Hello,
I have purchased a new Epson R3800 K3 ink printer, and I am very pleased with it. I have only had my printer for 3 days and do not qualify as a long term user of course, but I have not seen the DOA problems or banding, etc.
I have printed on two types of paper, the Epson Premium Luster paper, with the Epson icc appropriate profile, and the Red River Arctic Polar Satin with the Red River icc profile for this paper and printer. I can honestly see absolutely no difference in quality of the two papers, I printed the same image, same size, no setting differences except for icc profile use, Adobe Photoshop CS3 managed the color. I am pleased with the colors in each print as compared to my monitor(hardware calibrated) and the quality of inks. I was pleased with the packaging (do you think there is any tape left in the world now?)
This was a very expensive printer purchase for me, but I am glad that I made the jump. I also own a small Epson dye ink printer, the R320 with six inks. I did not want to physically swap out the photo black and matte black inks and I wanted the larger cartridge sizes of 80ml, so for these reasons, I chose the R3800 K3 ink printer, over the R800 and R2400. I am an amateur photographer who enjoys my equipment and shooting opportunities.
I look forward to trying the wider format papers and realizing the full use of this tremendous printer; I have some 17" wide paper ordered now of the Red River Arctic Polar type. I'll report back later possibly, with those results.
Thank you, I enjoy the forum very much,
Debra Gillilan