Epson 9900 vs 9890 ?!

[hacimd]

I'm wondering if anyone has had the chance to print with the 9900 and could share there experiences with me?  I'm curious of how the HDR ink system(uses 10 ink cartridges instead of 8, which now includes green and orange cartridges) compares to the Epson Ultrachrome K3 inks used in the 9890?  Is the difference that much more greater outside of HDR printing?

Epson also boasts to be working with X-Rite, stating that the 9900 has incorporated an optional, high-performance, in-line spectrophotometer. When driven by the latest front-end RIPs, Epson SpectroProofer™ can automate any color management process in your commercial or flexographic proofing workflow....Does this work and is the quality worth spending the extra money on 2 extra ink cartridges.

Any information you could share would be greatly appreciated.

[langier]

I have a 9900 and 9800. The 9900 is a little wider gamut. However, it's just a little wider than my 9800 for my work.

I bought the 9900 to print canvas--faster than the 9800 and the rotary cutter that will handle that heavy stock. For this project, the larger carts, 350ml and 700ml, vs. 220ml are nice.

We recently also got a 3880 for sheets. It's got the Vivid Magenta pigments. it's also an incrementally better printer than the 9900 and faster/better/cheaper to run than the 2200 it replaced plus better b&w and nicer canned profiles.

If price is an issue, don't shy away from even the x800 printers if you find one. They will make fantastic quality prints. However, if you need speed, the rotary cutter, large carts, then get either the 9890/9900. If you are doing flexography or other prepress, the 9900 with spectro in that environment is a nice combo and from what I understand, does a pretty good job as a proofing machine for not only hexachrome but a pretty good job hitting most of the spot colors of the PMS deck.

Otherwise, any of the later model Epson printers will produce great prints.

[hacimd]

Thank you for this information!

[Luca Ragogna]

I was in the same position as you when I bought my printer. From talking with a number of people my understanding was that the true value of the extra inks was being able to match more PMS spot colours for commercial offset proofing rather than for fine art printing. At the time Epson had a rather nice rebate offer for the 9890 so I grabbed it and it's doing an amazing job. I think that you'll be happy either way, just see if you can find a good deal on one or the other.

I agree with langier about the 9800/9880 doing an equally amazing job, I printed on a 9800 for a long time, but used ones were very close in price to what I got the 9890 for. Plus I like being able to switch between the Matte and Photo blacks.

BTW: the 9890 will take the same X-Rite Spectro accessory as the 9900, but for the money I'd rather buy a stand alone unit that can also profile my monitor, projector and other printers. The built in spectro makes perfect sense in a pre-press production environment, not so much in a photographers studio.

[Sven W]

There's been several threads regarding this on LuLa. Use the Search option.

Printing with 4900, 11880 and 9900. And sometimes with the slooooow 7880.
It's not only color gamut to notice, but sharpness from the new heads, and speed, for these printers.
Larger head, means more to print/pass. Extremely sharp dots.

I would never buy a 9800 or 9880 for those reasons, but definitely a 99 or 9890.

The Spectro has also been under the loupe here before.
It's only useful for a couple of softwares, such as Efi ColorProof XF and Mirage.
Mirage has just released an extension for the Pro version, where you actually can
measure, build and save custom profiles. Even from other printers.

/Sven

[Wayne Fox]

Is the difference that much more greater outside of HDR printing?

Not sure what you might mean by this, but if I read that sort of literally it seems to imply something to the effect that the difference is best when printing HDR images?

The use of HDR for the inkset is misleading, and really isn't related to HDR capture techniques.  Unless an HDR image has colors outside the gamut of the 9890 and inside the gamut of the 9900, visually there will be no difference ... but this applies to all images, not just HDR captures.

There are some other very subtle differences in some colors  (such as flesh) where the HDR inkset uses orange and green in ways that offer some very slight differences in subtle tones and transitions, but the K3 printers still deliver outstanding image quality.  I use both a 7900 and an 11880 (at different locations), and rarely do I opt to wait to print something on my 7900 when I'm working at the location with my 11880.