Need Advice.

[mattw]

I purchased a HP Z3100ps printer with a 5-year service warranty in November 2007 with the intent of doing a lot of printing. Unfortunately, unforeseen family health problems threw my life into disarray. The printer was moved off the palette but never started and has all the “remove before flight” tags still installed. It will be about another nine months before I will be able to use the printer.  

I am seeking advise/opinions on what I should do. Would it be better to keep the printer and start it up in nine months with a year and a half of the 5-year warranty remaining, or would it be better to sell it now and buy something new in nine months? Or, would it be better to trade it in on a current generation printer now (any deals available)?

Numerous things to consider. The Z3100ps is superseded and lost much of its value. It may be difficult to sell even though it is new and unstarted. No telling what will be available in nine months and it may become of even less value if I wait to sell it. Selling it now would become down payment on a more capable printer in nine months. A substantial amount of money has been invested in the printer/warranty and it may be better to keep it.

I’ve been out of the loop for a long time. I would appreciate any advice or thoughts on what the best course of action would be based on current generation of printers available (HP Z3200, Canon iPF6300, Epson 7900) and newer printers possibly coming out in nine months.

Thanks.
Matt

[teddillard]

I purchased a HP Z3100ps printer with a 5-year service warranty in November 2007 with the intent of doing a lot of printing. Unfortunately, unforeseen family health problems threw my life into disarray. The printer was moved off the palette but never started and has all the “remove before flight” tags still installed. It will be about another nine months before I will be able to use the printer.  

I am seeking advise/opinions on what I should do. Would it be better to keep the printer and start it up in nine months with a year and a half of the 5-year warranty remaining, or would it be better to sell it now and buy something new in nine months? Or, would it be better to trade it in on a current generation printer now (any deals available)?

Numerous things to consider. The Z3100ps is superseded and lost much of its value. It may be difficult to sell even though it is new and unstarted. No telling what will be available in nine months and it may become of even less value if I wait to sell it. Selling it now would become down payment on a more capable printer in nine months. A substantial amount of money has been invested in the printer/warranty and it may be better to keep it.

I’ve been out of the loop for a long time. I would appreciate any advice or thoughts on what the best course of action would be based on current generation of printers available (HP Z3200, Canon iPF6300, Epson 7900) and newer printers possibly coming out in nine months.

Thanks.
Matt

Well, there are a lot of great printers out there.  I can only really say, we have the Z3100 here along side the Z3200, and the print quality is very similar.  I haven't run the tests myself, and am fairly new to the HP line in general, but my impression is that one of the big improvements of the Z3200 was in the red palette.  I guess, if it were me, and I didn't do most of my work in reds, I'd get that baby printing ASAP and don't look back.  Besides everything else, the hassle of selling it and shipping it is time spent not printing...  

...just my 2¢  

[Geoff Wittig]

Well, there are a lot of great printers out there.  I can only really say, we have the Z3100 here along side the Z3200, and the print quality is very similar.  I haven't run the tests myself, and am fairly new to the HP line in general, but my impression is that one of the big improvements of the Z3200 was in the red palette.  I guess, if it were me, and I didn't do most of my work in reds, I'd get that baby printing ASAP and don't look back.  Besides everything else, the hassle of selling it and shipping it is time spent not printing...  

...just my 2¢  

What Ted said.
The Z3100 is still the very best wide format inkjet printer in existence for black & white. It has the best D-max on both matte and gloss/semigloss/baryta papers, with a very linear grey ramp and an extremely pleasing neutral grey that (to my eye) leans just a tiny bit toward the cool side on neutral papers. It is essentially immune to clogs, and the capacity to make perfectly decent profiles automatically is really nice.

If your main interest is in color prints, you prefer matte cotton rag papers, and the red/orange part of the gamut is critical to your work, then the Z3100 may leave you frustrated. There's also a fairly steep learning curve to its rather squirrely driver. If money is no object, the latest Canon and Epson printers have a wider gamut and very slightly better dithering/image quality, but you'd honestly have a hard time telling which is better in side by side comparison of prints.

[mattw]

Thanks for the input guys. That is something else to throw into the decision process; 99% of my printing is full color on matte papers. Would that change your recommendations?

Matt

[Geoff Wittig]

Thanks for the input guys. That is something else to throw into the decision process; 99% of my printing is full color on matte papers. Would that change your recommendations?

Matt

Possibly. The Z3100 is distinctly weak in the saturated reds on matte/cotton rag papers, worse than for semigloss/baryta papers. In my experience it's especially bad if you generate your own profile with the on-board spectro; the profile I got for HP's version of Hahnemuhle smooth fine art gave an unusably poor red/orange gamut. The 'canned' profile from HP was noticeably better.

If a large proportion of your work is very saturated fall color foliage or Southwestern red rock landscapes and you want to print on cotton rag paper, the Z3100 will probably drive you crazy. A lot of the images will fall out of gamut and leave you with posterized, cartoonish dull reds. If on the other hand you print a lot of green foliage and blue skies, you'll be delighted. The Z3100 does lovely blues and greens, and its d-max on cotton rag paper is the best available, which gives you a greater perceived dynamic range. Since you already own the printer and will get only a fraction of its nominal worth selling it, you may want to fire it up and see if its output fits your images.

[Mark Lindquist]

I purchased a HP Z3100ps printer with a 5-year service warranty in November 2007 with the intent of doing a lot of printing. Unfortunately, unforeseen family health problems threw my life into disarray. The printer was moved off the palette but never started and has all the “remove before flight” tags still installed. It will be about another nine months before I will be able to use the printer.  

I am seeking advise/opinions on what I should do. Would it be better to keep the printer and start it up in nine months with a year and a half of the 5-year warranty remaining, or would it be better to sell it now and buy something new in nine months? Or, would it be better to trade it in on a current generation printer now (any deals available)?

Thanks.
Matt

Definitely a quandary.  Looks like you're also asking for business advice.  That printer sitting there for 4+ years unopened is right now worth the most it could possibly be in the future.  If you do plan on selling it, now is the time, unopened.  When you open it, you'll find that the print heads and the inks are expired.  You can sell the printer on eBay (try local pickup only) and be done with it.  Then when you know for sure that you're ready to jump in you can restart your process of printer investigation.  Every day that goes by, the printer is worth less and less.  Crack it open and worth even way more less.  I just saw an unopened Z3100 printer on E Bay:  http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-MODEL-Q5669A-DESIGN...=item5adad7aefe

[KevinWilliams]

You got a 5 year warranty on a printer? Seems like a waste to me, but besides the point. You seemed like you invested to use that printer for at least that long. the Z3100 is an amazing printer and you will be very pleased with the quality of prints you get from it. If you were to sell it you would not get nearly what you paid for.

You have a great printer and a warranty for it. Keep it and make some money with it!! You may even want to try and even look for some 3rd party inks cartridges.

[Shutterbug2006]

You may even want to try and even look for some 3rd party inks cartridges.

If they're not original HP inks, I doubt they'd have the same composition or longevity.

[Roscolo]

Printers are even worse than cars as far as keeping any value once their "used." You've essentially got a brand new printer, and the best one ever made in my opinion, certainly the best I've used. Fire it up and start printing.