need to pull the Designjet forward at one side to slip the roll in from the back, not causing me any problems.
This thread has not had any input from Guzzijm recently, I did check his previous posts to find he had an Epson 3880 last October, I wonder if it has, shall we say, expired. Do let us know please.

[The Crofter]

If you want to use photo black or mat black, then the epsons have to be drained and the tank swapped, where as the Canon has both online. (caveat: not sure re the 38**)

I have been running a 3800 for a couple of years and the quality is spot on. Very cheap (ish) to run due to the tank size and the initial price included approx £450 of ink. The 3880 replacement has some extra features but not worth the upgrade cost. However anyone getting a new machine would probably do well to get the later model.

Gloss/Matt switching is via software and triggered automatically when chosing matt paper. Process takes around 2 minutes and consumes approx 60p of ink. All cartdridges are fitted to the printer so no external swap required. This is very different to my old 2400 that required a cartdrige change and line purging that cost way more especially as the tanks were only 18ml (3800 is 80ml).

Current ink price for the 38x0 is about £50 inc vat & pp. The only downside may be lack of roll support.

[guzzijim]

[quote=
This thread has not had any input from Guzzijm recently, I did check his previous posts to find he had an Epson 3880 last October, I wonder if it has, shall we say, expired. Do let us know please.[/quote]

A friend at my photographic club was looking for a printer, my 3880 is working like a dream.

[iggam]

Hi, I am a fine art printer (so low printing volumes) and I have two Canon iPF printers, an iPF5000 and an iPF8100. Both are excellent machines in terms of print quality, but the 5000 (and all the iPFX000 series) had very bad documentation. However there is a very useful wiki here: http://canonipf.wikispaces.com/ which contains much more informations than you can find on the user manual.
Regarding the printheads (yes there are two in each printer) I had to replace both on my iPF8100, while on my 5000 (which is older) I never had to. According to other users printheads seem to fail in pair.

Another thing you have to consider when purchasing a printer is the cost of ink you will waste in cleaning cycles. It can be significant if your print volumes are small.

Stefano

PS: of course I am also an apprentice framer, thanks everyone on the forum for the knowledge you are sharing!

[johnwphotography]

Thanks for more info, I am relieved to hear your 3880 is giving sterling service, they are good printers. Many of my old club mates use them but never print larger than A3. Perhaps they should have bought A3 and the later 2880 would be a good choice. The only one of my old clubmates with commercial intentions soon realised its limitations and is in awe of my HP. Ten years ago Epson A3 photoprinters were the only ones to produce acceptable results for club photographers at a time when early Canon A4 and A3 models used bubblejet technology lifted from their Starwriter mini typewriters and printer roll calculators, but at least the printheads, then termed by Canon " ink tanks" were user replaceable. Curiously with the A4 HPs of the time every HP ink cartridge had a built in print head, and the photographic print quality was poor.
The legacy of the early digital days is that Epson is still the brand most photographers go for without even looking at the other 2. Many of my former customers ( I retired from photo retail 2 years ago and moved here) despaired of Epson head failures and were delighted on moving onto Canon. The piezo system used in Epsons is more complex hence the expense, so do bear it in mind when making recomendations. I hope that the Forum will continue to develop the theme of printhead replacement costs, an interesting issue that tends to get overlooked when making decisions. It was a big score point for me.
Now that we do know what your colleagues requirement is, lets hope that one comes up here for him. The 3880 might justify the extra cost if it is going to do a lot of work.If I remember the specs correctly one of the Epsons may be better for panoramas which may be relevant to your colleague. Its certainly what I would want to photograph in your area, I have very fond memories of the view from the top of Merrick and the wierd World War One monorail in Glentrool.


John

[guzzijim]

k and the wierd World War One monorail in Glentrool.


John

Tell me more please.

Jim