Epson 1900 v. 2880?

[larkvi]

I am looking to buy a printer, and, given my intended use and my lack of a photographic income-stream, the Epson 1900 seems to be the right one for my price range, but I am not entirely clear what the differences between it and the 2880 are (after looking at the tech sheets, I am still not). What are the differences between the smaller (and, I believe, higher cost/L) ink cartridges, and how much printing do I have to do before ink makes one or the other more cost-effective?

[NikoJorj]

the Epson 1900 seems to be the right one for my price range, but I am not entirely clear what the differences between it and the 2880 are

Differencies :
- the 1900, with its gloss varnish, has a better output on really glossy papers,
- the 2880, with its grey inks, has a (much) better output in B&W printing, and is said to have an edge on matte (though I find my 1800 very good at matte),
- the 2880 wastes inks (a lot of it) when switching from matte to glossy whereas the 1900 does not.

That said both have ridiculously small cartridges, making the ink they contain cost more than a Chateau d'Yquem 1988 (and that's a good year, even if it's young for an Yquem).
This makes the 3880 cheaper than the 2880, with almost no matte/glossy switch waste, larger format for free, and that even without considering output volume or running cost but just counting how much ink comes with the printer.

So, the real question is rather 1900 vs. 3880 (same strengths on B&W and on matte as 2880).

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Differencies :
- the 1900, with its gloss varnish, has a better output on really glossy papers,
- the 2880, with its grey inks, has a (much) better output in B&W printing, and is said to have an edge on matte (though I find my 1800 very good at matte),
- the 2880 wastes inks (a lot of it) when switching from matte to glossy whereas the 1900 does not.

That said both have ridiculously small cartridges, making the ink they contain cost more than a Chateau d'Yquem 1988 (and that's a good year, even if it's young for an Yquem).
This makes the 3880 cheaper than the 2880, with almost no matte/glossy switch waste, larger format for free, and that even without considering output volume or running cost but just counting how much ink comes with the printer.

So, the real question is rather 1900 vs. 3880 (same strengths on B&W and on matte as 2880).

And, as a P.S. to Niko's comment, I'll point out that the 3880 takes up very little more desk space than a 2880. I recently replaced my ancient 2200 with a 3800, which sticks out maybe an inch in each direction from the old 2200. But what a difference in ink savings and performance! And the new 3880 should be the same size but better.

[larkvi]

Thank you both. I plan to print matte mainly, so the advantage of the 1900 is not that pronounced. Looks like I'll have to figure out how to budget for the 3880 on my student stipend. . .

Does anyone have sense of how much printing one must do to break even on the 3880 over the 1900?

[Farmer]

There's no real ink cost to swap from Photo to Matte black on the 2880 because the small ink cartridges sit on the carriage and don't feed into lines/dampers and thus there's no clearing of those to do a swap.

The 3880 is far more economical than the 1900 if you can get through a set of ink in 6 months (which is the recommended life once the ink is inserted).  If you do that, given that you get full inks with the printer by the time you are through your second set after 12 months you'd have broken even or better compared to buying that much ink for a 1900.

If you don't print that much, then it will take longer and in fact you run the risk of having cartridges beyond their recommended usage time (even though many people regularly do this without a problem, you might end up having to replace carts that still have ink in them, so it's a risk).

The 3880 also gives you more paper paths and types of media it can handle, as well as the 17" capacity and in most parts of the world, an onsite warranty instead of the return to base of the smaller units.

[NikoJorj]

Does anyone have sense of how much printing one must do to break even on the 3880 over the 1900?

I'll start from B&H prices : 500-150=350$ after rebate for the 1900 (wow, I paid twice that in France for my 1800), and ink is at 12.50$ per 11ml cartridge id est around 1150$/liter.
1350$ for the 3880 (there might be better prices?) and 50$ per 80ml cartridge ie 625$/liter (close to 2x cheaper).

To use with the 1900 the quantity of ink that came with the 3880 (80mlx9cartridges=720ml), you'll have to go through 8 full cartridges sets (11mlx8cartridgesx8sets) costing you 700$ (7 new sets).
Total cost, supposing all other variables equal : 1050$ (1900) vs. 1350$ (3880) (NB at 700$ B&H initial price a 2880 would then cost around 1400$).

When you go through a second cartridge set on the 3880 (cost 450$, eq. to 8 sets = 800$ with the 1900), the total costs amount to 1850$ (1900) vs. 1800$ (3880). Seems like around the even break.

The trickier part comes when evaluating how many prints come with this ink amount...
The rule of thumb of 50 A3=11x17" with a 90ml set of R1900 cartridges, or the findings or MarkDS which are in fair agreement (15-20ml/m²), would say you need about 750 A3 prints to reach the even break.
I'd thought that was more (didn't think the 1900 was so cheap to buy).

Oh, and I'd think nobody mentioned one con of the former 3800, it couldn't print more than 95cm=37", though a workaround has been developed with an older driver.
I don't know if this may wholly (no limitation  ) or partly (no workaround  - edit: that might be the answer I'm afraid) not apply to the 3880.

[Ken Bennett]

That's a good analysis.

I bought my 3800 just over two years ago, and I am just now using up the last of my second full set of ink carts. I guess I don't print enough? Anyway, if you print as much as I did, according to Nicholas' post it would take two years for the 1900 and the 3880 to be the same overall cost.

The 1900 looks like a steal at $350. But that's just my opinion.

[larkvi]

That's really helpful, NikoJori. I am unlikely to do more than 750 prints, so the 1900 looks better and better.

Sadly, the 1900 at Vistek here in Toronto, even with the comparable dollars, is twice the B&H cost, before taxes.

[armand]

This is a very helpful topic for me also, as I'm looking at the same printers. Looks like I am in the same boat as larkvi, as I seriously doubt I will print more than 750 A3 prints in few years, not in 6 months. I mean there is no room for them in my house   So the smaller cartridges, while much more expensive per ml of ink, do make more sense as I'm not going to use even half of the larger cartridges before I have to replace them. I'm expecting to print 50-150 A3 in a year.
So one of my questions was if the 3880 has a significantly better output quality. While I would love printing 17" wide, the fact that usually goes only to 17x22 doesn't make it so attractive. I would rather have the option for 13x44 instead.

Same for the 2880. Even if it's more expensive I would buy it if it has better quality (realistically I don't think B&W would be a significant part) and similar ink cost.


(I'm sure any of them would be much better than my current R320 anyway and I use a networked WorkForce 600 for the usual stuff)


PS. it's quite annoying that Epson makes it so hard to find the ink cartridge capacity, for 2880 at least

[Farmer]

(I'm sure any of them would be much better than my current R320 anyway and I use a networked WorkForce 600 for the usual stuff)

Not a significant difference between the 3880 and 2880, but definitely you will see the difference to your R320 because the R320 is dye ink and the 2880 and 3880 are pigment.  The 2880 and 3880 have 3 levels of black compared to a single level for the R320, so you'll see differences from there, too.

[kim]

Before buying a 3800 I had an R800 - the A4 equivalent of the previous generation to the R1900 (R1800). After the first year or two the main problem was nozzle clogs. These guzzle up ink when you run a cleaning cycle meaning you have to change cartridges more often and the cartridge changes also guzzle up ink, partly because of the charging up process and partly because of the likelihood of introducing another nozzle blockage and having to do more cleaning cycles to clear it. The ink use calculations in previous posts don't take any account of the wastage. I reckon I was lucky to get even 30 A4 prints from a set of cartridges before having to change one or two. Remember the ink usage rate of the CMY is typically faster than the others.

The 3800 so far has been faultless and the piece of mind due to not having to change cartridges during a long run of printmaking is so much better than the stress of running an R800.

[armand]

Well, I just ordered the R1900. It's 430 now and after 150 rebate it drops to 280 which is quite reasonable and probably I'm not going to regret not getting the 2880. As for a wider format, I always like to keep a reason to upgrade