Epson 3800 newbie

[Robert Brummitt]

A friend of mine bought a 4900 and is offering me his 3800 for a real good price. I mean a real good price with extra inks and all for under $500. My question is I use a 2400 now can my custom icc profiles work with this printer or do I have to take the time to rebuild paper profiles?
I'm also playing with the idea of dedicating my old Mac Mini as a computer for just printing. Doing all my PS work on the one Mac then sending the files to the Mac Mini to print. My reasoning is then I can then free up memory for other things.
What do you think?
 

[Mark D Segal]

Robert, it's a different and better printer; different gamut, different inks. You should build new profiles.

I don't know what vintage or capacity of Macs you are using, but generally, unless you are very capacity and memory constrained you shouldn't need such workarounds.

[Robert Brummitt]

I thought the 2800 and the r2400 use the same inks, the K3's? I like the idea of better gamut. Should I retire the r2400 once I get the bigger printer running?
Thanks

[Mark D Segal]

I thought the 2800 and the r2400 use the same inks, the K3's? I like the idea of better gamut. Should I retire the r2400 once I get the bigger printer running?
Thanks

You mean the 3800 versus the 2400? Yes, sorry both use K3 inks, but the printheads differ. I think once you get the bigger printer running you will want to retire the 2400 - the ink cost per ML is much lower on the 3800, given the much larger cartridges - serious scale economies. You may want to keep the 2400 if you need to run 13" wide roll paper in it, because the 3800 does not have roll-holding capability. If you don't use roll paper in 13" width, I don't see much point hanging on to it.

[Robert Brummitt]

Your a wealth of information. Thank you!!

[Mark D Segal]

You are welcome.

[Wayne Fox]

My question is I use a 2400 now can my custom icc profiles work with this printer or do I have to take the time to rebuild paper profiles?

what papers are you printing on?  Unless you have very good equipment, profiles provided by most manufacturers are better than those you can make yourself.

[Mark D Segal]

If he's printing on Epson professional papers for which their North American profiles are available, that's a good suggestion. Otherwise, if he's printing with 3rd party papers and not many of them, ordering custom profiles from one of the better providers (Scott Martin, Andrew Rodney, etc) may be the way to go.

[Robert Brummitt]

My main paper is Ilford's Gold Silk. I use it for my color and B&W. I tried their icc's and not get a as good result as having a friend come over and use his paper profiler.

[BarbaraArmstrong]

I don't know about others, but I have trouble getting the 3880 to feed 4 x 6 inch papers without skewing the print.  If this is something you're interested in, I would hang onto my old printer and use it occasionally just to keep it up and running for such tasks.  I had two 2200's that bit the dust with paper feed problems, and I regret losing their capability with small sheets. (They could sit idle for some time without any clogging problems.) --Barbara

[Mark D Segal]

My main paper is Ilford's Gold Silk. I use it for my color and B&W. I tried their icc's and not get a as good result as having a friend come over and use his paper profiler.

Correct. Ilford's profile for this paper has been unimpressive. I use the same paper - love it - but with a custom profile.

[howardm]

I used to have this problem on my 3800 but now I set the sheet feeder width slider widget so there is no slack and in fact, the paper is flat or ever so slightly bows.  During feed, the printer expands the width and the paper does the right thing and the problem is solved.

I don't know about others, but I have trouble getting the 3880 to feed 4 x 6 inch papers without skewing the print.  If this is something you're interested in, I would hang onto my old printer and use it occasionally just to keep it up and running for such tasks.  I had two 2200's that bit the dust with paper feed problems, and I regret losing their capability with small sheets. (They could sit idle for some time without any clogging problems.) --Barbara

[BarbaraArmstrong]

Thanks for the response to my problem with the sheet feed.  I only rarely want to feed a small sheet, so this doesn't aggravate me very often.  Whenever I have made the paper guide snug to the edge of the paper (on any size sheet, I think), I get a paper feed error.  Strange.  When I set it with some leeway, the sheet feeds without a problem.  The next time I'm trying something small (like the 4 x 6) I'll try setting it to bow a little, and see if that works.  Thanks for taking the time to write about your own experience with this thing, which I'm otherwise quite pleased with.  --Barbara

[howardm]

Weird.  The first thing my 3800 does is expand the guides by a fraction, the paper seems to 'drop' and then it unexpands the the guides.  Works for my machine