Having read a lot on the net and in magazines on the Epson R2400, the Canon 9500 and the Hp 9180 (and newer Hp 8030), I still would like some real life feed back.
I use a Canon 5D with good lenses. Monitor is calibrated and I am willing to let me make some printer profiles when necessary.
I expect professional print quality both in colour as in b/w. Glossy prints have to be good. B/w prints have to be B/w prints... I will print regularly but far not enough to need larger ink cartridges as in the Epson 3800.
Price from the printer is not an issue as long as it is not more than the price of the aforementioned printers. Print cost is on the long term important and for now it isn't very clear to me which one does best.
Which one would you advice me to buy and with which paper.
I was tempted to the Hp because of good reviews.
Edited by Frank-Starling on May 18, 2008 at 07:23 PM GMT
You left out the Epson R1900 with the newest ink formulation that gives better flesh tones plus a gloss optimizer to eliminate bronzing on glossy paper. They replaced the light black of the R2400 with the gloss optimizer, leaving the R2400 best for black & white printing and the R1900 best for glossy and color portraits.
So far there is not a printer in this size and price range that have both a gloss optimizer and a light black. That would be the ideal set up. Until then your choice must be based on what type of printing you will do.
I'm looking at the R1900 myself to compliment the Canon iPF5000 which does exhibit some bronzing on glossy prints.
I also like the R1900's ability to print borderless media in sizes 8x10 and smaller with cut sheets as well as the ability to print on CD media.
In the US the new HP is the 8850 which is very similar to the HP9180 minus the ethernet card, front panel LCD or RIP support. From what I read, It still suffers from bronzing and is slower than the others mentioned.
I would vote for the R2400 for everything, both B&W and Color.
I do mostly portraits and flat love the skin tones using the canned ICC profiles provided by Epson is their latest driver.
I also have the old R800 and the even newer 4880 - and still believe the R2400 is in a special league of its own.
My friends have the HP's and are happy with their prints of non reference subjects (non-skin tones or easily referenced color).
To each their own, but I would just check the prints yourself. Trust your eyes.
When you account for the extra ink that comes with the 3800, you'll find that the hardware cost is about the same as for the 2400. You can print 16x24 on the 3800. Moreover, the recurring costs for ink are substantially lower, you switch carts far less often, and you can switch between black inks with little waste. Consider the 3800 in lieu of the 2400.
I agree your best A3 is an A2 printer. Not that much more money, well significant between an Epson R1900 and an Epson or Canon A2, but for operational costs you can't beat an A2 printer, ink is half the cost of an A3. The iPF5000 takes roll paper and for some papers that is a good savings, less for others. Larger ink resevoirs means buying ink once a year and not having to worry about running out durring every printing session.
I found that if you pick your papers and profiles well the iPF5000 prints very clean. The stock profiles that came with the printer are almost worthless. But most manufacturer's profiles are decent, even Canon has some first rate profiles at their Learning Center, why they don't send those with the printer is beyond me.
A2 printers and larger are just not practical for everyone. The size of these printers alone is enough to scare away an apartment dweller. My Canon iPF5000 weighs in at 100 lbs. and takes up 39" x 33" x 15" of space. The ink cartridges are larger but replacing 12 cartridges @ $75.00 each can get costly.
I think the Epson R1900 and the HP B9180 are both excellent choices for the OP.
I don't think any of us are going to be able to tell you which printer is ** best **. We just don't buy that many of these things. I have the HP B9180. I went with the HP because you leave it on and it automatically does it's own maintenance. It is always ready to print. It has replaceable print heads. I have not had any printing problems in the 15 months that I have owned it. HP with sell you a 5 year support agreement for $39 ... so you know that you will have full support for 5 years. HP paper is nice and there are 3rd party paper and profiles. It has a built in ethernet port so you can just put it on your network and print from any computer (HP supplies network drivers).
There is an HP 9100 forum over on the Yahoo forums where you can get a feel for owners experiences.
I've had a good experience with this printer and will probably step up to a larger format on my next purchase.
Looking at the 2400 and 3800 myself. A little math for those interested. I'm, going off CDN$ prices, but are very, very close to US$ (off B&H)
2400
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Price C$699 (after $100 rebate)
9 ink carts supplied; full replacement cost = $144
Printer $ - First Round of Ink $ = 699-144 = $555
Cost per 13ml ink cart = $16 or $1.23/ml
3800
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Price C$1249 (after $100 rebate)
9 ink carts supplied w/full replacement cost = $537 (ouch, but...read on)
Printer $ - First Round of Ink $ = 1249-537 = $712 (hum, not much of gap vs. $555)
Cost per ml of the 80 ml ink carts = $537/9 carts = $59.67 per cart /80 ml per cart = $0.75/ml (or roughly 40% less per ml than the 2400).
At first blush, the price difference between the two printers is a bit of hesitation, until you put together the difference in ink supplied in the box and the startling price differential in ongoing ink costs.
Even if you only print 13" wide (the max the 2400 will allow) on the 17" capable 3800, you're ink savings will help pay for the $157 ($712-$555 above) difference in printer hardware pretty quickly.
If you have time/patience to wait there are refurb R2400/3800 on Epson site. From time to time Espson comes out with promotion on the refurbs (like extra 20% off) which make for a very good value
I bought mine R2400 about 2 years ago and could not be happier with my B&Ws. And my colors are quite satisfactory.
