As a professional photographer, I originally purchased the new Canon ipf6100 24" model due to a great price. But after much use, I began to have buyers remorse. So I decided to compare the latest HP, Canon, and Epson printers one more time. What I found might be helpful for anyone else who is trying to make this same decision.
I finally decided on the Epson Stylus Pro 7880 because:
Loading cut-sheet and roll media is a dream compared to the Canon or HP. The print quality is what I sell. The HP and Canon are grainy on higher-end photo papers. The build-quality of the hardware is far superior to the Canon or HP. It seemed that many pro's also have standardized on the Epson. The availability of different media types on the Epson is incredible. I was amazed about how many third-party RIP's support the Epson. Although, I will probably stick with the standard driver for now. I feel Canon's technical support was weak. I learned more from this forum than Canon. I hear that HP's tech support seems O.K. and Epson might be best? Also, the new vivid magenta inks are a little better than Epson's previous inks, but overall better than HP or my Canon's. And my Canon requires 12 inks to do what Epson does using only 8!
I do hate the idea of switching between black inks, but the above comments outways this issue for me. I will try printing using the Photo Black for everything. So no switching. I hope.
After installing my Epson, my buyers remorse is gone, and my work has never looked better.
It's amazing how much printing technology has improved our industry!
BTW, thank you for running such a great forum.