I have been the most vocal critic of the IPF printer to date, however...
I just had a post moderated at the Epson forum (our entire thread was removed) for talking about why I feel, despite the "snags" I've had with Canons feedback to customers that I still feel like it's the best 44 inch printer on the market, at least for me.
In the thread that was removed at the Epson Yahoo group we were discussing prices of the HP z3100. It was commented on that the cheapest price was $6100.
I had commented that the IPF8000 (44") despite my complaints of Canon's lack of feedback from their website and not displaying the exact ML left in the carts (my two biggest complaints) the printer has performed flawlessly and there has been nothing that I haven't been able to do with it.
I also posted that the Canon 44" compared very favorably to the HP 44" in that I was able to purchase it from itsupplies.com for $3400 shipped compared to $6100 for the HP. I already have the ability to generate accurate profiles so this was not a big selling point for me. From what I understand the Canon is faster and prints on thicker materials. Quality is a toss-up.
I sold my 9600, 4000 and HP dj130 all on ebay and was abe to more than pay for the new ipf8000. It was a no-brainer for me. The Canon does better glossy prints than the dj130 (my photo printer of choice) and comparable matte (canvas, fine art) prints to the 9600.
-Jonathan