I have the IPF 8300 and the Z3100 and I use them interchangeably. The "blacks" are certainly not "better" on the Canon. That is the exact opposite of the situation. The dmax with the Vivera inks on Canson Rag Photographique is about 1.80 and no one touches that, and with the 8300 about 1.67 max , (similar to Epson.) Max black point with the fiber gloss papers like Platine and Hahemuhle is the same with the Pk inks on both. I like doing the fiber gloss work on the 8300 with TBW but if I switch over to the HPZ I don't see any difference in either print color or tonality.
Color gamut is fine on both and the HP inks are in a class all by themselves when it comes to permanence. Dither and resolution is the same. Goss differiental and bronzing are the same, though better on the HP with rc media.
As far as cost of use goes the HP blows away both my Canon and my big Epson. It uses every last drop of ink and I go through more ink on my other printers, so I"m not bitching about the lack of the dual pak, though I do miss that. Both the Epson and Canon 44" printers are just too damn big and heavy. It is plugged in all the time and it is ALWAYS ready go to, day or night. It's insane building these things like someone is going to use them for 30 years when they die faster than the HP Z printers that take up no room and can be set up almost by one person. The heads are so cheap in price and like Ernst says, they last a lot longer than the Canon thermal heads and don't drive you nuts like the Epson heads ( I spent 3 hours yesterday trying to unclog my MK channel on the 9890 and wasted a bunch of ink doing that, which is typical and I can't take that shit anymore ).
I'm really uncertain what Hp's plan is. The fact is, all of these three companies are FAR more interested in sign printing and commercial designer support than they are high-end photographers. That isn't going to change. Epson pretends to be all about the photo community but it is just a marketing ploy to get them in the schools and has no basis in fact. All of their innovations end up costing me more money than helping me. They do value the desktop photo printer market though because that is where people spend a fortune in ink with those little carts.
It could be that the HP management thinks, look we have produced an excellent first class fine art printer in the Z3200 with really good gamut and a permanence that rivals carbon pigment transfer prints, that cost a fortune to produce. They have knocked the ball out of the park with the historic longevity of those inks, color and bw. The neutrality and tonality of the black and white output is so great and so easy to accomplish, even for an amateur, that they deserve a reward for that too. If my 7 year old Z3100 finally dies, and there is no sign of that happening so far, I would replace it with a Z3200 in a second. It does bother me that there are not a lot of places selling them anymore and they never show up at the trade shows. However, as long as they are offering extended warranties, they have to service the Z3200 and offer supplies. Honesty, I'd rather them not "improve" anything about this machine if they are going to fuck it up like these companies usually do.
Next week I'm giving a talk about alternative media so I am printing some large samples on all kinds of odd media. I'm working with 3 thickness and three surfaces of real silk, also cotton chaffon, Belgian linen, cotton gauze, canvas, metallic rc paper, backlit transparency, fiber gloss Platine, cotton matte rag, and Canson rc, and this printer does an excellent job on all of them with museum quality stability. I do make my own icc profiles with X-Rite but when I'm in a hurry and need a quick profile the on board spectro does a fine job, even on these problematic specialized media. This has been my favorite art printer of them all. It does it fast to last, and it just always works. Hp had better not give up on the Z3200. I really don't see why they would since most of the parts are interchangeable with the other similar design units, only with more inks. But giant companies do weird stuff for short term profits, and HP is one big outfit. So, who knows...
john
