Would appreciate help with choosing a higher end printer.

[bob carnie]

Its brand new.. IPFLucida Inkset ... like I mentioned I am sending papers to the vendor to make profiles to compare the unit on my papers to custom profiles.
If it works well its fantastic step as you can use any paper with it and if you own a second canon like I do then you can have profiles work on both.

I will be getting very serious about this device after I have seen its BLIND profiling abilities.

sorry do not have the name at hand, but its about $5k or slightly above. So maybe not for everyone.

Which model is that, Bob?

[Lenny Eiger]

I think you also have to look at the print quality in terms of matte vs glossy. Personally, I don't use glossy anything, I don't like it. That way I look at it is that if I wanted a darkroom print, I could just make one. Others obviously like glossy prints and that's just fine, everyone gets to make their own choice.. However, when I look at prints on the Canon, they look waxy to me... With the Epson setup, mostly for b&w, I can get a true matte. It's what I am after....

If I liked glossy I might consider Canon; I think its important to see the prints that the different machines make before buying one. Even more important to know what you are after.

Lenny

[bob carnie]

Waxy?? I have both printers Epson and Canon- IMHO the Canon is on a higher level on all counts. Matte , Rag, Glossy work perfectly with good profiling. If you are off on any machine the prints suck.

I think you also have to look at the print quality in terms of matte vs glossy. Personally, I don't use glossy anything, I don't like it. That way I look at it is that if I wanted a darkroom print, I could just make one. Others obviously like glossy prints and that's just fine, everyone gets to make their own choice.. However, when I look at prints on the Canon, they look waxy to me... With the Epson setup, mostly for b&w, I can get a true matte. It's what I am after....

If I liked glossy I might consider Canon; I think its important to see the prints that the different machines make before buying one. Even more important to know what you are after.

Lenny

[paulr]

In most cases I think anyone would have a very hard time telling the difference between well made prints from a pro Epson or Canon printer. The guy who makes my big prints has both, and I've seen the results from both. There are differences in color gamut in the outer fringes of saturation. If your work tends toward one neon tropical fish over another, this could make the choice for you.

FWIW, my printmaker prefers the Canon for advertising display work, and the Epsons for art printing. He does get more head clogs on the Epsons. But he finds the paper handling for art papers to be much better and this is a bigger deal in his workflows. He doesn't consider print quality differences to be an issue.

[John Bowen]

Harry, I don't know what Epson will replace the 3880 with. I got my info on its discontinuance here:
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/3...id=dVlEyqo1JzA

[Jim Andrada]

I have a 4880. I live in the desert. If the printer sits for a week or so I might have to futz with head cleaning for almost an hour to get the clogs cleared.

Hate the hassle but love the results. I think if I could remember to print something every day I'd be fine.

[angusparker]

The 3880 is the one Epson model that doesn't have issues with clogging.

+1. Great printer for someone like me with limited and occasional throughput. Never had any issues. Paper handling is fine for single sheet feeding. Never tried to print more than a couple of copies at once. Price to quality ratio is outstanding. I don't think it really makes sense to go bigger - better to get time on someone else's machine if you need larger formats.

[Darin Boville]

It appears the 3880 replacement will be revealed at the end of the month. The new 24" and 44" -inch versions will likely follow this fall. Don't buy now. Wait just a few more days.

--Darin

[paulr]

This is a slightly awkward time. I'd hesitate to buy a 3880 right as it's being discontinued, and I'd hesitate to buy its replacement until we've seen some long-term reviews. Epson has replaced good models with worse ones in recent years.

BTW, I just fired up my 3880 to make a couple of prints after it sat idle most of the winter. After one head cleaning it was good as new. This would have been a pipe dream with my previous Epson and Canon consumer grade printers.

In order to not tempt fate too much, I keep a small tray with a wet sponge inside (like a cigar box humidifier) and a water-tight cover over the top. I used to use a garbage bag for this; after moving in with my girlfriend, whose decorating tastes run a bit less industrial, I bought a fitted cover made from coated nylon.

[riooso]

I ended up getting the 3880 and I am happy with it. Software is very good and connected to the hub it is very fast and trouble free.

Just to give an overview about how I came to this decision. Let me say this up front. These are my views from what I could gather from a couple of weeks of research. I was actually going to go with a 4900 or above but what I heard a lot of is that the models further up the tree are geared more for professional use and, by that I mean high usage. Although not bad they have a tendency to clog more only if not used but, for a professional that is part of doing business. The 3880 weighs about 45 pounds and the 4900 weighs 115 pounds and the 7890 weighs 157 pounds. I have equipment in my house that weighs 100 pounds and well that is something I don not want to deal with. That tells me that there is a lot going on internally that is quite different from the 3880. Ink for the 4900 costs more per unit cartridge but the ink is actually cheaper per milliliter and the same goes for the 7890 but OMG a 200 ml cartridge is a lot of money. Once again, all these parameters can be mitigated by someone printing professionally and can justify the cost. The 490 uses a different ink technology and the inks might be better but I have prints that have been printed on the 7880 and quite frankly I see no differences. The 3880 does a excellent job especially with B&W and matte paper. The blacks are incredible.


Once again, thank you very much for the input. I really value this forum because you guys give the pros and cons on any given topic that really helps someone branching out into unfamiliar territory. There is just so much to "photography" even after almost forty years of dabbling I get to actually become immersed and I am loving it.


Richard