If your only source of information on HP's Z3100 series printers was this forum, you'd probably come away thinking they are deeply, even fatally flawed. I am amazed by the anger and bitterness of many posts complaining about various problems or defects attributed to these products. Yes, I understand the frustration that comes from laying down something approaching $5,000 (U.S.) for a big purchase only to find it has some issues. I own one, and it's likely the last printer I'll be buying for a long time. I've struggled with some of its quirks and cursed after seeing head strikes (that were mostly my fault.) But really, people.
I think folks should take a deep breath and look at the big picture.
I have no affiliation with HP, I'm not a photo professional, and I have no secret knowledge. However, I have been printing digitally for about 10 years, going way back to the original HP Photosmart "Pizza oven" printer and a balky Epson 1200. My first large format printer was Epson's 7600. Perhaps people have forgotten, but when that printer came out it was initially almost unusable due to abysmally bad linearity and difficulty with profiling. In my case I didn't get really good results with it until Bill Atkinson's profiles became available, after wasting a ton of expensive ink. Then there was the dreaded black ink swap problem, which meant users had to stick with matte black on fine art paper, or photo black on photo paper, or blow something approaching $100 in ink on the changeover.
Now we have a printer that comes with a built-in spectrophotometer and automated profiling system that actually works, that has matte black ink and photo black ink simultaneously installed, that produces prints looking every bit as good as those from an expertly used and maintained Epson 7800/9800 with a lot less effort, and that provides quadblack BW prints on fine art paper right out of the box. I recently made a series of BW prints on Hahnemuhle photo rag satin using a profile generated by the printer and the HP black & white driver mode. These are without question the best BW prints I have ever made, by any method. They look like they are etched in steel, with an excellent D-max and clean tonal separation from shadow to highlight. My color prints look equally good, and I couldn't be happier with the results.
I will readily concede that this forum is visited by many posters with far more expertise than my modest skills, and I can appreciate that for professionals requiring absolute color fidelity to the last percentage point there may be issues with the Z printers. But for the devoted amateur or budding "fine art" printer, they are fabulous machines. Don't let the overwhelming negative ambience in this forum put you off.
I remember the first six months with my Epson 7600; it wasn't pretty either.
