Replacment printer advice

[Gordon MacPherson]

Hi,
I want to replace my Epson photo stylus 870 with an A3 format printer. I
am looking at the Epson R1800 or R2400 or the Canon i9900 or Pixma
Pro9000. I do maybe 10-20 prints per month, for display in houses under
varied lighting conditions. Any advice would be most welcome (or
alternative suggestions)

Thanks,

Gordon

 

[Arthur Entlich]

If your main concern is fade resistance, go for the Ultrachrome ink
printers like the Epson 1800 or 2400. Canon's dye inks are not very
fade resistant.

Also, those two Epson printers have low incidence of clogging.

The 1800 is best for glossy paper use. The 2400 is a flexible model
great for color and black and white prints both with glossy and matte
papers.

Art

 

[measekite]

Hi,
I want to replace my Epson photo stylus 870 with an A3 format printer.
I am looking at the Epson R1800 or R2400 or the Canon i9900 or Pixma
Pro9000. I do maybe 10-20 prints per month, for display in houses
under varied lighting conditions. Any advice would be most welcome (or
alternative suggestions)

In addition to the fine Canon Pro 9000 and the R1800 take a look at the
Canon Pro 9500 after the first of the year. The 2400 shares an ink
channel with the blacks that need to be changed when you change from
matte to glossy and the wasted ink that is purged costs a lot.

 

[Bob Headrick]

I want to replace my Epson photo stylus 870 with an A3 format printer.
I am looking at the Epson R1800 or R2400 or the Canon i9900 or Pixma
Pro9000. I do maybe 10-20 prints per month, for display in houses
under varied lighting conditions. Any advice would be most welcome (or
alternative suggestions)

In addition to the others you might take a look at the HP Photosmart
8750, see
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/18972-236251-64340-15100-64340-426170.html

The 8750 is network ready, and prints up to 13"x19" borderless. The
print quality is excellent.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging

 

[Digital Photography Now]

The 8750 is really an obsolete printer now that the HP Photosmart Pro B9180
has arrived - just about shipping everywhere now. The B9180 uses pigmented
inks, so is even more resistant to fading. It also promises to be cheaper to
run than the 8750 and it has greyscale inks built in, so no cartridge
swapping (even when switching between matt and glossy papers). The one
advantage the 8750 has might be with glossy shine, without bronzing, but
when printing on HP Premium Plus glossy you aren't getting a great shine
anyway. Also, the 8750 is not a great printer out of the box, you need to
profile it to get it to perform to its potential.

Ian

Digital Photography Now
http://dpnow.com

*** Extra 40MB of storage space on DPNow's free photo gallery until the end
of November, don't miss it while it's there! http://galleries.dpnow.com

 

[Bob Headrick]

The 8750 is really an obsolete printer now that the HP Photosmart Pro
B9180 has arrived - just about shipping everywhere now. The B9180 uses
pigmented inks, so is even more resistant to fading. It also promises
to be cheaper to run than the 8750 and it has greyscale inks built in,
so no cartridge swapping (even when switching between matt and glossy
papers). The one advantage the 8750 has might be with glossy shine,
without bronzing, but when printing on HP Premium Plus glossy you
aren't getting a great shine anyway. Also, the 8750 is not a great
printer out of the box, you need to profile it to get it to perform to
its potential.

There is a bit of misinformation in the above. Firstly, the Photosmart
8750 is not obsoleted by the Photosmart Pro B9180. They have different
markets, and the B9180 list price is 40% higher than the 8750. The
pigmented inks in the B9180 are rated at 200+ years light fade, better
then the 108+ years for the 8750.

The 8750 holds three cartridges at a time, for 9 ink printing. It is
not necessary to change the cartridges when switching between matte and
glossy papers.

The original poster was expecting to print 10-20 photo's per month. At
these volumes the Photosmart 8750 may be a better choice than the
B9180.

For details of the B9180 see:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/18972-236251-64340-15100-64340-1143049.html

You can order free samples printed with the Photosmart 8750 and B9180
(as well as many other current HP Printers) at
http://www.hp.com/sbso/productivity.../IPG/VAcontent/colorprinters/Orderprintsample.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging

 

[Digital Photography Now]

There is a bit of misinformation in the above. Firstly, the Photosmart
8750 is not obsoleted by the Photosmart Pro B9180. They have different
markets, and the B9180 list price is 40% higher than the 8750. The
pigmented inks in the B9180 are rated at 200+ years light fade, better
then the 108+ years for the 8750.

Well, the 8750 uses a previous generation of HP cartridges. I grant you the
B9180 is more expensive, but it does represent much better value for money,
don't you think? I don't think we disagree on the print fade resistance data
do we?

The 8750 holds three cartridges at a time, for 9 ink printing. It is not
necessary to change the cartridges when switching between matte and glossy
papers.

Yes, sorry, the reference to matt/glossy cartridge changing was a general
one, not specific to the 8750 at all, but in reference to other popular A3+
printers like the Epson Stylus R1800 and R2400 models and quite a few other
pigment ink printers of various paper format handling sizes.

The 8750 doesn't really have a matt black ink for photo printing on matt and
other fine art papers.

The original poster was expecting to print 10-20 photo's per month. At
these volumes the Photosmart 8750 may be a better choice than the B9180.

Maybe. I see that the 8750 is being discounted to as little as $326 now,
see:

http://dpnow.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=8262229/search=8750/ut=3efc401f43fd0cd3

...which is a good buy (also suggests it's coming to the end of its life).

One point to make is that this printer (and, indeed the B9180) is enormous
and needs a lot of desk space.

Ian

Digital Photography Now
http://dpnow.com

*** Extra 40MB of storage space on DPNow's free photo gallery until the end
of November, don't miss it while it's there! http://galleries.dpnow.com

 

[Bob Headrick]

Well, the 8750 uses a previous generation of HP cartridges. I grant
you the B9180 is more expensive, but it does represent much better
value for money, don't you think?

It really depends on how much printing a person will do. At just a few
prints per month large ink tanks may not be the most economical - if
they expire before they are used better economy may be had with a system
more suited to the users volume.

I don't think we disagree on the print fade resistance data do we?

The B9180 is rated for "centuries" at >200 year, compared to 108 years
for the Photosmart 8750. At some point it is long enough that it does
not become an isse either way.

The 8750 doesn't really have a matt black ink for photo printing on
matt and other fine art papers.

The #102 photo gray cartridge has three photo gray levels: black, gray
and light gray. This ink is very suitable for printing on matte paper.

One point to make is that this printer (and, indeed the B9180) is
enormous and needs a lot of desk space.

Any printer capable of printing 13"x19" is going to be large.

Although it is a new printer the B9180 has a growing following among
serious users -http://tech.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/hp9100Series/photos
is a Yahoo group with a couple hundred users, with discussions and ICC
profiles.

I am not suggesting that the B9180 is not an interesting and capable
printer, but it may not be suitable for everyone, especially if they wil
only print 10-20 photos per month.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging