Ink Prices

[venchka]

Good grief. That was last week's smoking hot deal price for a 3800.

Does that $894 price include ink? The sub-$900 3800 comes with ink.

[Jim Becia]

Good grief. That was last week's smoking hot deal price for a 3800.

Does that $894 price include ink? The sub-$900 3800 comes with ink.

Wayne,

It does come with ink also. Jim

[SamReeves]

My crappy old 1280 just keeps going and going. I'm hooked on heavyweight matte ATM for my digital and transperency images.

[Brian Ellis]

Which printer were you looking at? The Epson 3800 which I use is an excellent 17 inch printer that costs about $1000.

I don't know what a liter translates to in terms of the capacity of the ink cartidges for my 3800. But FWIW, I owned it for about 2 1/2 years before I had to replace any of the cartridges that came with the printer (i.e. those included in the $1000 purchase price) and then it was only four of them, I'm still using the others. I also don't know how many 8x10 prints or the equivalent I've made in that time but it's been well into the hundreds. Saying anything more than that would just be total speculation since I don't keep track of how many prints I've made at any given time.

Mine is constructed just fine, I guess it could have metal where it has plastic or something but that has no effect that I can see on the function of the printer and would only add unnecessary weight and cost.

I've owned 4 Epson printers. My first, an 1160, developed a problem with the print heads after about 3 years and since newer printers were available I didn't try to replace the print heads, I junked the 1160 and replaced it with a 1280. My wife is still using the 1280 and it's about 7-8 years old and has never given us a problem. I also had a 2200 that I sold and replaced with the 3800 because I wanted to make prints wider than 13 inches. I don't remember exactly how old it was when I sold it, probably about 2-3 years and it was working fine. In fact it sat upside down in a box in our garage through much of an Oregon winter with the cartridges still in it (movers screwed up). When I finally got it out of the box I figured it was probably shot but plugged it in just to see and it worked fine right out of the box. I expect the 3800 to last at least as long as the 1280 has lasted, i.e. 7-8 years or more.

I've never felt a need to replace one piece of photography equipment with a newer one just because there's a newer one available. I didn't do that in my 35mm days when Nikon brought out new cameras, lenses, etc. all the time and I don't do it today. As long as the one I own is still serving the purpose for which I bought it I see no reason to replace it unless there's a real improvement in something newer.

[venchka]

Switching black inks in some models of Epson printers (I don't have the whole list) uses a measureable (in dollar terms) amount of ink. For the sake of economy, picking one black ink and sticking to it will conserve ink.

[Jay W]

On a separate note and this is quite a deal from what I can see. IT Supplies is offering the Epson 4880 (standard edition) for $894.

It looks to me as though their price on the printer is 1744 minus rebates. Also, Epson rebates require you purchase from an Epson authorized dealer, so that's another thing to check before purchasing. But I agree, the stackable rebates make the printer appealing. (Mine should arrive this week.) As for Epson ink, there's lots of cheap Epson 220 ml ink on ebay.

Jay

[Peter De Smidt]

They (IT Supplies) also have the Canon iPF6100, a 24" printer, for $1799 after rebate. You have to add the printer to your cart to see their real price.

[paradoxbox]

the IPF's are a pain in the ass for consuming a lot of ink as cleaning fluid if you don't print a lot. also i'm not sure if anyone has developed a bulk ink system for them or not, but if you do use bulk ink you'll probably void your warranty.

i'd say get an epson 9800 / 9600 used but check it carefully for banding that could be a sign of head problems which are expensive and time consuming to fix.

canon's ipf heads iirc are user replaceable but die quicker than epsons. i would not pay 1800$ for a canon ipf. under any circumstances, even if it's new.

buy a used older model, there are not enough significant differences between the last generation and new one. you can get an ipf5000 17" printer for super cheap if you buy used. i think i saw some for around 600-800$ on fleabag and craigslist probably has a few too. check around with printer distributors and sign shops as they may know of a place to pick up a used unit too, small sign shops and such are often looking to unload an old printer they don't use anymore.