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PhillipAnthony Offline • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #1 · New Printer Advice Needed In a nutshell, I am going to take a sledge hammer to my Epson R2400. I'm serious. I do nothing but waste my time every time I go to make a print. Enough! My question is this: What would be a good or better replacement printer for doing color work. I do a lot of Photoshop and Illustrator printing and I need a printer that will give me results as good as I was getting with the R2400. The R2400 was spot-on when it printed and I would like to be able to replicate that quality. I would like to stay away from Epson printers if another brand will give me comparable quality. Any and all comments are most welcome. Thanks! Jan 30, 2013 at 08:31 PM

Sal Baker Offline • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #2 · New Printer Advice Needed If you don't need roll paper the 3880 would be a wise choice. The print quality would probably be better than the R2400, it comes with full 80ml carts, and it is amazingly maintanace-free. I haven't had a clog in 3 years on the original ink set. I never agitate the carts and I go long periods of time between printing. I haven't done a nozzle check in over a year. It's an amazing printer that's not much bigger than a 13x19 printer. Sal Jan 30, 2013 at 09:04 PM

howardm4 Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #3 · New Printer Advice Needed you may want to also look at the Epson R3000 or the new Canon Pixma-Pro's (or even the 9500 MKII) Jan 30, 2013 at 10:06 PM

PhillipAnthony Offline • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #4 · New Printer Advice Needed @Sal Baker Thanks for your comments. At one time I was a big fan of Epson printer's, but all of that has changed because of the issues I've had with the R2400. At the moment, I am looking hard at the Canon PIXMA PRO-1 and the PIXMA Pro9500 Mark II. Quite seriously, if you've never owned a R2400 and experienced the problems it is plagued with, then you are very fortunate. But I am no longer willing to give Epson the benefit of the doubt. I've been burned once and that's enough for me. I'm not trying to be a jerk about it, but I just can't see giving Epson any more of my money. I may change my mind in a day or two, but I doudt it. I sincerely appreciate your input. Jan 30, 2013 at 10:09 PM

PhillipAnthony Offline • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #5 · New Printer Advice Needed @howardm4 You must have been reading my mind because I am in fact looking at the PIXMA PRO-1. Thanks for the input. I appreciate it very much. Jan 30, 2013 at 10:10 PM

howardm4 Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #6 · New Printer Advice Needed just make sure to take the cost of the ink into account. from what I understand, the ink for the PRO series is $$$$ Jan 30, 2013 at 10:44 PM

PhillipAnthony Offline • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #7 · New Printer Advice Needed @howardm4 Ah, you just hit anotherf 'EPSON R2400' nerve. About a year ago, I thought I had an issue with 'old and expired' Epson ink. So, based on this belief, I tossed out about $350 of unused ink cartridges. I purchased another $300 dollars worth of 'fresh unexpired' ink and got the same results, so I do understand the cost of printer ink. I don't want to think of all the $$ this printer has cost me not to mention the utter frustration I've experienced in the process. I did read a review about the relative cost of the ink cartridges for the Pro-1, but if I can print and not wanna kill someone in so doing, then I will be more than happy to spent $$ on the ink cartridges. If I remember correctly, these cartridges are about $35 a pop. So for 10 cartridges, it is going to add up in a hurry. I just ordered the Pro-1 and I'm already feeling better. Thanks for pointing out the cost of the ink cartridges. Jan 30, 2013 at 10:58 PM

Sal Baker Offline • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #8 · New Printer Advice Needed I understand your concern about Epson clogging and ink waste issues. All of my previous Epsons needed regular head cleanings which depleted the small carts faster than I could replace them. For some reason the 3880 is different. It's well regarded around the world for being a clog-free machine. If my 3 year old 3880 died I would have no problem buying another one. Unfortunately I need/ want to print larger, and for that I'm past thinking about buying a wide format Epson. Canon pro printers have user replaceable, affordable heads, automatically agitate the pigment cartridges, and defer clogs with redundant nozzles that eventually can be replaced easily. In the 17-inch category nothing beats the 3880 IMO, but for everything else Canon would be my next printer of choice. Sal Jan 31, 2013 at 02:07 AM

SSISteve Offline • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #9 · New Printer Advice Needed Good luck with your new printer. I can say I had a Epson 2400 for years and it was perfect. Never had a problem and upgraded to the 3800 as I wanted to print larger. I am sure many others have had great experience with Epson and you will find others that would never buy a Canon printer again. Personally, I would not condemn a printer company because I had a problem with one. That would be like someone having a problem with a Nikon or Canon and thinking that all others are worthless. Jan 31, 2013 at 03:12 AM

Peter Figen Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #10 · New Printer Advice Needed In all the posts above from the OP, I never once found out just what was the source of his frustration, other than he had problems. Just a little curious if there wasn't some sort of user error going on that could have been easily averted. The Epsons are generally very reliable and for several years now have had the best, most consistent printer manufaturer supplied profiles available. Jan 31, 2013 at 08:41 AM

Phil McNeil Offline • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #11 · New Printer Advice Needed At my school we run 3800s hard, students print all day almost every day, and we have had an excellent experience with them overall. They are workhorses. Like any printer there a few known issues out there, for the 3800 you can occasionally get some Platten Gap issues causing the print head to strike the paper and smear ink, a simple height adjustment and it goes away. The point being, most printers will show a few issues with heavy use, and you have to do a little web research sometimes to figure out what hints and tricks will overcome them. I have had massive paper handling issues with an HP printer that one of my photographers had for a long time, and I have been down on HP as a result, so I understand the bad experience souring you towards Epson. But we have such good luck with them, and the prints look great, so I am an Epson guy now. Jan 31, 2013 at 09:30 AM

anthonygh Offline • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #12 · New Printer Advice Needed The R2800 was old technology (basically the same machine as the R1800...that other disaster area!!). I replaced it with two printers...the Canon Pro9000 for dye based prints and the R2880 for pigment. Both have been excellent. If you don't need pigment then I would recommend the Canon as the carts are easily refilled with 3rd party ink....like many on here I use German OCP and the cost is a fraction of that of sticking with Canon carts. Were I to do a lot of pigment printing I would definitely chose the R3880 due to the ink costs. The R2880 produces beautiful prints...but at a price!! Going back to the R2400.......I ended up using my R1800 with 3rd part dye inks.....it dramatically reduced the clogging and the results were pretty nice. But It still clogged a bit and when the chance of a cheap new Pro9000 came along I dumped it.... Jan 31, 2013 at 10:31 AM

WebDog Offline • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #13 · New Printer Advice Needed Having had the HP B9180 for years (now non-working) it was a great printer but as the market seems to favour Epson, paper was always available with profiles for Epson but not for the HP, and there were papers that refused to work with HP pigment ink, but fine with Epson pigment in, go figure... Reading reviews over the past year my choice today would be the Epson 3880, or the newer 3000 despite its smaller ink tanks. Oddly, the Canon Pro1 seems to get very few reviews. Jan 31, 2013 at 01:29 PM

PhillipAnthony Offline • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #14 · New Printer Advice Needed @Peter Figen You are correct in that I did not point out the issues that were causing the frustration I was having with the R2400. I was only seeking advice for its replacement. However, here is the background on this printer. For several months after I purchased the R2400 it was absolutely perfect. It was my first printer photographic printer. At one time I owned a gift card business and it was used to print all of those cards and it never let me down. The colors were vibrant and alive. I was truly amazed at what this printer was capable of. For the record, this was my second 'new' R2400: the first arrived DOA. Then the banding began. I spent hours on the phone with Epson rep's trying to get this resolved: Clean the heads, Check head alignment ad infinitum. One solution (at that time) was that the Epson Printer Utility while showing ink levels to be more than adequate, was not accurate at all. I would just replace the cart with the least amount of ink and that would usually get me back to printing decently again. That did not always work, but oftentimes it did. Another 'solution' was switching out the Photo Black for the Matte Black. Again, it was a guessing game. With a bit of luck, those issues could be solved once you had some idea of what to look for. Looking back, the Epson tech's were never quite sure how to resolve those issues. It was info I gleaned from the web that helped the most. However, these issues paled in comparison to the paper sensor or paper roller issue that has plagued this printer for years. What happens is that when you press the software Print button, the printer ejects the paper out onto the outfeed tray followed by the blinking paper jam light. So you just shut down the printer and try again and again until you either give up or you finally get a print. I have tried to figure out precisely where the paper sensor is to hopefully fix this, but so far my efforts have been in vain. I have tried canned air to clear things that I cannot see. I have also tried another suggestion (from Epson and others) which is spraying the center portion of a watercolor (rough) paper with isopropyl alcohol and running this through the printer several times in an attempt to clear the paper sensor and clean the the roller(s). Looking into the feed assembly you will see very little paper residue so I cannot determine what could be obscuring the paper sensor. The printer is always covered with its original large plastic cover when not in use. What I have read in several places, is that if the rollers do not deliver the paper past the sensor in a pre-set amout of milli-seconds, the printer will eject the paper and cause the paper jam light to begin blinking even though there really is not a paper jam. In short, I have tried every suggestion I have come across to repair this issue and have little to show for my efforts. This morning I decided to go back over the User's Guide and go through the setup page-by-page, step-by-step. The only reason that I did this was because I planned on selling the printer and wanted to be certain that I had not overlooked anything. I have a conscience and would not knowingly deceive anyone to make a buck. The reward I got for my efforts was that the paper fed partially into the printer and then the printer began printing onto the platen. This has never happened in the past. Last evening I printed out two test photos (with banding, of course) and both printed quite easily, which surprised me, but at least the printer printed on the paper and not the platen. What happened this morning was new behavior, but again, I never really know how this printer is going to behave. Selling this printer is now out of the question. I can't even begin to tell you how much time I have spent trying to get this printer to do what it was designed to do. Time to move on to a new printer. Here are some links on the paper feeding issue that you can peruse if interested: Epson 2400, never ending problem of feeding @ http://tech.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/Epson-R2400/message/1310 Epson R2400 keeps ejecting paper @ http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/490120 Prob printing from an Epson R2400 from a MacBookPro @ http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/prob-printing-epson-r2400-macbookpro-t3123023.html From Epson on the the paper out issue @ Another paper feed issue @ http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/printer/70430 Thanks for your post. Jan 31, 2013 at 10:54 PM

PhillipAnthony Offline • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #15 · New Printer Advice Needed @SSISteve I am pleased to know that your R2400 served you as well as it did. Mine did not. Whether my R2400 is a lemon or not I am not certain, but judging from the links that I have provided below (in another post), there are others who have experienced this same problem. So I have to believe that mine is not an isolated incident. In addition, the Epson rep's that I spent time with on the phone could not resolve the issues I had back at the onset. And, BTW, this is actually my second R2400. The first was DOA, which could have been an omen of what was to come, but hindsight is always 20-20. As to your comments that am condemning Epson because of my problems with the R2400, let me say this. With all due respect, you are free to characterize my experience in any manner that pleases you. As far as I'm concerned if I were to purchase another Epson I would only be rewarding them for selling me a non-functional printer whose issues their own rep's could not help resolve. On a similar vein: We recently traded off a new VW Beetle because it was plagued with problems that the VW dealer could not overcome. The VW dealer manager went so far as to tell my wife that she should contact VW to get a refund on all of the money she spent on repairs. She did just that and for her efforts VW sent her a $1K voucher towards the purchase of a new VW. She now drives a Grand Cherokee. Sound familiar? I truly wish I had had the good fortune with my R2400 that you had with yours. All the time and money I have spent trying to make this printer do what it should have been doing all along has been in vain. I have contacted Epson about this and I do hope to hear back from them, but I am not holding my breath. Thanks for your comments. Jan 31, 2013 at 11:27 PM

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