Large Format Printer Reliability - Epson or Canon?

R1200GS wrote in post #15529629
We have 7 4900's at work a while now. No clogging issues but one of them drifts quite a bit.

Wow, nice throughput, in which case I'm guessing they get used a lot and don't have time to clog; but the older Epsons you can leave them cold for months.

Kolor-Pikker wrote in post #15529654
Wow, nice throughput, in which case I'm guessing they get used a lot and don't have time to clog; but the older Epsons you can leave them cold for months.

Mine and a couple of the others get used a ton everyday. The others don't get used nearly as much. And by that I mean a couple of times a week so yeah, they really don't have time to clog up. We also have a 64 inch printer. I think it's the GS6000.

My previous Epson (an 800?) used to clog a lot and eventually died when the enforced continual head cleaning filled the waste ink "nappy". But touch wood my present 2880 does not, its been very good for a number of years now. It would seem that Epson have overcome the reputation they had for clogging.

Personally I'd be happy with a printer from Canon or Epson, both seem to produce reliable products. I'd like to see Epson use larger ink cartridges and offer us recycling of used carts, but thats a side issue.

B&H has a price of $450 for a full set of 80ml 3880 inks, not bad given the 4900 200ml inks cost $950 in all.

I use an Epson 9900 and 9800. They have both been absolute TANKS. Our Epson 9800 is probably 6-7 years old and still runs like a champ. Meanwhile I've KILLED about 6 HPZ3200's. We run printers ragged at my work. The color fidelity with Epson is phenomenal as well.

Bought my 9800 back when it was state of the art, I wonder how many rolls I put throught it now? The pro Epsons are invincible. I think mine will keep working for another forever and a half.

A friend of mine bought, I think it was a 4800, that has been around, I mean changed hands about 4 times in various businesses (funny, but detective work on my part revealed that I knew all of them) and man was it beat up as hell, what they didn't do to it. Works like a champ.

Lowner wrote in post #15531689
My previous Epson (an 800?) used to clog a lot and eventually died when the enforced continual head cleaning filled the waste ink "nappy". But touch wood my present 2880 does not, its been very good for a number of years now. It would seem that Epson have overcome the reputation they had for clogging.

Personally I'd be happy with a printer from Canon or Epson, both seem to produce reliable products. I'd like to see Epson use larger ink cartridges and offer us recycling of used carts, but thats a side issue.

I hear your Richard - I think both Epson and Canon make fine mainstream and pro printers.........kind of like Ford vs. Chevy for pickup trucks, Ginger vs. MaryAnne . Can't go wrong with either - printers that is.

The 80ml carts of the 3880 appeal to me also. I've been saving the empties from my R1800 hoping they will offer some sort of recycle deal, but as you say they don't seem to be interested. Glad to hear your 2880 is going strong.

We ran the wheels off an Epson R1800, thousand of event prints. The ink diaper indicator finally went off & shut down the printer, we reset it & ran it for another 6 or 8 months in a boot tray in case it leaked. It never did. We saved the cartridges in the hopes that somebody would recycle them, too, have a couple boxes with ~600 carts between them.

Finally upgraded to an Epson R2000 about 2 years ago. It's even better than the R1800 and will take 13" paper. Nicer colors, doesn't clog as much as the R1800, ink carts are bigger so your costs are lowered some.

Recommended.

One thing that we considered with our R1800/R2000 purchases: we like the clear gloss overlay. You can frame without having to use glass & without laminating the print. The 38xx doesn't have that.

FeXL wrote in post #15532341
We ran the wheels off an Epson R1800, thousand of event prints. The ink diaper indicator finally went off & shut down the printer, we reset it & ran it for another 6 or 8 months in a boot tray in case it leaked. It never did. We saved the cartridges in the hopes that somebody would recycle them, too, have a couple boxes with ~600 carts between them.

Finally upgraded to an Epson R2000 about 2 years ago. It's even better than the R1800 and will take 13" paper. Nicer colors, doesn't clog as much as the R1800, ink carts are bigger so your costs are lowered some.

Recommended.

One thing that we considered with our R1800/R2000 purchases: we like the clear gloss overlay. You can frame without having to use glass & without laminating the print. The 38xx doesn't have that.

The 3880 does not have the GLOSS COAT (ink)? I did not know that and will have to re-examine the specs on the machine. Thanks for pointing that out FeXL .

When you mentioned "boot" tray did you mean just a simple tray in which the printer sits, or are you from G.Britain and you were printing from the trunk of you car? - Stu

sapearl wrote in post #15532362
The 3880 does not have the GLOSS COAT (ink)? I did not know that and will have to re-examine the specs on the machine. Thanks for pointing that out FeXL .

When you mentioned "boot" tray did you mean just a simple tray in which the printer sits, or are you from G.Britain and you were printing from the trunk of you car? - Stu

Hooboy, well, the HG2 inks were used by some Epson printers and ended with the R2000, they had the gloss coat ink because it was a period of time when pigment inks weren't impressive when used with many paper types. The R2400 went over to the K3 (triple black) system to overcome this, and looks much more natural when used with matte papers, but some people still prefer the gloss coat inks for glossy prints.

The new Ultrachrome HDR inks of the x900 series is said to combine the best of both sets.

Assuming you use a high quality glossy paper, such as Canson-infinity Platine, you shouldn't get gloss differential even with the K3 inks.

I used a 3880 at work for a while. In addition to the many positive comments here, also consider the wealth of paper profiles available, both for Epson and third-party papers. I found the ones I used to be easy to match with a few iterations of calibration and profiling my display. Viewing prints under a Solux 4700K light at a reasonable distance gave me calibration targets that were easily achievable, like 140 cd/m2 and 5750°K white point. Color and luminance was spot on compared to my Eizo display.

I am in the market for a printer again and will probably purchase this printer.

kirk

I am strictly amateur, but I like to do my own printing. I usually make 13 x 19 prints and mat them to fit an 18 x 24 frame. I am now running out of wall space in my house. Going to a 17 inch printer would be a large order of magnitude increase in cost of all components, including the larger house I would have to buy.

All that being said, I really like my Pixma Pro 9000 Mk II. For my use it is fast enough, and the quality is outstanding. I have never had a jam or clog. In addition to the pictures in my house, I have numerous prints in local offices and friends' houses, and everyone praises the quality of the print. Prior to this purchase, I bought an HP K850 pro, and while the quality was not bad, the interface was horrible, and the feeding was only marginal. I have relegated that to document printing only.

When I win the lottery, I might consider moving up in size!

sapearl wrote in post #15532362
The 3880 does not have the GLOSS COAT (ink)? I did not know that and will have to re-examine the specs on the machine. Thanks for pointing that out FeXL .

When you mentioned "boot" tray did you mean just a simple tray in which the printer sits, or are you from G.Britain and you were printing from the trunk of you car? - Stu

K-P talked about gloss differential in a post above. For us, that's less an issue than having a print with good "usability". The only thing we use our R2000 for is event photography, sports. Most of these images are going to be put up on a wall. They're going to be handled by dozens of grubby little hands and, with a quick wipe of a barely damp cloth, they'll be more or less clean. I don't know that I'd try that on a print without an overcoat.

For the few that are actually going to see a picture frame, there's no need to put glass in the frame to protect the image. We use that as a selling point. Anything else we print (16" & larger) that's not fine art paper, gets laminated so there's no need for that clear gloss overcoat.

K-P also mentioned the high gloss look. While that's nice enough in itself, we actually print most of our event images on Epson Premium Luster. The finished product just feels richer than a straight glossy photo.

Literally a plastic boot tray, the sort of thing you'd place by your door for muddy footwear. Fit the footprint of the printer nicely, had about a one inch lip, would have contained lots of spills.

Reason we did that was the R1900 had been out for some time and we were hoping its successor was due soon. The R1900 hadn't exactly received rave reviews so we didn't want to spend money on technology a couple years old. Sure enough, a few months later the R2000 was announced, I read a few reviews & ordered one.

I use both canon and Epson (ipf8300, 7800, 3880) and they are all great printers. The canon ink is cheaper and goes further but you have to replace the heads so it all about evens out in usage costs. Quality in the newer canons is but better than it used to be and is in my option equal to the quality that the epsons turn out.

kirkt wrote in post #15532937
I used a 3880 at work for a while. In addition to the many positive comments here, also consider the wealth of paper profiles available, both for Epson and third-party papers. I found the ones I used to be easy to match with a few iterations of calibration and profiling my display. Viewing prints under a Solux 4700K light at a reasonable distance gave me calibration targets that were easily achievable, like 140 cd/m2 and 5750°K white point. Color and luminance was spot on compared to my Eizo display.

I am in the market for a printer again and will probably purchase this printer.

kirk

Eizo display - very nice Kirk . I finally upgraded myself this past year but couldn't afford the Eizo. Ended with the Dell 24" Ultrasharp which has been quite good. That's my main monitor and I run the menus on a smaller/older 19" screen on the right.

Likely I'll be ordering the 3880 in the next couple of days. The repairs I attempted on my R1800 didn't work out the way I wanted.

I got power restored and eliminated the (power-down) short - there was still some moisture near the ribbon cable connection I didn't see - but the print head is still banding and uneven, even with new carts in. That tells me that after 7+ years it's pretty well shot. The cleaning cycle no longer seems to have any good effect.