HP B9180 & Epson 3800 profiles?

[Gregory]

hello everyone.

I need to purchase a better printer; a much better printer than the one I currently own. My current choice is the HP B9180 even though I'll have to buy grey-market because Hong Kong apparently doesn't have enough prosumer photographers to warrant HP selling the B9180 here.

My other possible choice would be the Epson 3800; again grey-market because like the B9180 and the iPF5000, Hong Kong doesn't have enough demand for this category of printer.

I use Aperture for my photos, and Aperture has a soft proofing function. I've just found out how many of the colours in my wildlife photographs my Epson 1290 is unable to print; not nice! And I've realised that I should check the profiles of the B9180 and the 3800 before I decide which one to buy.

So, does anyone have profiles for the B9180 and the 3800 that they could email me? I'd like HP/Epson quality papers, and if possible Hahnemühle Photo Rag Satin and Innova F-Type Gloss Black Max. I know these will never be an exact match for my future setup but it'll give me an idea of how many colours will be retained by the printer/paper combinations. Wildlife photos without the colours is a crime.

sincerely,
Gregory
-- gregory at hokwokwing dot hk
-- www dot hokwokwing dot hk

[ericbullock]

hello everyone.

I need to purchase a better printer; a much better printer than the one I currently own. My current choice is the HP B9180 even though I'll have to buy grey-market because Hong Kong apparently doesn't have enough prosumer photographers to warrant HP selling the B9180 here.

My other possible choice would be the Epson 3800; again grey-market because like the B9180 and the iPF5000, Hong Kong doesn't have enough demand for this category of printer.

I use Aperture for my photos, and Aperture has a soft proofing function. I've just found out how many of the colours in my wildlife photographs my Epson 1290 is unable to print; not nice! And I've realised that I should check the profiles of the B9180 and the 3800 before I decide which one to buy.

So, does anyone have profiles for the B9180 and the 3800 that they could email me? I'd like HP/Epson quality papers, and if possible Hahnemühle Photo Rag Satin and Innova F-Type Gloss Black Max. I know these will never be an exact match for my future setup but it'll give me an idea of how many colours will be retained by the printer/paper combinations. Wildlife photos without the colours is a crime.

sincerely,
Gregory
-- gregory at hokwokwing dot hk
-- www dot hokwokwing dot hk
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Gregory, the B9180 is not the printer to own if you want to use lots of non-HP paper. I've mentioned this numerous times as the B9180 is very difficult to profile when using papers like Crane's Silver Rag, Hahnemühle Fine Art Pearl, and Innova Fiba-Gloss. The ink limiting is atrocious, manifesting itself as dry banding in dark areas of the profiling chart. D-Max is also pretty poor when compared to the Epson K3 inks, and the Canon Lucia inks in the iPF5000.

My advice is to avoid the B9180, unless you plan to use exclusively HP papers, of which there are several good ones. The DesignJet Z3100 is also a great printer, and I have not run into these issues with the papers I mentioned above. Which is interesting, because its the same ink! Go figure.

-eric-

[Gregory]

my Epson 1290 needed repair so I took it in to the repair centre this morning. on my way out, I noticed a display section and asked one of the attending people if Epson was going to release the 3800 in Hong Kong. I was surprised to hear that 'yes', they're going to release it in Hong Kong except that the model number will be 3850 to distinguish the grey-market items, and it'll arrive around the end of December.

yippee!! at last, a decent printer for my needs.

so it looks like I'll be getting the Epson 3800/3850 instead of the HP B9180. with the 3800, I'll get printing on par or better than the B9180, and it'll have local suport/warranty so it's an easy decision.

Eric's reply also made it a little easier ;-)   I don't plan on being chained to one paper supplier.

regards,
Gregory