One of the more curious things I've noticed is the really large difference in the gamma of the rgb device drivers of these printers. My 9800 has a printer gamma of about 6 while most other printers I've checked their profiles for have a gamma more similar to standard RGB types or L* or between 2 and 3.
One consequence of this is that I need to have a much larger patch set when profiling the Epson 9800 than, say the Canon 9500 II. Effectively, the high gamma of the Epson 9800 means there is a far larger dE difference between adjacent patches with high RGB values than low RGB values. To get the same dE spacing at the high end of RGB values requires 4 to 8 times more patches on the 9800 than on the Pro-10 or 9500.
So I'm considering creating a patch set for the I1Profiler that is gamma scaled for the 9800. Thus, RGB(128,128,128) would become RGB(180,180,180), and RGB(63,63,63) would become RGB(128,128,128) while RGB(0,0,0) and RGB(255,255,255) would remain the same.
This printer gamma difference means the I1Profiler patch sets on my 9800 are far darker overall. The thing that kicked me into thinking more about this was noticing the additional patches added when improving a profile in I1Profiler were heavily skewed towards much brighter patches on the 9800 but not on the 9500. Anyone else notice this or know whether this would improve 9800 profiling and/or require much fewer patches for a specific level of accuracy?