Are you still happy with your Hp B9180?

[Christopher Perez]

I've had mine for a number of months now. Used for both print making and digital-internegs. It's brilliant on both accounts. More than half of my Camerawork Gallery show in palladium was printed from digi-internegs made using the HP. In more than a couple cases, the digi-internegs matched the print qualities of my native 8x10 film contact prints.

Thus far, my images have been at least as good as, if not outright better than, those coming out of other printers.

[Ted Harris]

I've had mine for 6 months and have used it lots. Print quality is outstanding, especially on HP hahnehmule fine art paper. Operationally the automatic cleaning routines are a nuisance, coming on at the most inconvenient times. And my biggest problem, totally ignored by HP in my mails and calls to them, are around the sudden loss for no apparent reason of communication between computer and printer.
Steve

Can you give me some more details on this? It is a problem I have never heard mentioned before. Are you using an ethernet or a usb connection? In either case, I assume you hav checked your cable and the connections to make sure that a loose connection at one end or the other is not the cause. If you are using a USB connection, I strongly suggest switching to ethernet.

[Christopher Perez]

Mine is connected through USB for the entire time I've owned the printer. I've never had any disconnects of any kind.

I'm with you, though, it'd be worth checking for a loose connection.

Can you give me some more details on this? It is a problem I have never heard mentioned before. Are you using an ethernet or a usb connection? In either case, I assume you hav checked your cable and the connections to make sure that a loose connection at one end or the other is not the cause. If you are using a USB connection, I strongly suggest switching to ethernet.

[JonathanPerkins]

Operationally the automatic cleaning routines are a nuisance, coming on at the most inconvenient times.

The print head maintenance happens 24hrs after the last use on mine. If I need to print something late at night I just make sure I open and close the speciality media tray in the morning to stop it clanking the next evening.

As for the original question, well I was an early adopter in the UK and I'm on my 4th one (the first was DOA, second failed with a paper feed problem, that ones replacement was DOA, and the forth is OK for now). My main issue is with the extremely poor support HP offer in the UK (only poor quality phone lines to Indian call centre who don't understand this printer). The printer itself is however great! I just wish they would make a 17" model to compete with the 3800 - I can't justify the huge cost increase to a Z series 24" printer. If you want to produce prints to display on the wall, I find 13" too small really, once you've allowed for a decent border.

Jonathan

[Joakim Ahnfelt]

Thank you every one. The jury seems to be back with a thumps up. (Mo more mixing of metafores than printing LF negs on a inkjet). I'll think I'll have a go with the HP.
Cheers
joakim

[Bill_1856]

Sandy, where did you get your printer for $480 (inc shipping)?

[Eric Brody]

Re the 3800: It may cost twice as much as the 9180, but it will use 17" wide paper, eg it will do a 16x20 or longer print. If I recall correctly, the 9180, as excellent as it seems to be will do only 13x19, like the Epson 2400.

I am not being an Epson loyalist, just pointing out a fact that was not mentioned in the cost comparison.

Eric

[sanking]

Sandy, where did you get your printer for $480 (inc shipping)?

I believe it was buydig.com. But that was this past winter, and prices may have gone up a bit.

Sandy

[butterfly]

Mine is connected through USB for the entire time I've owned the printer. I've never had any disconnects of any kind.

I'm with you, though, it'd be worth checking for a loose connection.

I use USB and have not considered Ethernet (is it any faster?). There are no loose connections. I never turn the printer off (but I do the computer). Moving the specialist media tray down does not activate it - in short it is totally dead from the printer end, nothing to do with connections if the media tray does not bring it back on - well that's what I assume.

Is it worth me trying the Ethernet then anyone - what are the advantages over usb?

[Colin Graham]

Re the 3800: It may cost twice as much as the 9180, but it will use 17" wide paper, eg it will do a 16x20 or longer print. If I recall correctly, the 9180, as excellent as it seems to be will do only 13x19, like the Epson 2400.

I am not being an Epson loyalist, just pointing out a fact that was not mentioned in the cost comparison.

Eric

This reminds me of a question I keep meaning to ask- in the paper setup menu for custom paper in the specialty media tray there is an option for printing on media up to 44" long. Has anyone tried this with their 9180? In the literature I always read that the largest it could print was 19" long, but it accepts 44.00 inches in the length field.

I'm curious too about the ethernet connection. I always thought that was mainly for networks.