I've owned the Epson 4000 since it was released and have used it very successfully with Colorburst RIP X-Proof software to proof my CMYK images.
I have justed landed, along with a designer, a new account where I will do all the pre-press (which, presonally I love), for about 350 images I shoot. While this is not the largerest project I've handled (I do a catalog annually with over 500 images), in the past much of my proofing has been soft proofing since the client didn't want to see randoms. With this new client, they will want to sign-off on every image.
Colorburst and the 4000 have worked well in my workflow, but the printer, by comparison, is no longer considered speedy -- especially compared to the Canon iPF 5000 (I know that a new one is about to be released). Has anyone out there done large scale CMYK image proofing, accurately, using Photoshop to output to the 5000? I'd rather not plunk down money for yet another Postscript RIP (I own two already).
Nemo