gdanmitchell
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ilkka_nissila wrote:
The P900 comes with a full set of cartridges that are the same as if you bought them separately. The size is 50 ml per cartridge and the number of cartridges is 10, if I recall correctly, it also comes with a spare service cartridge (not 100% sure about that). The P3880 did have larger cartridges (80 ml each of 9 cartridges). In the 3880's case about half of the printer cost was in the ink that came with it. With the P900, the full set of inks that comes with the printer constitutes about 40% of the printer cost, so it's not quite as good a deal in terms of how much ink you get but it's still a major part of the price of the printer. When deciding if one should buy a new print head of an old printer or buy a new one, this should be factored in.
The P900 does take up a considerable part of the ink cartridges (50%?) supplied when the tubes are filled with ink, but this filling up would be needed if you buy a new print head as well. While you are correct that a new set of inks is needed soon after the purchase (depending on how much you print), it's not like the consumer printers where you have to change some cartridges every few pages you print.
I think that a lot of people must have gotten the 3880 and used the inks too slowly, so having slightly smaller canisters might make sense for both the customer and Epson, although I am sure that a lot of people online will call it greed and a conspiracy. But 80 ml cartridges really are quite big. Thousands and thousands of A4 prints.
Yes and no. I've only purchased one additional set of cartridges and have printed a ridiculous amount of prints with my P900 in 10 months. Half of my cartridges in my printer are still the originals.
The print quality of the older printers such as 3880 is not comparable with the P900. I've compared the same photos printed on the two using the same paper (usually premium luster but some archival matte as well) and while the 3880 was good when new, I think the P900 is just wonderful. The software provided is also much nicer and more advanced. With the 3880 the paper was filled on the side of the track and the printer would often yank it so that it doesn't quite go straight (there is a little tab that can be turned to reduce the issue for larger papers), while the P900 picks the paper symmetrically and doesn't have this issue. The printer is also told which paper you are using from the touch panel, and if the driver settings differ in paper type or size, the driver complains about it so that you don't accidentally print with the wrong settings. Many such small things which add up to a nicer printing experience.
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Two things.
Thanks for clarifying the cartridge sizes on the P900. My experience has been with the old 7900 and my P9000 44” printer, and both of those came with reduced-capacity cartridges that were only intended for setting up the machine. I’m glad to hear that Epson may be supplying more useful ink cartridges on some of the other machines!
I also agree that newer printers are better in a number of useful ways. One other example: Switching black inks on my old 7900 was an onerous, wasteful process. It is much more streamlined and effective on the P9000. The newer printers also has some useful routines that automatically run head checks and so on, so it makes sense to just leave the printer on. There have been improvements in the quality and number of inks, too — these can improve print quality, though the differences can be quite subtle.
These are all relevant to the question of whether to replace a print head or just move to a new printer. As I mentioned earlier, replacing the head and keeping the old printers running has its attractions, but you do end up with a good print head in an old machine that is at least somewhat inferior to newer models and in which other components are getting old and are more likely to have problems, too. (That’s why I ended up getting rid of my 7900 when its head died — replacing it rather than repairing.)
Crazy story about getting rid of the old. Some people take them to the dump, believe it or not. That hurts… and it costs money — possibly truck/trailer rental plus the dump fee, and it isn’t really a one-person job. I found a recycling place that would have taken mine, but that was also going to cost. (I would have paid it, but it also would require rending a truck/trailer, etc.) Then I happened to run into a photographer friend who mentioned that he had put his old 60” (!) printer in front of his house to have it picked up… and someone just came by and took it! So I put my old 7900 out in front of our house, and added a note explaining that while it was free it also wasn’t working right. One day later a guy with a pickup truck full of stuff that he appeared to have picked up elsewhere came by, tied it to the back of his truck on its back (yikes!), and hauled it off.
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