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Author Topic: New Epson LF printers  (Read 14793 times)

keith_cooper

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New Epson LF printers
« on: September 21, 2010, 12:04:59 pm »

Just updated our Epson info for the new 4900
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/printers/epson4900.html
and the 7890/9890
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/printers/epson9890-7890.html

At last no black ink swapping!

I've been speaking to Epson UK  and they are hoping to have some demo units of the 4900 before the end of the year.

The 7890 uses the same inks as the 7880 and has an optional spectro - looks like a 7900 minus the HDR ink set.

Interesting - just when i was thinking of updating our big printers ;-)
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Randy Carone

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Re: New Epson LF printers
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2010, 01:30:03 pm »

keith,

So they took out the Green and Orange. I see no mention of ink size, but I imagine it uses the 150, 350 and 700ml sized carts. Do you know if that is the case?
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Randy Carone

wildstork

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Re: New Epson LF printers
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2010, 01:42:11 pm »

Randy,
The 9890 is an update on the 9880, not the 9990... and the 9880 never had green and orange.  They've just updated the printer so one no longer needs to pump black ink into the waste tank when switching from MK to PK.  This is something they should have done ten years ago, so much as it's an improvement I personally don't see it as sufficient reason to go with Epson over the Canon ipf8300, especially at the prices Canon is offering.

Epson will need to drop their price significantly with serious rebates and offer a better warranty if I'm ever going to buy another of their wide format printers.
Lawrence 
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feppe

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Re: New Epson LF printers
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2010, 01:47:25 pm »

Randy,
The 9890 is an update on the 9880, not the 9990... and the 9880 never had green and orange.  They've just updated the printer so one no longer needs to pump black ink into the waste tank when switching from MK to PK.  This is something they should have done ten years ago, so much as it's an improvement I personally don't see it as sufficient reason to go with Epson over the Canon ipf8300, especially at the prices Canon is offering.

Epson will need to drop their price significantly with serious rebates and offer a better warranty if I'm ever going to buy another of their wide format printers.
Lawrence 

Now, if Canon would finally release a new 17" printer with Lucia EX inks...

keith_cooper

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not much info...
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2010, 01:49:23 pm »

I've only found the press releases - the UK Epson press office was only sending out fairly brief notes.

As yet, I've found no detailed info on any Epson site -  the 78/98 versions certainly look like x900 printers, so I'd expect some shared components
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keith_cooper

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iPF5300?
« Reply #5 on: September 21, 2010, 02:03:10 pm »

Now, if Canon would finally release a new 17" printer with Lucia EX inks...
Ah, the iPF5300 - something for next year?

It's worth noting the way the iPF6300/8300 release was somewhat fudged by different parts of Canon worldwide.

I'm off to the US (Seattle) at the end of the week, and have to say that I'm minded to get an iPF8300 when I'm back later next month - hopefully I'll get some new pics worth printing on it :-)
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feppe

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Re: iPF5300?
« Reply #6 on: September 21, 2010, 02:04:48 pm »

Ah, the iPF5300 - something for next year?

If they delay it long enough I might just convince myself to get a 22" printer :P

Randy Carone

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Re: New Epson LF printers
« Reply #7 on: September 21, 2010, 02:25:01 pm »

Lawrence,
Actually, the 9890 is a "downgrade" of the 9900, which is why I said they "took out the Orange and Green". The 9890 is the body of the 9900 not the 9880. You still have the speed of the 9900, the hot switch of photo to matte black and no spindle. I have not confirmed this yet, but it most likely uses the cart sizes (150, 350 and 700ml) of the 9900 not the 110 and 220ml of the 9880 printer.
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hsmeets

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Re: New Epson LF printers
« Reply #8 on: September 21, 2010, 05:19:24 pm »

is it my bad taste or is that 4900 really ugly?
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Wayne Fox

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Re: New Epson LF printers
« Reply #9 on: September 21, 2010, 05:22:08 pm »

Lawrence,
Actually, the 9890 is a "downgrade" of the 9900, which is why I said they "took out the Orange and Green". The 9890 is the body of the 9900 not the 9880. You still have the speed of the 9900, the hot switch of photo to matte black and no spindle. I have not confirmed this yet, but it most likely uses the cart sizes (150, 350 and 700ml) of the 9900 not the 110 and 220ml of the 9880 printer.
The change seems logical.  In reading the information it appears the mk/pk is like the 11880 ... both have a unique set of nozzles so no ink switching.  But it doesn't explicitly say this, and in reading the press release it could be interpreted to be like the 79/9900 ... both inks to the head but shared nozzles.  Auto switching can be interpreted to be what the 79/9900 does.

That doesn't make sense, and since they've adapted the smaller inkset to the new chassis, they should have enough channels to be like the 11880.
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Doombrain

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Re: New Epson LF printers
« Reply #10 on: September 22, 2010, 07:44:36 am »

same cart sizes on the x890 as the x900 and there's a swap valve on the head, it's not like the 11880
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Ernst Dinkla

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Re: New Epson LF printers
« Reply #11 on: September 22, 2010, 09:27:57 am »

same cart sizes on the x890 as the x900 and there's a swap valve on the head, it's not like the 11880

The 11880 has 2 heads with 5 ink channels each but one head doesn't have the nozzles for the 10th channel. 9 inks so all covered with a channel each.
The 9900 has the 10 channels but 11 inks so a switch is needed. That will be what the 4900 has as well.
If the 9890 has 9 inks and a switch on PK-MK then Epson returned to an 8 channel single head, 3800 style. I guess to compete on price with the Canons and HPs. I have written more often that on price it is difficult to compete with thermohead printers, price per nozzle is much higher for a piëzo head. The piëzo head nozzle can do more in terms of droplet size variation and droplet frequency but that isn't compensating the nozzle quantity difference enough.

Compare the Epson 4900 price with the Epson 7890 price, not more than a 300 UKP difference. Check the Canon iPF5100 price, a full 12 inks, 12 channel system.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

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JohnHeerema

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Ink swaps, ANC, and all that operational stuff
« Reply #12 on: September 22, 2010, 12:56:12 pm »

Like a lot of folks here, I've got my finger poised over the "Buy an Epson 9900" button, but I've been waiting to see what Epson would announce at Photokina.

My own $.02 is that I'd like the biggest gamut volume I can get, but all of the new printers are close enough to each other that I'm more swayed by how housebroken a printer is.

The thing that's kept me away from the 9900 so far, is the trouble that a lot of people have with the automatic nozzle check function, along with clogs and mysterious ink gaps. So I'm curious whether the new printers use the same ANC, or whether Epson has tweaked it to less susceptible to false positives (thinking that there's a nozzle clog, when there really isn't). Epson doesn't seem to be talking on this point so far, but I'd take a little bit less gamut if it meant having reliable ANC. Plus I'm curious about whether it's still one ink pump along with really long ink lines (which I think is almost certain).

If there's an ink switch on the print head, we're still into black ink swapping, but at a relatively modest cost of maybe $5 or so. I can live with that (albeit with a bit of grumbling, just as I grumble about the cost of an ink switch on the 3800).

So I'm still curious...
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Wayne Fox

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Re: New Epson LF printers
« Reply #13 on: September 22, 2010, 01:37:07 pm »

If the 9890 has 9 inks and a switch on PK-MK then Epson returned to an 8 channel single head, 3800 style.
If there's an ink switch on the print head, we're still into black ink swapping, but at a relatively modest cost of maybe $5 or so. I can live with that (albeit with a bit of grumbling, just as I grumble about the cost of an ink switch on the 3800).

Confirmed from Epson UK specification page.  The 7890/9890 has an 8 channel head, meaning it will swap blacks in the head like the 3880/7900/9900.  Much cheaper, but no switching on the fly like the 11880 or Canon IPF printers.
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Jeff Magidson

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Re: New Epson LF printers
« Reply #14 on: September 22, 2010, 01:54:27 pm »

When deciding which 44" printer to get (Epson or Canon) one major difference to consider is the ink cartridge sizes. The Epson's come in 110ML where as the Canon's come in 330ML as their smallest size. 330 ML @ $160 each x 12 = $1920 for a full set! That is a LOT of ink and unless you do a lot of printing you could run in to trouble with old / aged inks in your printer. For me... this is a deal breaker. For my volume of printing ( moderate ), I am much more comfortable with Epson's 110 ML carts.

~ Jeff

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Farmer

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Re: New Epson LF printers
« Reply #15 on: September 22, 2010, 05:57:24 pm »

The 11880 has 2 heads with 5 ink channels each but one head doesn't have the nozzles for the 10th channel. 9 inks so all covered with a channel each.

The 11880 has 1 head.  I have one sitting on my desk.
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Wayne Fox

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Re: New Epson LF printers
« Reply #16 on: September 22, 2010, 06:40:16 pm »

The 11880 has 2 heads with 5 ink channels each but one head doesn't have the nozzles for the 10th channel. 9 inks so all covered with a channel each.

As was pointed out, the 11880 is a single head.  It has five "channels" on the head. Four of the channels have 2 sets of nozzles so they can handle two colors, the fifth only 1 set of nozzles so only one color.  The channels create the color "pairs" that you use when cleaning the printer, as you can only clean a channel and not a color.  Since it is a 8 ink + MK system, all inks are available to the head so ink switching is on the fly.  It appears to lower production costs, the 7890 and 9890 head is smaller and leaves out the 5th channel/9th ink and replaces it with an ink switch in the head.
« Last Edit: September 22, 2010, 06:42:03 pm by Wayne Fox »
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Rob Reiter

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Re: New Epson LF printers
« Reply #17 on: September 22, 2010, 10:15:59 pm »

I wouldn't worry too much about inks going 'bad' on the Canon with it's 330ml cartridges. It periodically shakes them to keep the pigments from settling. I've had 700


When deciding which 44" printer to get (Epson or Canon) one major difference to consider is the ink cartridge sizes. The Epson's come in 110ML where as the Canon's come in 330ML as their smallest size. 330 ML @ $160 each x 12 = $1920 for a full set! That is a LOT of ink and unless you do a lot of printing you could run in to trouble with old / aged inks in your printer. For me... this is a deal breaker. For my volume of printing ( moderate ), I am much more comfortable with Epson's 110 ML carts.

~ Jeff


ml carts in an 8100 for a year and a half with no problem.

You could probably sell a set of 330's and buy 110 ml carts and make a profit...
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Ernst Dinkla

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Re: New Epson LF printers
« Reply #18 on: September 25, 2010, 06:38:54 am »

The 11880 has 1 head.  I have one sitting on my desk.

My mistake. The 10000/10600 was the last model with two separate heads. However the 11880 head could have 10 channels in total but one nozzle strip isn't created so it has 9 channels. Similar to the 360 nozzles per channel head as used in the 9900 but there it has the 10 channels all finished. The point I tried to make is that Epson has to be economic with nozzle quantity/channels because the piëzo heads nozzles are much more expensive to manufacture than the thermohead nozzles. The introduction of a new 24-44" models with 8 channels and a switch on the blacks must be seen in that light.

met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

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Farmer

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Re: New Epson LF printers
« Reply #19 on: September 25, 2010, 06:16:44 pm »

The GS6000 has two heads.
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