A few questions about the Epson 3800

[Bill Koenig]

I will be ordering a Epson 3800 soon. I've set aside money for supples and would like to pick up 4 or 5 spar ink cartridges and some paper. My question is, which colors should I stock up on? I will be printing mostly landscapes, so I'm looking for a best guess as what to buy? In the end, they'll all get used. For those of you that already have this printer what inks do you go through the fastest?
Also, what kind of paper should I start out with? I will print mostly gloss, but some mat.
Anyone try Inkjetart Micro Ceramic Gloss? the price is right, and it comes in 17x25    
One last question, what works the best USB 2 or Either net? My PC has a Ether net connection.
Thanks for any advise.


BTW. This will be my first inkjet printer.

[Doombrain]

I will be ordering a Epson 3800 soon. I've set aside money for supples and would like to pick up 4 or 5 spar ink cartridges and some paper. My question is, which colors should I stock up on? I will be printing mostly landscapes, so I'm looking for a best guess as what to buy? In the end, they'll all get used. For those of you that already have this printer what inks do you go through the fastest?
Also, what kind of paper should I start out with? I will print mostly gloss, but some mat.
Anyone try Inkjetart Micro Ceramic Gloss? the price is right, and it comes in 17x25   
One last question, what works the best USB 2 or Either net? My PC has a Ether net connection.
Thanks for any advise.
BTW. This will be my first inkjet printer.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=106484\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I'd use the unit for a bit, then you can see which inks you use the most. I only ever use Epson papers. I use alot of the Luster 260, it's really nice.

USB 2 is quicker than ethernet 10/100, alot quicker. but you'll only ever need 4mbit or so to keep the unit running at full engine speed so don't worry about it.

[madmanchan]

Hi Bill,

There is a resources/FAQ page for the 3800 that may help you get started.

http://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/dp/Epson3800/index.html
http://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/dp/Epson3800/faq.html

You can look at the Ink Usage question to get an idea of what inks tend to go fastest, but I will warn you ahead of time that it depends not just on what paper you use, or whether you shoot landscapes vs. architecture, but rather on the mix of colors in the palette. Warm colors (e.g., fall colors) lead to very different usage patterns than cool colors, as you'd expect. That said, the fastest ones to go are usually Light Cyan, Light Magenta, Light Black, and Light Light Black. If you're printing lots of warm colors, Yellow could be up there, too. Cyan and Magenta (non-Light) go slow. Cyan will probably take the longest. Regular Black is somewhere in the middle.

Unless you're printing a lot, I wouldn't buy too many cartridges in advance.

On the above page you can find other papers available in 17x25.

I have had success using both USB and Ethernet, but some users are reporting having trouble with getting bidirectional communication working with the Ethernet. That is, they can print, but they can't get status information back. I have noted this in the FAQ as well as noted my personal network setup in hopes that it will help people, but at this stage I don't have any advice to offer here except that you have to try it and see if it works ...

[Doombrain]

Yeah, SM3's not a fan of the network. Try running over LPR (installed from control panel), I've had it working that way getting full status back.

[Marty C]

As for which colors are used the most. I would buy LC, LM, YE, & BK in that order.

[etrexler]

I only print wireless ove rthe Etehrnet port and have no issues.  My average print is either a 12MB file from my Canon 5D or a 200-400MB file from MF film scans.

Either way you go, I think you'll love the printer.  I can finally print to the quality that I require.


Eric