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Author Topic: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer  (Read 33130 times)

deanwork

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #60 on: June 29, 2018, 07:20:37 pm »

Two years. Wow, what horrible promotion on what seems like a killer printer, now that they fixed some of the firmware issues that were doing strange things like spraying ink inside the printer for no reason.

I can only imagine what the monochrome capabilities would be like if they would work with someone like Roy Harrington of QTR to write the software for it. They would only sell more ink and printers.  Roy’s curves for the little  P800 are outstanding on the gloss fiber media like Platine, totally clean neutral with No color crossover anywhere in the ramp.  And that is with one less light gray than the 10k has!

It’s kinda sad to see HP go the route of speed over subtlety, but I guess their mass market just ain’t subtle. They will never beat the Z3200 bw by taking dilutions away.  It will be interesting to see their color results though in regard to dither and resolution with this new dot placement set up they are talking about. Could be some innovation in that.

John



quote author=Terry_Kennedy link=topic=124790.msg1052703#msg1052703 date=1530308601]
Over 2 years, actually - the first P10k sale-to-customer units (as opposed to trade show or demo units) shipped from the factory in April 2016 and were installed and running at customer sites by July.

Other than videos from trade shows, the only non-Epson videos I've seen are various "look at this wonderful new printer we got - watch us take it out of the box" and various edits of the Epson videos by distributors. And the samples (as you and others have mentioned) don't show off the capabilities of the unit - I've discarded better output that the samples I saw. I've had to rely on comments (like the ones in this forum) from early adopters, and waited nearly 2 years to order one, so that the bugs were hopefully all worked out. With a little more effort from the manufacturers, they might sell more printers, sooner, to people like me.
[/quote]
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MHMG

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #61 on: June 29, 2018, 10:54:15 pm »

I've always been curious how Epson, Canon, and HP or for that matter media manufacturers like Hahnemuhle, Canson, etc., identify their "industry influencers" and take into account said expert opinion as they go about designing next generation printers, ink sets, and/or media.

With respect to ink and media longevity objectives, it has only been in the current calendar year 2018 that any major printer or media manufacturer has ever bothered to contact Aardenburg Imaging & Archives. I totally get it that I haven't gone out of my way to cultivate those relationships, and sure, I also totally get who normally gets those calls, but seriously? Why wouldn't any manufacturer cast a slightly wider net to get some more nuanced opinions about what the next generation printers, inks, and media should aspire to give to one's most demanding customers? LULA's Printers, Paper, and Inks forum and the regular cast of informed endusers who regularly participate here is a great resource for them. I hope the vendors lurk here. I know some do.

all the best,
Mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com
« Last Edit: June 29, 2018, 10:57:59 pm by MHMG »
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deanwork

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #62 on: June 30, 2018, 12:03:37 am »

The only printer reps I’ve ever talked to at a trade show that cared about art  printer’s opinions were the Barcelona guys from HP. They were great and took notes from our informal discussions and asked lots of questions. The Epson people were always kissing up to ad photographers and the Canon people just seemed confused. HP was the only company that I saw sending out their smart people, but that was 10 years ago, who knows where they are now. I know one thing, all of the sales people I’ve met were not worthy of representing their engineers. In the case of the HP guys, we were talking to the engineers, the guys who designed the system.



quote author=MHMG link=topic=124790.msg1052778#msg1052778 date=1530327255]
I've always been curious how Epson, Canon, and HP or for that matter media manufacturers like Hahnemuhle, Canson, etc., identify their "industry influencers" and take into account said expert opinion as they go about designing next generation printers, ink sets, and/or media.

With respect to ink and media longevity objectives, it has only been in the current calendar year 2018 that any major printer or media manufacturer has ever bothered to contact Aardenburg Imaging & Archives. I totally get it that I haven't gone out of my way to cultivate those relationships, and sure, I also totally get who normally gets those calls, but seriously? Why wouldn't any manufacturer cast a slightly wider net to get some more nuanced opinions about what the next generation printers, inks, and media should aspire to give to one's most demanding customers? LULA's Printers, Paper, and Inks forum and the regular cast of informed endusers who regularly participate here is a great resource for them. I hope the vendors lurk here. I know some do.

all the best,
Mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com
[/quote]
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Terry_Kennedy

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #63 on: June 30, 2018, 07:53:34 pm »

The only printer reps I’ve ever talked to at a trade show that cared about art  printer’s opinions were the Barcelona guys from HP. They were great and took notes from our informal discussions and asked lots of questions. The Epson people were always kissing up to ad photographers and the Canon people just seemed confused. HP was the only company that I saw sending out their smart people, but that was 10 years ago, who knows where they are now. I know one thing, all of the sales people I’ve met were not worthy of representing their engineers. In the case of the HP guys, we were talking to the engineers, the guys who designed the system.

The isolation of engineering from marketing (and possibly more importantly, customer support) is a big problem across many industries. I've been on both sides of the problem - being an engineer and making lunchroom complaints to other engineers that we're being used as a glorified text-to-speech service, simply reading the manual to the customer because they couldn't be bothered to do that themselves. On the customer side I often seem to get someone from support who completely misunderstood the problem (which, these days, often seems to have an added language barrier). One partial solution I've implemented (on the support side) and suggested (from the customer side) is flagging accounts with a "customer actually has a clue what they're talking about" flag, and if the front-line support people see that and can't resolve the issue to the customer's satisfaction in 1 or 2 emails, the issue escalates directly to engineering. Some companies add a second flag, which I'll call "customer is clueless, but pays us enough money for support that we don't care".  ::)

At the moment, there doesn't seem to be any way to even "throw a note over the wall" directly to Epson engineering - everything goes thrrough customer service, who don't seem to be able to do anything other than dispatch a repair if the unit is broken (to their credit, that does seem to work well, at least in major markets like NYC) or provide a possibly-relevant response to a question. As an example of a feature I'd like to request, the P10K/P20K have a very nice feature where they remember the media type last used for each of the 3 feed methods - roll, cut sheet, or flat stock. It asks if you want to use that same media type (press OK) or specify a different media type. That's great. However, the "Load paper" button calls up a screen where you get to choose one of those 3 feed methods. But it doesn't remember which one was last used and always defaults to roll, so if I'm printing a bunch of prints on flat stock, every paper load involves 2 presses of the down button and then OK, instead of being able to just press OK if I want to feed "more of the same" into the printer.
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BernardLanguillier

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #64 on: July 24, 2018, 02:56:20 am »

Are these printers for real? ;)

Not sure how a company like HP can mess up a product launch this badly if they are targeting the art market...

Cheers,
Bernard

glyph

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #65 on: July 24, 2018, 09:26:48 pm »

Given the bizarre rollout, with a minimum of promotion and no reviews to be had months after they were announced, and over a month since they were available through major vendors . . . what is the message HP is sending? I guess the best case scenario is that they are ambivalent about the market. Since I'm hoping the printer is a success in the field, I'm trying not to think about the other explanations for the stealth launch.
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stevenfr

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #66 on: August 07, 2018, 08:24:50 pm »

Has anyone purchased this printer?Any reviews? Longevity ratings? Gamut plots? Anything about this printer besides the marketing from HP?

The printer is now available in Canada.

glyph

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #67 on: August 07, 2018, 09:21:18 pm »

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deanwork

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #68 on: August 08, 2018, 09:07:49 am »


IMHO all they needed to do was double the speed of the Z3200 and put in some module for feeding small sheets ( larger sheets feed just fine ) and they would still have the best fine art printer ever made. It just doesn’t seem that complicated. It seems to me that reducing the number of inks ( especially the gray! ) was done more for their benefit than ours.

If this new design was as revolutionary as they say ( I remain extremely doubtful ) then you would think someone would be putting together exhibitions to promote it. That’s what they used to do.

Until its proven otherwise I’ll consider it a really nice and fast poster printer for designers. I don’t think you can beat Epson and Canon with that for photography. But, we’ll see. Maybe it’s just a sales dept screw up.




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mfrohman

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #69 on: August 09, 2018, 02:11:17 am »

Vertical trimmer looks pretty interesting! Although from the few videos I've seen it seems to only make one vertical cut. I often nest multiple prints so it seems like it would only cut the largest one vertically if I'm looking at it correctly. Still interesting though, would save some time from hand cutting each and every print. Just when I was thinking I made move to Epson at some point, these might keep me with HP. Looking forward to more info and reviews.
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2 x HP Z3200, Canon 4100, Epson p-800

deanwork

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #70 on: August 09, 2018, 05:08:19 pm »

Well I just hope after 12 years they’ve gotten their freaking margins equal, otherwise you are going to be vertical trimming unequal borders.





quote author=mfrohman link=topic=124790.msg1060810#msg1060810 date=1533795077]
Vertical trimmer looks pretty interesting! Although from the few videos I've seen it seems to only make one vertical cut. I often nest multiple prints so it seems like it would only cut the largest one vertically if I'm looking at it correctly. Still interesting though, would save some time from hand cutting each and every print. Just when I was thinking I made move to Epson at some point, these might keep me with HP. Looking forward to more info and reviews.
[/quote]
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mearussi

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Mark Lindquist

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #73 on: August 11, 2018, 06:00:57 pm »

Vertical edge trimming.  Whoop-de-doo.  Who here is making posters out of their prints?

I suppose it can be a good thing for some doing commercial work, but for the niche studio photographer, is this all that much of a technical breakthrough that they are promoting it as? 

Ultimately, until they actually finish the technology and actually start shipping the printer to customers we still don't know anything.

I'm not as interested in trimming prints vertically (unless as John Dean said "maybe it's a way to finally get the print centered") as much as in knowing the dual droplet Vivid inks surpass Vivera and pass the Aardenburg I* test protocols.  Not only pass, but better Vivera on specific media.

Why hasn't HP been in touch with Aardenburg to confirm longevity claims or to at least establish a benchmark?

Don't get me wrong.  After what HP accomplished with Vivera, I wouldn't put it past them to knock another home run out of the park with the Z9, but come on let's see it!

Best,

Mark

PS - HP - we're not making posters - you have other printers for that.  Don't forget the niche market that we are:  >>PHOTOGRAPHERS<<
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Mark Lindquist
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mearussi

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #74 on: August 11, 2018, 09:10:10 pm »

The edge trimming is also nice if you're printing wall murals that have to overlap. But whether that feature alone is worth an extra 2K is debatable. What I remember from earlier review comparisons between the 3200, 8300 and 9900 is that HP lacked the gamut and smooth tonal transitions of the other two. Hopefully that's been addressed by the new head design.
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stevenfr

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #75 on: August 11, 2018, 09:27:26 pm »

I agree. i have no interest in the vertical edge trimmer. Interesting but not needed.

I did speak to HP last Thursday. The support person could not answer my questions. She said she would have the level 3 tech call me back. As well, they will find out if there isn’t a printer in a location close to my me, so I can do testing. She mentioned they had a printer in Ottawa. I am shooting out east this fall, if I get a chance I might stop in and see family in Ottawa, and test the printer.

BernardLanguillier

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #76 on: September 03, 2018, 08:08:21 pm »

Same question I asked 6 weeks ago... are these printers for real? ;)

Any first hand experience with them?

Thank you.

Cheers,
Bernard

stevenfr

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #77 on: September 03, 2018, 09:03:24 pm »

Bernard email me I can fill you in on a few details. I have been in talks with HP.

Remko

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #78 on: September 04, 2018, 12:15:38 pm »

Bernard email me I can fill you in on a few details. I have been in talks with HP.

Steven,

If you feel the info you got from HP can be shared freely, I would really appreciate if you did so here on LuLa as well.

TIA.

cheers,
Remko
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kevinmcdnyc

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #79 on: September 11, 2018, 01:01:06 pm »

Has anyone seen or does anyone own this printer?
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