Epson P800 to replace 3800, or go to P7000?

[Ken Bennett]

Hi, all,

My elderly Epson 3800 gave me the "please to call for service" error and won't do anything now, so I guess after almost eight years it's time to look for a replacement. I don't think it's worth getting a unit this old serviced, though I'm willing to hear opposing views on that.

So, the P800 looks like the easy choice. Basically the same from my point of view - same size, will fit in the same place in my office, won't be too much of a change. $300 rebate through the end of the month.

Then I think, well, maybe I should look at this as an opportunity to get a larger 24-inch printer. I do on occasion want larger prints, though this would be several times a year, not every week. The P7000 on rebate is $2600, the P6000 is $2150, versus $900 for the P800. The initial cost is not something I am worried about.

Issues that come to mind: I like to print small cut sheets and cards, and I'm not sure the 24-inch printers can do that at all. I can go long periods of time without printing (a couple of months) -- the 3800 was fine with this -- any comments on the three new printers in this regard? Will I need to worry about the much larger tanks if I am not using them quickly? Clogs?

One of my colleagues runs two printers, a smaller Epson for small prints and cards, and a 24-inch Canon for roll paper. That's possibly an option in the long run, I suppose.

Anyone else face the same decision, and want to share how it turned out?

Thanks!

[stingray]

"please to call for service"

I got this error recently on my 3800 after replacing an ink cartridge.  I put back in the almost empty cartridge and the error went away. I put back the new cartridge and have had no problems since.

So ...I would remove and re-insert any recent cartridges.  Nothing to lose.

[howardm]

most of the roll printers have a 8x10 (or 8.5x11) minimum size so they're really not optimized for those small prints or cards unless you use some form of layout (Qimage or others) program that permits N-up or nesting.

[Ken Bennett]

"please to call for service"

I got this error recently on my 3800 after replacing an ink cartridge.  I put back in the almost empty cartridge and the error went away. I put back the new cartridge and have had no problems since.

So ...I would remove and re-insert any recent cartridges.  Nothing to lose.

Well, what do you know. Removing and replacing the last couple of ink carts let me run a test print and a cleaning cycle, which I could not do before. The test print shows a lot of clogs - we'll see if I can clear them.

I would not have thought to try this as it's been at least a month since I replaced an ink cart. Thanks!

[stingray]

Delighted you made progress.  A pure fluke this incident happened to me and then a fluke I spotted your post.

Hope it works out.

Check out this thread...
http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=114591.0

if you want to try and save some ink clearing a clog.  This also worked for me. (ie printing a page with a series of small squares coloured specifically to target the colour of the clogged ink colour). I use small rectangles with white space between each square (horizontally and vertically) to get a pulsing effect.  It may not be scientifically correct in terms of exact colour match, but I feel better trying this than a serious of ink cleaning cycles.

[JeffS]

My 7 year old 3800 was running fine, but I decided to donate it to a local school and replace it with a P800.  Purchase came with two rebates; you might check the Epson rebate site to see if the second $50 one (for owning a prior Epson like the 3800) still exists.

The P800 is a quieter machine with better feed mechanisms and better inks, including deeper blacks. I considered a larger machine, but now glad I got the P800.  It comes with an optional roll feed mechanism for occasionally longer (but obviously not wider) prints.

The best decision I made besides this was to purchase ImagePrint 10.  Terrific software, resulting in even better and more predictable results, which results in ink and paper savings.

Jeff

[Herbc]

I did have room for a free standing printer, but I am also not printing wider than 17in more than a few times a year, so the ease of a local shop who has a monster printer and expert staff takes care of any really big prints.

[tastar]

Epson is going to have 3 rebates on the P800 from 11/24 through 11/28 - the $300.00 mail in rebate, the $50.00 trade-up rebate (3800's are good for that) and a Black Friday $50.00 rebate - for a total of $400.00 off the generally advertised $1195.00 price. Considering that you get almost $400.00 of ink with the printer (some of which is used to do the initial fill), it's a good time to get one.

Tony

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Epson is going to have 3 rebates on the P800 from 11/24 through 11/28 - the $300.00 mail in rebate, the $50.00 trade-up rebate (3800's are good for that) and a Black Friday $50.00 rebate - for a total of $400.00 off the generally advertised $1195.00 price. Considering that you get almost $400.00 of ink with the printer (some of which is used to do the initial fill), it's a good time to get one.

Tony

I got my P800 in August when there were two of the three rebates, the $300 and the first $50 (but no Black Friday, of course.) The initial fill doesn't use an enormous amount of the available ink, and only now (after quite a number of prints, letter size and 13x19") have a couple of the cartridges gotten slightly below the half-full level, and I have just ordered spares so I will have them before any of them run out.

So far my P800 is everything my 3800 was and better.

[Ken Bennett]

Epson is going to have 3 rebates on the P800 from 11/24 through 11/28 - the $300.00 mail in rebate, the $50.00 trade-up rebate (3800's are good for that) and a Black Friday $50.00 rebate - for a total of $400.00 off the generally advertised $1195.00 price. Considering that you get almost $400.00 of ink with the printer (some of which is used to do the initial fill), it's a good time to get one.

Thanks, Tony.

I did get the 3800 working again, and managed to print all my holiday cards (thanks again to stingray), but the unit was purchased in October 2007, making it nine+ years old at this point. I'm thinking I may take Epson up on their kind offer for the P800.

[roscoetuff]

Sounds like the Epson P800 is a good-to-go machine. Having seen some argue for the local purchase - for "repair", I'm curious how folks have secured their printers. My 1st printer... came from B&H and while they're generally easy to deal with and save getting in the car, there's no way I'd be shipping it back for repair or service. I'm not sure that's a deal breaker, but curious whether folks have put even a slight amount of emphasis on the "whatcha gonna do when it's not working" issues.

BTW, glad to read someone happy with the Epson P800 and ImagePrint together as that's an appealing combo here as well. As that famous photographer Admiral Farragut said, "Damn the cost, full GAS ahead!"

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Sounds like the Epson P800 is a good-to-go machine. Having seen some argue for the local purchase - for "repair", I'm curious how folks have secured their printers. My 1st printer... came from B&H and while they're generally easy to deal with and save getting in the car, there's no way I'd be shipping it back for repair or service. I'm not sure that's a deal breaker, but curious whether folks have put even a slight amount of emphasis on the "whatcha gonna do when it's not working" issues.

BTW, glad to read someone happy with the Epson P800 and ImagePrint together as that's an appealing combo here as well. As that famous photographer Admiral Farragut said, "Damn the cost, full GAS ahead!"

As long as my Epson printers are small enough for me to carry to my car, if needed I can drive to a repair place that gives good service at reasonable prices. I used thm for my 2200 and considered them again for my 3800, but the rebates on the P800 were too good to resist.

Anyone want to take away my 9-year-old 3800, near Boston?

[dgberg]

Sounds like the Epson P800 is a good-to-go machine. Having seen some argue for the local purchase - for "repair", I'm curious how folks have secured their printers. My 1st printer... came from B&H and while they're generally easy to deal with and save getting in the car, there's no way I'd be shipping it back for repair or service. I'm not sure that's a deal breaker, but curious whether folks have put even a slight amount of emphasis on the "whatcha gonna do when it's not working" issues.

BTW, glad to read someone happy with the Epson P800 and ImagePrint together as that's an appealing combo here as well. As that famous photographer Admiral Farragut said, "Damn the cost, full GAS ahead!"

It may be too late for you but "Always keep the packing and box"
My 800 needed  replaced. It took all of 10 minutes to put the tape on the proper parts put the packing
around it and tape the top. If you have already chucked the box find another and use bubble wrap.
Those postal stores will wrap and ship but way too expensive and not necessary.

[JeffS]

Anyone want to take away my 9-year-old 3800, near Boston?

Call a local school/college that has a photo program and have them pick it up.  That's what I did with my 7 year old 3800 when I bought the P800.  They were thrilled since they use Epsons, and I got the tax deduction (still running machine with 75% full inks.)

Jeff

[roscoetuff]

For my part, want to thank the folks here for encouraging some of us (me) on the fence about stepping up from a beginner print machine to the Epson P800.

I'd also report that though I've looked long and hard at other options - including the piezo and custom ink crowd's stuff, I'm convinced there's quite a range of work for me to do at my own level before I'm ready to tackle all the more engaged printing required to throw my hat in with the custom ink crowd. I get it, and I admire the output; but I also admire more the input. And for now, focusing my attention on the input by simplifying the process somewhat with standard software, hardware and throughput seems to be the right balance. Maybe that will change down the road, but maybe by then... who knows. And yes, I've looked at QuadtoneRIP and yes, it's not intuitive... and like most Linux-type packages (it's GIMP based if I recall), you can do amazing things if you put the time into it. Down the road... I'm not ruling it out. For now, Imageprint may be the more likely path... which while expensive, actually in its profiling wraps a slew of services into the software and saves me the cost of some expensive hardware to do the same thing? Sounds like it... and I'm impressed with the support, what I've seen in the videos, etc. Anyway... it seems a path to being efficient with time - the ultimate scarce commodity.

So thanks to all who post here on Luminous Landscape! and especially those who've included their website gallery links... you've got some amazing work. THanks for sharing.

[JeffS]

For my part, want to thank the folks here for encouraging some of us (me) on the fence about stepping up from a beginner print machine to the Epson P800.

I'd also report that though I've looked long and hard at other options - including the piezo and custom ink crowd's stuff, I'm convinced there's quite a range of work for me to do at my own level before I'm ready to tackle all the more engaged printing required to throw my hat in with the custom ink crowd. I get it, and I admire the output; but I also admire more the input. And for now, focusing my attention on the input by simplifying the process somewhat with standard software, hardware and throughput seems to be the right balance. Maybe that will change down the road, but maybe by then... who knows. And yes, I've looked at QuadtoneRIP and yes, it's not intuitive... and like most Linux-type packages (it's GIMP based if I recall), you can do amazing things if you put the time into it. Down the road... I'm not ruling it out. For now, Imageprint may be the more likely path... which while expensive, actually in its profiling wraps a slew of services into the software and saves me the cost of some expensive hardware to do the same thing? Sounds like it... and I'm impressed with the support, what I've seen in the videos, etc. Anyway... it seems a path to being efficient with time - the ultimate scarce commodity.

So thanks to all who post here on Luminous Landscape! and especially those who've included their website gallery links... you've got some amazing work. THanks for sharing.

P800 and ImagePrint 10.  Perfect.

IP not only saves the purchase of expensive profiling gear or custom profiles, but it makes printing much simpler, efficient and less error-prone.  You get to avoid the all-too-common issues that occur in the Apple-Adobe-Epson chain with the introduction of new iterations, e.g., color management issues, etc.  And you don't have to worry about missing a crucial printer setting.  ColorByte figured it all out.  And you're always in soft proof mode, so WYSIWYG....and much more accurately than LR.  The new output sharpening tools are also terrific.

BTW, not only do you get virtually all paper profiles with IP, but you get to pick profiles for varying lighting conditions as well as color/gray scale.

Hurry, too, to get all the printer rebates.

The most important tools for great pics and prints are between the ears.....but this will ensure that the other tools aren't holding you back. 

Jeff

[unesco]

How about P800 and Mirage instead of Imageprint?
Does it make sense for 17" printer? I will also have 3880 with piezography in the team to be driving by that potential software.

[roscoetuff]

FWIW unesco: I couldn't find a lot of information on a number of RIP software packages out there. Mirage was one. There were others. Many seem as though they might be aimed at the commercial sized printer market.

Seems ImagePrint and QuadtoneRIP are the two major players folks have written about here and elsewhere who print for their own needs whether for proofing or for pro output completely under their own control. I could identify that ImagePrint works both for color and B&W - a fact that proved decisive among others in my own decision. I'm not sure whether QuadtoneRIP does more than B&W or not, but it certainly seemed to receive press on B&W. Some stunningly beautiful work is printed in monochrome with the latter, and if the Epson or Canon ink palette isn't your cup of tea for B&W, I'd suppose the commitment to explore these tools becomes more and more compelling.

[JeffS]

FWIW unesco: I couldn't find a lot of information on a number of RIP software packages out there. Mirage was one. There were others. Many seem as though they might be aimed at the commercial sized printer market.

Seems ImagePrint and QuadtoneRIP are the two major players folks have written about here and elsewhere who print for their own needs whether for proofing or for pro output completely under their own control. I could identify that ImagePrint works both for color and B&W - a fact that proved decisive among others in my own decision. I'm not sure whether QuadtoneRIP does more than B&W or not, but it certainly seemed to receive press on B&W. Some stunningly beautiful work is printed in monochrome with the latter, and if the Epson or Canon ink palette isn't your cup of tea for B&W, I'd suppose the commitment to explore these tools becomes more and more compelling.

If you're running Piezo, then get QTR.  Otherwise, for standard Epson inks, you'd be nuts not to get IP.  Read my post above.  And watch Kevin's video interviews on IP here on LuLa...it's more than a RIP.

Jeff

[unesco]

Thanks for the answers.
I use QTR with Epson ink and results are great, suppose will be better when I switch to Piezography soon.
I will have a look at IP review.