quality of 11880 against 9900

[alifatemi]

I am about to purchase an Epson printer but because sometimes I like to make print larger that 44", am thinking of buying 11880  in first place but not sure if it can produce the same quality of 9900 or 7900. Any first hand experience please?

[Wayne Fox]

I have and use both printers.  Side by side you may see subtle differences between the two, but for most photographic work subtle is probably an overstatement.  And while the additional color may offer some slight gains in gamut, unless you scrutinize then very carefully  side by side the differences will not be visually significant (if there are any differences at all).

The 9900 has a little more going for it as far as print quality than just gamut but the output of both printers is outstanding.  From my experience (have 2 11880's, a 7900, a 9900, and a 4900) the 11880 head has less of a tendency to clog.

[framah]

Wayne, as an aside..sort of..


I just got my 11880 a month ago and it seems to be putting down alot of ink when it prints as the image has a definite ripple in it whereas my old 9900 never did that.
My 9900  just had a stroke ( fatally clogged green channel) and died. I'll try to replace the various parts this fall  when I finally slow down in here.

Do you know where I might find a setting to lessen the amount of ink it lays down?
I set it at 720 DPI rather than 1440 DPI and it did seem to help but it'd be nice to have high quality DPI without the over loading.


For me, the 11880 is giving me really great prints except for that over loading of the ink thing.

[Wayne Fox]

What paper are you using?  I've really never seen that before with my 11880's. I use only PK papers, mainly exhibition fiber, luster, and Ilford Galerie Gold Silk.  We crank a lot of work out at the shop however with one and use a pretty wide variety of papers, including a lot of matt and again haven't really seen that.  

That's one other thing worth mentioning about the 11880 to the original poster, if they like using matt and photo black inks, the 11880 is the one Epson printer that has both of those inks to the head full time ... there is no ink swapping at all on the 11880.  That's one reason we chose it for our main printer at the store.

[Paul2660]

On the 11880, have you tried picking a different media type for the paper/canvas that is getting too much ink?  Or backing
off the ink density?

On the 9900/9880 I have found that different media types seem to determine a lot of the amount of ink being laid down.

This was very evident with Breathing Color's Crystalline canvas in the 2011 batches.  With the 9900 If you picked WCRW the print would
lay down so much ink that it would pool on certain colors.  The solution was to pick proofing paper pub and still back off
the ink density by as much as -10. 

Paul

[framah]

Paul.. I was wondering whether to go to the density slider and back it off. Figured I better check on here first.
I'll give that a -10% try.

I print mainly on Epson Enhanced matte. Will try it on some somerset velvet and some Canson I have in here just to see what it does.
I had also forgotten that the 11880 allows me to use both MK and PK instead of flushing the line every time.

Thanks, guys.

[Wayne Fox]

If you tweak the density slider, you  should create a new profile for that paper/density combination.

Doing this would also allow you to make sure you aren't losing significant dMax by dialing the ink load down.

[I.T. Supplies]

Both printers are great; but if you're looking for the best quality, the 7900/9900 will be the top with the Orange and Green.  We have done a test on the 7900 with and without the O&G, which we couldn't really tell the difference, but it is there.

Also, depending on what you are printing, the different printers in each brand have their abilities.  These 2 Epson models and the IPF8300 are the top printers that we've sold along with the 7890/9890.

[frankrel]

I am considering the purchase of the 11880 versus the 9900.  Does anyone have an update on the quality of the prints and long term performance of the two printers? 

Thank you. 

[shadowblade]

I am considering the purchase of the 11880 versus the 9900.  Does anyone have an update on the quality of the prints and long term performance of the two printers?  

Thank you.  

What are you using it for?

In terms of long-term performance, the 9900 has the advantage of using Ultrachrome HDR inks which, according to Aardenburg tests, seem to have a significant edge longevity-wise compared to the Ultrachrome K3 inkset used by the 11880. Neither set has the permanence of Canon or HP inks, though.

As for colour gamut, that only comes into play if what you're printing actually has colours in the extra gamut range provided by the 9900.