Epson 8 tank printer at best buy.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robbie
  • Start date Start date
Arthur said:
You may also wish to look at the Epson 2400 with the new K3 (three
saturation levels of black ink) set. Both the R1800 and 2400 use pigment
colorant inks.

Art
Click to expand...
IIRC, there are really two saturation levels. A light black and two
full blacks - one for gloss/semi gloss, one for matte. Replacement of
cartridge and priming is required when changing media. A nuisance, but
apparently not a waste of ink - as the priming doesn't expel ink.
The R2400 apparently excels at printing B&W with no metamerism. Both
excel printing colour.
For gloss/semi gloss printing, the R1800 uses a gloss optimiser to even
out the gloss level / eliminate bronzing. The R2400 does not - the new
ink is claimed not to need it. The gloss level on very high gloss
papers is reduced by the gloss optimiser on the R1800, and apparently
also by the ink on the R2400.
I don't know why, but the R1800 is a 1.5pl minimum drop size, the R2400
3pl. I haven't seen the R2400 in action, so don't know if this makes
any visible difference.
The R1800 prints CDs, the R2400 does not, but has a straight through
paper path to handle heavier media than the R1800. The R2400 is more
expensive.
 
Some inks are made by taking pigment particles and dyeing them. It's a
hybrid ink. It is usually more stable than just dye inks, and yet the
colors can be made more dense that way.

The newer pigment inks make this less of a feature, since the colors
that can be produced with just pigment has been improved considerably.

Art
 
I'm afraid your information on the 2400 is not correct.


the 2400 is a 8 color printer, plus offering two full black options.

The standard color set is:

Cyan
Light Cyan
Magenta
Light Magenta
Yellow
Black (either matte or photo)
Light black
Light-light black

Or, as I stated, three black levels.

The dense black can be exchanged between the two (matte or photo), so a
total of 9 "color" cartridges are available. The minimum ink droplet
size is 3.5 pl.

I do not understand how a purge can be facilitated without having the
ink be removed from the head. I suspect you may be confusing something.

The whole point of the purging process is to remove the ink within the
head channels so that the new ink source (matte or photo) is flushed
through the head so the ink type doesn't change during the printing process.

I would also be surprised if Epson has reintroduced separate dark black
ink head purging pumps, which would mean all the heads are purged each
time a change is made, but I haven't yet seen the specifics to comment
about that aspect.

Art
 
Arthur said:
I'm afraid your information on the 2400 is not correct.


the 2400 is a 8 color printer, plus offering two full black options.

The standard color set is:

Cyan
Light Cyan
Magenta
Light Magenta
Yellow
Black (either matte or photo)
Light black
Light-light black

Or, as I stated, three black levels.
Click to expand...

Ooops - quite right - my mistake.
The dense black can be exchanged between the two (matte or photo), so a
total of 9 "color" cartridges are available. The minimum ink droplet
size is 3.5 pl.

I do not understand how a purge can be facilitated without having the
ink be removed from the head. I suspect you may be confusing something.

The whole point of the purging process is to remove the ink within the
head channels so that the new ink source (matte or photo) is flushed
through the head so the ink type doesn't change during the printing
process.

I would also be surprised if Epson has reintroduced separate dark black
ink head purging pumps, which would mean all the heads are purged each
time a change is made, but I haven't yet seen the specifics to comment
about that aspect.
Click to expand...

Photo-i review seemed to think so, but that was speculation.
I am a bit mystified by cartridge changes on these printers. Is it
better to just replace all cartridges below about 20% when one is empty?
A lot of ink seems to be purged from all cartridges when one is replaced.
 
frederick wrote:
..
I am a bit mystified by cartridge changes on these printers. Is it
better to just replace all cartridges below about 20% when one is empty?
A lot of ink seems to be purged from all cartridges when one is replaced.
Click to expand...

I having a R210 my first Epson with separate cartridges now do changes
if the printer stops, as well change the almost empty.

If I don't, the purge will empty them hence the original changed
cartridge gets an extra purge upon the next change - what a waste of ink.

rm
 
Rob said:
frederick wrote:
.


I having a R210 my first Epson with separate cartridges now do changes
if the printer stops, as well change the almost empty.

If I don't, the purge will empty them hence the original changed
cartridge gets an extra purge upon the next change - what a waste of ink.

rm
Click to expand...

Yes - a darned nuisance waste of ink. With the R1800, the gloss
optimiser, photo cyan, photo magenta, and yellow ink get used at about
double the rate of the others when printing photos. No doubt that
varies with what the photos are. It looks to me like it could be a good
idea to replace all four at the same time, all eight next time.
 
frederick said:
Photo-i review seemed to think so, but that was speculation.
I am a bit mystified by cartridge changes on these printers. Is it
better to just replace all cartridges below about 20% when one is empty?
A lot of ink seems to be purged from all cartridges when one is replaced.
Click to expand...


You raise a good question, and the answer isn't that easy to determine.

With all Epson single color cartridge printers (other than the large
carriage that use the very large stationary cartridges), the printer
goes through a purge cycle each time a new cartridge is installed, and
all the cartridges/heads are purged equally, since only one purge pump
is engineered into these models.

So the question is does one use more ink replacing cartridges one by one
and having all the other cartridges go through multiple purging, or what?

I don't know the amount of ink that is purged from each cartridge during
an exchange, but multiplied by 6-7 or 8 colors, it could add up pretty fast.

Art
 
frederick said:
Yes - a darned nuisance waste of ink. With the R1800, the gloss
optimiser, photo cyan, photo magenta, and yellow ink get used at about
double the rate of the others when printing photos. No doubt that
varies with what the photos are. It looks to me like it could be a good
idea to replace all four at the same time, all eight next time.
Click to expand...

I've just started with the R1800 testing for a consistent profile, and
making some prints, the levels, (not having printed any normal pages)
are at :95% yellow, 90% Magenta, 80% cyan, 85% Photo black all the
remainder show full. I have the gloss set on automatic.

This is a different pattern of usage to either the R210 or 1270 and what
you are seeing.

rm
 
Rob said:
I've just started with the R1800 testing for a consistent profile, and
making some prints, the levels, (not having printed any normal pages)
are at :95% yellow, 90% Magenta, 80% cyan, 85% Photo black all the
remainder show full. I have the gloss set on automatic.

This is a different pattern of usage to either the R210 or 1270 and what
you are seeing.

rm
Click to expand...

Not too far off what I've seen. Certainly Cyan is the first to go.
Are you profiling different (non-epson) papers?
I have fiddled with some Lyson papers, some of which were nice (their
"pro satin", some of which (their "darkroom" series) were pretty
horrible IMO. Tetanal Archival Matte is very nice - I have just used
the epson profile, which is close enough to perfect for me. I note that
Epson's Matte Heavyweight is supposed to be terrible, but as a cheap and
brilliant white card, I don't find it too bad. Maybe I'm not fussy enough.
I agree with the Photo-i review that suggested more sharpening be
applied to images before printing than looks good on screen.
Unsharpened DSLR images are just so smooth that they don't look like
what most people consider "normal" for a photo. All the detail may be
there, but it doesn't stand out.
I haven't seen a need to increase yellow - seems fine to me with
everything at default.
 
Are you profiling different (non-epson) papers?
Click to expand...

Ilford papers seem the most consistent at good value here.

Epson papers are about 50% more expensive than Ilford paper. I have
downloaded the Ilford profiles and using them as a starting point.
Haven't tried the Lyson papers as I've never found who stocks them. We
get bombarded with Chinese and Japanese inks and papers. One that i have
used in 6x4 is a Japanese - can't tell what its about as its all in
Japanese writing - better than the epson gloss. This is 1/4 the price of
Epson. The retailer says its made by Fuji. All I can read is the part
number SG-S/KO1235/4R INKJET Paper Made in Japan, makes cleaner prints
that Epson paper the base is much whiter.

I've just ordered up some roll paper to output some panoramic prints
that can be sold now that I have something with better ink permanency.

I have some older Tetenal paper, unused, which has now gone yellow
around the edges, so I don't think Ill use that stuff again. This was
kept in its original packing.

rm
 
Actually, Stevelee, Jon is correct.

Dye colorant
Pigment colorant

or

dyed pigment or pigmented ink, which is ink that contains dyed pigments.
They are sometimes also called hybrid inks.

I have been known to make the error myself, and Jon is always there to
correct me... it may be annoying ;-) but his is correct for the sake of
accuracy.

Art
 
I want to apologize for resurrecting an old thread accidentally.

My router failed and I have substituted a borrowed unit, which required
a different news server name, and it caused all the postings to show up
as "current and unread" and I answered one or two old ones accidentally.

I will now try to return to current (or nearso) time without disturbing
the time line any further.

PS: Speaking of timelines and time machines... don't bother seeing the
movie "A Sound of Thunder" which just came out today. I saw it in
preview, and it's laughably bad, and an insult to Ray Bradbury's ghost.

Art
 
PS: Speaking of timelines and time machines... don't bother seeing the
movie "A Sound of Thunder" which just came out today. I saw it in
preview, and it's laughably bad, and an insult to Ray Bradbury's ghost.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, Arthur, even though it's sad news.

I've been a fan of Ray Bradbury's wonderful writing for 40 years or so and
was hoping that the film might do the short story justice, but feared that
it wouldn't.

I keep hoping that a sympathetic director will take on 'Dandelion Wine',
my favourite Bradbury novel and possibly the hardest to do justice to, but
I suspect it would never get a budget as it's too 'small' a story for
Hollywood.

Jon.
 
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