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Author Topic: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?  (Read 3101 times)

John Caldwell

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Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« on: December 07, 2012, 05:32:17 pm »

Any ideas, meaning what portion of a full cart is in a brand "new" 9900 USA model? It is correct that the unit ships with partially full 350cc carts, rather than 700cc cartridges?

Many thanks,

John-
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dgberg

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Re: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2012, 06:45:20 pm »

Pretty sure it it 110ml,at least that is what came with my 7900.
Keep your pocket book open as the full set of 700 ml is a cool $2500.00 + or -

John Caldwell

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Re: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2012, 06:54:20 pm »

Yes, looking for coins under all the sofa cushions.

Thanks, Dan.

John-
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Paul2660

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Re: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« Reply #3 on: December 07, 2012, 08:46:28 pm »

The 9900 ships with only a set of 110 started carts.  It will take about 50% of the starters to prime the printer.  Orange and green will last about 4x longer. I would only buy the 700 ml on the other colors. 


Paul
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Paul Caldwell
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davidh202

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Re: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2012, 08:48:26 pm »

Ships with 110s... and unless you intend to do a lot of printing right off the bat, wait until you get low cart warnings before you order replacements unless you live in a place where shipping takes forever.Most suppliers are within a 2 day ship time in the US.
Also don't get the larger capacity carts, unless you plan on doing a great amount of printing that will use them up within 6 to 8 months.
Many will tell you that they last much longer, but Epson says 6 months once opened up and installed. The difference in cost savings as opposed to possible ink - head related problems, is just not worth the $ difference between $.50 a ml as oppsed to $ 0.35 to
$ 0.40 for 350s depending upon who you buy from. Don't even consider the 700 ml carts unless you intend to continue doing a s**t load of printing on a regular basis.
LK and LLK seem to be used the most even with color,  but will depend also on whether you do a lot of grayscale.

I have no affiliation, but would like to add that Atlex has the absolute best prices and service! been using them for all my printer supplies for 2 1/2 years .
 http://www.atlex.com/ink-and-toners/epson/?ink_printer_series=1623#products-list

The 7900 was a toy the 9890-9900 is BIG  

 Be prepared    4 needed people to lift it onto the stand!!

David
« Last Edit: December 07, 2012, 09:20:32 pm by davidh202 »
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hugowolf

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Re: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2012, 08:50:13 pm »

150 ml cartridges, if I remember correctly. Epson doesn't make 110 ml cartridges for the 9900: 150, 350 and 750 ml.

Brian A
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davidh202

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Re: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2012, 09:03:47 pm »

150 ml cartridges, if I remember correctly. Epson doesn't make 110 ml cartridges for the 9900: 150, 350 and 750 ml.

Brian A

Ships with 110 starters from the factory to charge the system!
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John Caldwell

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Re: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« Reply #7 on: December 07, 2012, 09:11:19 pm »

Thanks to all. Out of concern that my print volume wouldn't make use of the 700cc carts, I'd plan to buy the 350's. I've been on the fence about buying a Canon 8400, given the savings and ink set volumes upon shipment, but I have the chance to buy a 9900 for a good price so I'm pretty tempted. In the end, a few hundred dollars either way on the initial printer cost is probably not a great basis for printer choice. Since we also run an Epson 4900, I'm thinking our custom profiles can be shared between the 9900 and 4900 with decent results.

In any case, thanks to all who have responded.

John Caldwell
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Ken Doo

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Re: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« Reply #8 on: December 07, 2012, 09:15:13 pm »

It's definitely 110ml starter cartridges.  I just pulled a bunch from my 9890 in converting it to K7 MPS piezography recently, so will just end up using the residual ink in the 9900.

I think you'll find that manufacturer profiles for the 9900 are quite good compared to icc profiles provided for earlier printers such as the 9800.

ken

davidh202

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Re: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« Reply #9 on: December 07, 2012, 09:23:46 pm »

Custom profiles are model specific John the 4900s won't do for the 9900!
David
See the pic I added above on crate size.
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John Caldwell

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Re: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« Reply #10 on: December 07, 2012, 09:34:09 pm »

Custom profiles are model specific John the 4900s won't do for the 9900!
David
See the pic I added above on crate size.

Thanks for the correction. I thought the head and ink sets were identical between 4900, 7900 & 9900 - and to that end, profiles would interchange.

Not saying you are wrong in any way; just relating my impression.

John-
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Wayne Fox

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Re: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« Reply #11 on: December 08, 2012, 03:21:54 am »

Thanks to all. Out of concern that my print volume wouldn't make use of the 700cc carts, I'd plan to buy the 350's. I've been on the fence about buying a Canon 8400, given the savings and ink set volumes upon shipment, but I have the chance to buy a 9900 for a good price so I'm pretty tempted. In the end, a few hundred dollars either way on the initial printer cost is probably not a great basis for printer choice. Since we also run an Epson 4900, I'm thinking our custom profiles can be shared between the 9900 and 4900 with decent results.

In any case, thanks to all who have responded.

John Caldwell
The printer will use @40% of the original cartridge to charge it, except for the LK which will consume more like 70%.  This is because the LK line actually charges twice since it shares a channel with the MK/PK line .

For most, using the 350 cartridges is ideal. Often is better to use the 700's for LK ... the printer uses significantly more LK than any other color.  If you do quite a bit of printing, but not quite enough to justify the 700's for all colors, the next highest usage color is the LLK.  For example on a 17 square foot print I just did, I took 16.93 ml of ink of which 7.52 was LK, and 3.98 was LLK.  The next most used color was VLM at 1.34ml, next was LC at 1.07 the rest all smaller, PK was only .72ml  Often the LK isn't quite this extreme, but it's always considerably more.  This was a pretty colorful image, although there are a lot of shadow tones in it. You can see it here if you are interested.  

As mentioned, profiles would be specific to the 4900, and the 79/9900.  While they use the same inks the 4900 is a different head design and has some changes to the screening.  Most Epson profiles and many 3rd party paper profiles are pretty good ... the tools are much better so many of these manufacturers are doing a better job.  That being said, to get a "perfect" match between those two printers probably would require custom profiles from the same source, maybe even the same time.  I have that setup, a 4900 printer by my computer for small prints and "proofing", a 9900 for larger prints.  I used the Epson profiles for a while but finally built my own.  I get an extremely close match between the two printers now, and even between the two paper types I use the most, Epson Luster for proofing, exhibition Fiber for final prints.
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Mike Guilbault

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Re: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« Reply #12 on: December 08, 2012, 07:17:39 am »

Wayne... I'm considering the 9900 as well but wondering if I still need the 4900 if I do get it.  Does the 4900 do a better job for some reason on smaller prints?
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Mike Guilbault

Ken Doo

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Re: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« Reply #13 on: December 08, 2012, 10:41:24 am »

Mike, the 4900s appeal (imo) is that it offers a paper tray over the 9900.  But you're also limited to cut sheets in the tray to approximately 8x10.  I believe the 38** series can handle smaller media in the tray if that is the requirement.  For small prints I generally will use a 10" roll of media on the 9900...  If there are *a lot* of small prints, I find it easier to send those out to a pro-lab as my time is spent better elsewhere than all day on the rotatrim....

John Caldwell

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Re: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« Reply #14 on: December 08, 2012, 01:04:14 pm »

Wayne, Thank you for this description, so well measured and reported, and for your posting of your Scripps Pier landscape example. One might have expected a "grayer image" based upon your ink ratios. The ink use ratios you list, while I'd not quantified them as you did, seem to mesh with my own portraiture printing on the 4900. I'll consider the 700cc inks on a per-color basis, if I do buy the 9900.

Mike, I am with Ken on the 4900's paper cassette being the one and only thing that you'd miss if you own only the 9900. I've printed enough single sheets on a colleague's 9900 to say that the 9900 is no worse than the 4900 in handling single cut sheets. In this instance I am comparing the rear manual feed path of the 4900, with the one and only sheet path of the 9900. 9900 owners will need to elaborate, but I'll testify that the 4900's rear path is inconvenient for me. The rear path is needed for heavy media, as heavy media won't feed from the cassette. In loading thick media, the transport often fails to grab the paper, and some downward force during the entrainment assists in the "grab", often at the cost of introducing skew. Epson tech support has acknowledged the rear path problem in my calls to Epson, as I was able to report that even Epson-branded stock like Ex Fiber, Cold Press, and such, all exhibit the problem. There is a workaround that, in my opinion, is very time consuming and *not worth it*. Right now I am, for example, I'm printing greeting cards on Epson Cold Press Natural 17x22 sheets from the rear path, and I need to personally nurture each sheet load pretty intently, and re-attempt 50% of the time. I've experienced no such loading problem on the 9900 when presenting sheet-cut papers like Cold Press or Ex Fiber. BUT, the cassette path is a massive time saver when the media is appropriate. Recently I completed 200 prints on Canson Baryta Photographique 13x19 media in a weekend, using the cassette of course! Try that on a single sheet at a time basis.

Again, as Ken says, the 3880 might be a better purchase than the 4900 would be for someone not benefitting from the cassette, or someone pressed for space. I've identified my ignorance that profiles can't be shared between 4900 and 9900, but I think I might better understand relationship between 9900/4900 than I would between 9900/3880 based upon common ink sets.

Again, thanks to all.

John-

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Mike Guilbault

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Re: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« Reply #15 on: December 08, 2012, 01:49:31 pm »

Thanks, both Ken and John, for the insights into the 4900/9900 question (and sorry to hijack the thread John).  I don't do a lot of printing from the cassette, but it is nice to have it there to print out the odd 8x10 or smaller when I have the wrong roll of paper in the feed.  Most 8x10s I print on a 10" roll since there's usually 10-25 prints involved.   

I think when I do get my 9900 I'll stick to the smaller ink cartridges as well, except for maybe the LLK and LK which I do notice on the 4900 are replaced more often.  I think my volume would warrant the 700ml cartridges for at least those two. 
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Mike Guilbault

Benny Profane

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Re: Epson 9900: Ships new with what ink volume?
« Reply #16 on: December 10, 2012, 08:47:01 am »

The printer will use @40% of the original cartridge to charge it, except for the LK which will consume more like 70%.  This is because the LK line actually charges twice since it shares a channel with the MK/PK line .

For most, using the 350 cartridges is ideal. Often is better to use the 700's for LK ... the printer uses significantly more LK than any other color.  If you do quite a bit of printing, but not quite enough to justify the 700's for all colors, the next highest usage color is the LLK.  For example on a 17 square foot print I just did, I took 16.93 ml of ink of which 7.52 was LK, and 3.98 was LLK.  The next most used color was VLM at 1.34ml, next was LC at 1.07 the rest all smaller, PK was only .72ml  Often the LK isn't quite this extreme, but it's always considerably more.  This was a pretty colorful image, although there are a lot of shadow tones in it. You can see it here if you are interested.  

As mentioned, profiles would be specific to the 4900, and the 79/9900.  While they use the same inks the 4900 is a different head design and has some changes to the screening.  Most Epson profiles and many 3rd party paper profiles are pretty good ... the tools are much better so many of these manufacturers are doing a better job.  That being said, to get a "perfect" match between those two printers probably would require custom profiles from the same source, maybe even the same time.  I have that setup, a 4900 printer by my computer for small prints and "proofing", a 9900 for larger prints.  I used the Epson profiles for a while but finally built my own.  I get an extremely close match between the two printers now, and even between the two paper types I use the most, Epson Luster for proofing, exhibition Fiber for final prints.

Excellent info. Thanks.
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