Had the iPF5000 since June. At that time is was difficult for me to acquire Canon papers, so I just used Epsons. That as been no problem that I can recongnize. The gamuts are sooo much wider than even the old SC3000 with dye inks in it that I feel blessed. In fact I have to be careful about cranking up the color and saturation too much - because the printer can handle it. Most of the use issues seem actually minor and in the category of 'getting a new complex whatever' that forces me to learn some new protocols, when once learned - no real problem, at worst annoyance. Some people on the list have had some real problems with annoyances I have noticed, so I guess they will stay with Epson or move to HP (like that will perfect - not likely). As you must realize going from glossy to matte can be done literally instantaneously. Very much appreciated. I do feel those who do not create their own profiles, that generally the supplied profiles are likely to very satsifactory to the majority of users, and then there will be those that go ballistic who really should buy an HP or a profile creator I suspect. In summary - this has been a great 4 months with this printer. I have left it off for up to maybe a week ( I hope not, but may have) and though I do not yet know how much ink clearing takes, I do know that I have only replaced 2 cartridges so far, and I have done a lot of 16x20 and 8x10s, from my subjective view, it is pretty good on ink use - which others have reported also as good. And no I cannot see dots, do not understand what they did to come up with that - other than feed the printer a file from a scan or picture that was tuned for say matte/art paper and then printed it on gloss and voila - so much more detail shows they think the "grain" is the printer when it is indeed the file used. I have experienced exactly that and when I either rescanned or cleaned up the file, the print from the Canon was as smooth as I imagine it ever needs to be. Good luck in any case with your process.
Gary
quote=Archimago,Oct 20 2006, 11:53 AM]
Hi,
I am new to this forum and have been following some threads for a couple of weeks.
I am an architect, doing visualisations. I have used since 1998 an Epson Stylus Pro 5000, which died on me 3 weeks ago.
I was planning to replace the machine next year, since it died I will replace it a bit earlier.
As many of you I am looking at about 4 to 7 possible replacements:
A3+ sizes
1. Epson 3800
2. HP 9180
A2 sizes
3. Epson 4800
4. Canon IPF5000
A1 sizes
5. Epson 7800
6. HP Z2100 24 inch
7. HP Z3100 24 inch
For my budget I think A2 sizes are what I can afford, only A1 maybe I could afford is the HP Z2100.
Concerning the Epson 4800/7800 the Black ink problem is a major issue to me as I often swith from matte paper to glossy. I need both in one printer. Adding the Imageprint RIP is to cost expensive compared to going for othe rmachines.
However I was always very pleased about the output quality of Epson machines despite paperhandling problems, poor drivers, controller errors, print head problems. The final prints I needed where always very good, I also did larger prints on Epson 9800 outside of my office mostly on matte papers.
To me for my budget only 3 options seem available:
1. Canon IPF 5000
I am very seduced by the Canon IPF5000, but ....
Are the images really up to par in sharpness, color, saturation, etc... to the Epson 4800 ?
Are the standard papers from Canon also good
2. Epson 3800
If the canon is not up to par with Epson 4800 then I tend to lean to the new Epson 3800, however I would loose A2 and the roll option ? I would be left mainly with what I had with my Epson 5000, only faster and better quality.
Will the Epson 3800 be better in quality then the 4800 or is this just marketing hype by Epson
3. HP Z2100
The other option would be the HP Z2100 24 inch standard version.
Advantage would be larger size, however I am very weary of print quality, why ?
I have test prints from HP 130 and 90 and they are not up to par even with my Epson 5000 in some areas, oversaturated blues etc...
What would you do
Still I like the Canon ?
What would you buy:
Epson 3800, Canon IPF5000 or HP Z2100
Christophe from Belgium
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