Serious Price War in LF printers

[deanwork]

By looking at the lexjet site it appears there is a serious price war going on between Canon and Epson. Both the 9890 and the IPF 83000 are going for $3,000.00 US. All I can say is may the best one win and I"ll take advantage of both.

john

[neile]

$3000? That's way over-priced I paid $2799 plus got a complete set of replacement ink for half off a year ago.

Neil

[abiggs]

$3,000 for the 9890 isn't in the same league as the 8300. Just my opinion. Not enough inks for fine art production, IMHO.

[Wayne Fox]

currently there is a $500 instant rebate on the 9890 which gets the price after discounts to around $3000.  In august Epson rebates were more aggressive, I think the 9890 was $750 meaning street prices under $3k.

Curious if Canon's large format printers are part of the announced production problems because of flooding in Thailand?  They just said "printers" so perhaps it's only their consumer line. For those thinking of buying a Canon, might want to get it now.

There's gonna be a shortage of many things very soon ... may impact things more than the tsunami did.

I have a slightly different opinion on the "number" of inks ... all colors are made up up of mixed colors along with black ink anyway so I think the screening technology is more critical to the quality of a printer than the number of inks.  Increased number of inks leads to better saturated colors in some areas and I agree the Canon has a larger gamut and has outstanding quality, but for the great majority of images most would struggle seeing any difference in side by side comparisons.

[deanwork]

I'm sure the gamut of the 9890 is equally broad as the 8300. We did profiles for my HPZ and the 8300 and evaluated in color think and there was not a lot of difference between the two, with slightly better gamut in the reds and yellows on the Canon. The 9900 on the other hand was in a different realm of intensity in the lighter and midtone hues, and was really in a color space all it's own. But for practical purposes for most photographers you won't see any need for that orange and blue capability unless you do match proofs and trying to exactly match pantone colors or have a color palette that is off the charts in terms of saturation. I would say that is about 3% of the color photography being produced out there today if your not doing proofing for offset.  The 8 color Epson inks are more than enough to equal the Canon 11 channels set I imagine. Since I'm using mine for only black and white inks I'll probably never find out.

john

[narikin]

By looking at the lexjet site it appears there is a serious price war going on between Canon and Epson. Both the 9890 and the IPF 83000 are going for $3,000.00 US. All I can say is may the best one win and I"ll take advantage of both.

Remember to check the amount of ink you get with each printer and factor that in. Canon gives you a complete set of 330ml carts, Epson give you just enough to charge the printer and make a weeks worth of printing (110ml?).  This consideration can be over $1000 difference. 

Some suppliers were throwing in an iPad about Christmas for buyers of the Canon. See if Lexjet are doing that this Xmas. That's another $500 value. I took advantage of that last year, and sold it on eBay for $525. new cost from Apple: $495. Folks are nuts. in 2010, the net cost of the printer after $1000 Canon rebate: $2250. Net cost if you factor in the extra ink they give you, compared to Epson. was minus $95.

All this (light heart-ed) penny counting aside: you should choose the machine you want for its use and output, not on the saving of a few $ here or there.

[tastar]

In my opinion, it's also a price war against small dealers like us - at $3,000, an Epson 9890 is more than $200.00 below our cost. I really don't like selling products at a loss, and it's just not worth selling them at these prices. I think that in the long-term, if the big guys keep it up, there won't be small dealers to help local photographers with installations, do real troubleshooting of printing issues and to provide other services that are essential to your businesses. So, my vote (of course) is for supporting small dealers and possibly spending a little more in the process. And if you do that, it will theoretically help everyone down the road.

I also heard a rumor that the 24 inch and larger Epson rebates are ending this month. So, if anyone is looking to buy, now would be a really good time to pick one up.

Tony

[T_om]

In my opinion, it's also a price war against small dealers like us - at $3,000, an Epson 9890 is more than $200.00 below our cost. I really don't like selling products at a loss, and it's just not worth selling them at these prices. I think that in the long-term, if the big guys keep it up, there won't be small dealers to help local photographers with installations, do real troubleshooting of printing issues and to provide other services that are essential to your businesses. So, my vote (of course) is for supporting small dealers and possibly spending a little more in the process. And if you do that, it will theoretically help everyone down the road.

I also heard a rumor that the 24 inch and larger Epson rebates are ending this month. So, if anyone is looking to buy, now would be a really good time to pick one up.

Tony

The problem for small dealers is that these printers are now in the same class as most other commodities.  Why is Epson charging you so much at wholesale?  Probably because you are not buying very many.  Buy more and your problem goes away.  Can't sell more?  Then that is your problem, not the printer manufacturers.  They are not in business to prop up under-capitalized, limited sales small businesses.

And as much as we (the small business people) would like to believe our services are vital, in actual fact they are not.  There is no need for someone to come "set up" my new Canon ipf printers.  They work out of the box.  Would I pay you to do that?  Certainly not, a child could do it.  As for service, my warranty is with Canon, not you the retailer.  If I have a problem, I'll bet you would tell me I would have to contact Canon tech support... you would not be coming out and doing the repair yourself (unless you are a certified Canon repair facility).  So, I call Canon and they provide the solution. 

Why bother with you and a significantly higher price now?

Tom

[Ken Doo]

In my opinion, it's also a price war against small dealers like us - at $3,000, an Epson 9890 is more than $200.00 below our cost.....Tony

Tony, I don't think it's a "price war" against small dealers but moreso maybe just collateral damage.     Hurts the same, I know.  I do like smaller businesses like Tastar though, even though I'm on the other coast.  I like Tastar's ink cartridge recycling program, good pricing, and customer service.

ken