Epson Stylus Pro 9000 - Worth it?

[jars121]

G'day all,

I've currently got an HP Designjet 5000, which I bought in a non-working condition for $50. I'm pretty handy when it comes to machines of this nature, so I've managed to figure out what's wrong with it...the main board. Normally I'd stick it out and get it up and running, but the main board is just too expensive to justify it.

There's an Epson Stylus Pro 9000 for sale just around the corner from me, and I'm contemplating selling the Designjet and getting the Epson. The Epson is in much better condition, and comes with a whole bunch of inks and paper rolls. My only concern is that the Epson is almost 10 years old now, and I'm not sure how the quality will stack up compared to more modern printers.

On paper, it looks pretty good: 6 colours, 720dpi, etc. Has anyone here ever used a 9000? Any reasons not to get it?

Cheers everyone!

[false_Aesthetic]

I think the issues with both of them are the smaller color gamut than something like the Epson k3 inkset or ultrachrome HDR.

Also, IIRC the 9000 was designed for POP signage. Which probably means that the inks for the 9k are far from archival.

[jp]

The 9000 you will likely have to use Windows 98/XP or Mac OS9. I have a friend with the 9000's little brother 7000.

Nothing wrong with 720dpi.

It should be dirt cheap, like you're paying for the paper pretty much.

[Walter Foscari]

As said if it's cheap and in good shape it may be worth it. It's still a capable machine especially if you turn it into a B&W only printer with Cone inks or Ebony-6 from MIS.

[Michael Gordon]

Compared to newer Epson's: Print speed will be SLOW!; resolution is inferior to newer printers (720dpi may be insufficient to prevent banding/posterization with some images); the printhead could be damaged or nearing the end of its useful life (expensive to replace); and as mentioned, color gamut will be narrower.

It does make a good printer for converting to monochrome inks, but print speeds will still be slow. Unless it's near free, I'd invest my $$ in a newer printer.

[jars121]

Thanks for all the input everyone. The sale is on eBay, with a starting bid of $AU250. I don't think that's too expensive, considering it has spare inks and 3 rolls of paper, as well as having new printheads installed the last time it was used. I only shoot B&W these days, so if it will handle B&W well I'm not too concerned about the minimal amount of colour printing I will be doing. I'll do some more research and update this thread later on today.

[Tyler Boley]

without an alternative monochromatic inkset, B&W will be the 9000's weakest ability. Only one black, very little GCR, all your grays will be CMY builds, difficult to mange well and a fair amount of metamerism failure...

[jars121]

Hmmmm ok, that just about rules out the Epson 9000 then. There is a working Designjet 5000 for sale in my area, which shouldn't go for more than a couple hundred dollars. It makes sense to get it, then use the broken one for parts. However, I'm starting to see that these old (I didn't realise the DJ 5000 is a decade old now!) printers aren't really suitable for fine art photographic printing. Can anyone recommend a slightly more modern (approximately 5 years old) printer that offers a good gamut, with several blacks, that I could find second hand? I'm thinking something along the lines of the Epson Stylus Pro 9800 or a Canon imageprograf of some sort.

Thanks!

[jars121]

UPDATE

Just another quick update. I stumbled across an eBay listing for a Canon imageprograf IPF6100. This is only a 24" printer, but I can't foresee myself needing to print bigger than that 99% of the time. This printer was in good condition, still operating perfectly...for $200. Looking at past eBay sales, this seems like an extremely good price. At first I was a little apprehensive, but I've checked the seller's other listings, and the seller appears to be a design studio that is liquidating all it's printing machines. Hopefully I'll be able to pick it up this afternoon. I'm waiting to hear back from Hongsam inks in China as to the prices of their compatible IPF pigment inks.