Canon iPF8000 vs. HP Z3100

[Chris_Brown]

I love it seeing HP sticking it to Epson for not having both Matte/photo black at the same time. Big mistake for Epson, using that as an excuse for people to have to upgrade. Games over.

I'm also very glad HP and Canon have targeted our market. Things can only get better from here.

While on my little tour at HP/Corvalis, the two managers accompanying me said they don't consider Epson the competition, but rather Canon with their excellent knowledge of color processing. They told me HP won the printer market from Epson when HP introduced the LaserJet in 1985 while Epson dawdled with dot matrix printing. For the last 20 years, HP has focused their printer division on the profitable office and consumer market with their laser printers, and only in the last few years has begun to focus on the photogtaphic imaging market, spending millions on ink & paper research. If you look at HP's 2005 annual report, you'll see the "Imaging and Printing Group" lost money because of huge R&D expenses.

I remember choking at the cost of a DeVere 4x5 dichroic enlarger in 1985. Given the current cost of LF inkjet printers, I'm becoming very pleased with where digital printing is going.

[Ted Harris]

I echo Chris' sentiment to a certain extent but will wait until I can actually see real world results. Both the Canon and HP printers are impressive and I have also gotten similar comments from HP product managers that they are going after "our" market. Time will tell if they are really willing to devote the time and resources and if third party companies support their efforts (same holds for Canon). Both of them are capable of takin on Epson but we don't yet know how many resources and how much time they are willing to invest in doing so.

One of the reasons I am cautious is that I am all too well aware of the time it takes to crackthis market and that such time (a few years) may not sit well with company stockholders who want to see an ROI in quarters not years. Meanwhile, I hacve my fingers crossed and am looking forward to testing printers.

[Bill_1856]

Because HP printers require their special papers to give proper and archival results, I won't be buying another one. I can't even get Legal-size Premium Plus HP paper for my HP 7960 to make 8x12 prints, a 2:3 format size which has been a standard in the photo industry for many years.

[Chris_Brown]

I echo Chris' sentiment to a certain extent but will wait until I can actually see real world results.

You can order sample prints from HP here. They are very nice, too. I have a set.

I also ordered a set of Canon iPF8000 prints from Professional Marketing which came within a week. Those, too, are very nice, but there is no notation as to what paper and ink settings the images were printed with.

[Chris_Brown]

Because HP printers require their special papers to give proper and archival results, I won't be buying another one. I can't even get Legal-size Premium Plus HP paper for my HP 7960 to make 8x12 prints, a 2:3 format size which has been a standard in the photo industry for many years.

Bill, you wouldn't consider using a larger format and cutting the prints down to size? I do that with my Epson all the time.

[Chris_Brown]

"Because HP printers require their special papers to give proper and archival results"

I wonder how true this is any more.

Told to me first hand at HP/Corvalis:

• To achieve the archival specs published by HP, the Vivera inks must be used with certain HP papers.
• Bronzing is not guaranteed to be eliminated if other papers are used.
• The published drying times cannot be guaranteed without the use of HP papers.
• The inks work in concert with the papers to achieve the durability and quick drying time of output.

Of course, many people will experiment and try other ink/paper combinations.

One stat I did not get (and am trying to find) is the Dmax of the 12-ink HP system.

[Chris_Brown]

One stat I did not get (and am trying to find) is the Dmax of the 12-ink HP system.

I just found this info buried in the fine print here. It states a maximum optical density of "4 L* / 2.5 D with HP Premium Instant Dry Photo Gloss media."

This competes with the iPF5000 Dmax of 2.5 (on Innova FibaPrint paper).