Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: dseelig on June 30, 2016, 06:21:32 pm
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epson P 800 what are the warts besides the swap ink issue thanks David
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some units intermittently display 'pizza wheel' marks, particularly on the glossy papers w/ high black ink load.
possibly will suffer similar black swap valve failure as the 38xx did due to similar design but who knows, too early still.
I've heard some people say it can be somewhat finicky to get fine art sheets aligned on the front tray for input. Or at least not as easy as the 38xx system was.
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I've also heard a lot of talk about loading issues through the front fine art feeder. I have to say that I have not experienced any issues using the front feeder with my P800 it has been a wonderful printer .........knock on wood....... I'm careful to make sure the paper has no curls and lies perfectly flat on the tray against the right side ::).no pizza wheel marks no issues. I usually try to print my photos needing PK or MK in lots to minimize the ink switching.
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I also haven't had issues with loading in the front tray.
I think the problem with the ink selector sticking is related to how frequently the inks are switched, sort of like the nozzles the selector needs exercised to avoid ink making it sticky. Also machine age would certainly have something to do with it, so the p800's haven't been around long enough to know how it will perform.
As far as pizza wheels, I would imagine it's no different than the 3880, or any other printer that doesn't have a vacuum platen. May show up with some papers and as mentioned making sure the paper is as flat as possible will help.
I've had mine for a while now, and really like it. I have a p9000 as well, but have found myself using the p800 for my 17x22" papers and smaller.
I don't have the roll feed option so no opinion on how that works.
I think epson did a pretty good job adding some niceties but keeping the basic machine unchanged ... the 38xx series has been a stellar performer for a long time now.
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I've tested about a dozen and a half different papers in three P800s over the past several months and have not seen any pizza wheel marks; I did look for them, but didn't find.
The Front Fine Art feed can be a bit finicky. I pointed out a way to resolve this in my recent review of Eight Papers on this website, toward the end. Essentially, you open the FFA tray, then feed the paper in through the back support (where the roll paper would go) rather than the front and make sure it is correctly aligned. This is very easy, smooth and works every time. I also mentioned in that article some risk of smearing at the corners loading curly paper. I fault the paper rather then the printer for this, but something to be aware of. It will not affect papers with a *very slight* bow or arc, which I distinguish from "curl", where edges and corners really stick up at a very different level from the rest of the sheet.
I also regret that Epson has made it impossible to measure ink usage per print. This is a feature that Canon offers, in great detail, on the Pro-1000.
Other than that, no issues that I have experienced. The printer makes excellent prints and usage is pretty straightforward as long as you know how to manage settings in the driver and the printing application.
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Hi Mark,
I've been printing small, 4x6 cards on Ilford Galerie Prestige Smooth Pearl paper that because I was unable to successfully load using the recommended FFA feeder, I've loaded through the manual paper feed. No matter how I've tried to load it using the FFA feeder, my printer always gives me a "Paper out. Load Fine Art Media." message. I just read your suggestion about feeding the paper through the back support but again, because of the small size I can't: 1.) figure out how to align it and 2.) determine how far to feed it manually so that it will load and print.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Run those small sheets through the top sheet feeder and set the printer driver accordingly.
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Thank you.
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I've just taken delivery of my P800 and after my initial disappointment that Fine Art media cannot be fed from rolls, have found a reasonable process. First, I took heart in Mark's suggested procedure for fine art paper, but ran into problems with the last few feet on the current roll, there being too much curl to get it to load from either end.
The solution seems to be to insert a piece about 8 inches long into the Manual Feed tray and, by opening the main cover, positioning the back end of that paper just over the last visible rows of rollers. The slight curl of this piece then allows me to guide the very curvy 17 x 26 in piece from the roll paper feed slot out the manual feed tray. Then, by positioning the leading edge of the print paper properly on the manual feed tray, I am able to print my image.
The tracking seems to be perfect, I hope that it holds for the 17 x 49 pano that I am going to print soon.
Alan
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I've just taken delivery of my P800 and after my initial disappointment that Fine Art media cannot be fed from rolls, ...........
Alan
Who says you can't load rolls of fine art media from the roll holder? Nothing in the manual in the chapter on loading rolls of paper says any such thing; in fact you can load rolls of canvas, so should be able to load any other rolls - at least in the version of the manual I have.
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I hope you are right. I'll try tomorrow. I'll still need my loading mechanism since the papers want the fine art paper mechanism.
Thanks
Alan
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No - if the printer is working properly you should not need any other "mechanism" than what Epson provides for the printer.
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Make sure you haven't installed the 'Airprint' driver instead of the normal/regular driver. The Airprint driver is useless for photo work and removes most of the 'good stuff' from the normal driver.
I hope you are right. I'll try tomorrow. I'll still need my loading mechanism since the papers want the fine art paper mechanism.
Thanks
Alan
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Make sure you haven't installed the 'Airprint' driver instead of the normal/regular driver. The Airprint driver is useless for photo work and removes most of the 'good stuff' from the normal driver.
YES! Always a worthwhile reminder. It is so easy to fall into that trap when installing the printer.
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Who says you can't load rolls of fine art media from the roll holder? Nothing in the manual in the chapter on loading rolls of paper says any such thing; in fact you can load rolls of canvas, so should be able to load any other rolls - at least in the version of the manual I have.
Well, Mark, the manual doesn't actually say so but, unfortunately, the printer does. The problem is the type of paper I using, Epson Hot Press Bright. It's media type is Velvet Fine Art Paper and the printer is programmed to use the front manual tray for that media type and not the roll paper adapter for that media type. I did actually try using roll paper on the adapter and I actually got a print. The problem started when the printer began ejecting paper and seemed intent on ejected the 40 or so feet still on the roll. I got it stopped with either ejecting all the paper or damaging the printer.
So, I will continue with the procedure I outlined in my previous message.
Thanks to you for your suggestion on using the path if not the facility.
Alan
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Well, Mark, the manual doesn't actually say so but, unfortunately, the printer does. The problem is the type of paper I using, Epson Hot Press Bright. It's media type is Velvet Fine Art Paper and the printer is programmed to use the front manual tray for that media type and not the roll paper adapter for that media type. I did actually try using roll paper on the adapter and I actually got a print. The problem started when the printer began ejecting paper and seemed intent on ejected the 40 or so feet still on the roll. I got it stopped with either ejecting all the paper or damaging the printer.
So, I will continue with the procedure I outlined in my previous message.
Thanks to you for your suggestion on using the path if not the facility.
Alan
Alan, firstly, Hot Press Bright does have a Hot Press Bright Media Type available in the driver under the Fine Art paper dropdown menu, so I don't know why you need the Velvet Fine Art Media type, unless your profile version requires it. Even if that's the case, you can set the driver to accept roll paper and VFA Media Type. See the screen grab. Do you have the latest version of the Epson driver installed for that printer, and as Howard mentioned, is it the Series version, not Airprint?
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Oh - another pointer I forgot - don't worry about the settings on the printer LCD. All these paper, sourcing and media type settings are controllable in the Epson driver from your computer, and the settings you put into the driver on your computer override whatever the LCD says.
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Oh - another pointer I forgot - don't worry about the settings on the printer LCD. All these paper, sourcing and media type settings are controllable in the Epson driver from your computer, and the settings you put into the driver on your computer override whatever the LCD says.
Yes, thank you. I finally figured that out myself.
About driver settings, I am running Windows 10 and using driver 6.72, which is the current driver. It does not seem to have any Epson Fine Art Paper pull downs.
Alan
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OK, I'm on OSX using driver version 9.79; but the latest drivers for OSX and Windows should be essentially the same. Here is screen grab of the Media Type settings available in the Epson driver for Mac showing the location of the Media types you need. Perhaps it is set up a bit differently on Windows - I can't check for that.
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It turns out that there are two drivers for Windows as there are for Mac. I've downloaded the "Series" driver and it does, in fact, have a setting for each of the epson fine art papers, Hot Press Bright in particular.
After some consternation with the driver telling me that it is recommended that Hot Press Bright be fed thru the front manual tray, I found the driver will accept a roll paper setting that it just overrode.
I fail to understand why Epson has two drivers for each system and it tries to force the front manual feed, but I think that I now have it working to my satisfaction.
Thanks, Mark, for your presence and persistence in this matter.
Alan
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Yes, thank you. I finally figured that out myself.
About driver settings, I am running Windows 10 and using driver 6.72, which is the current driver. It does not seem to have any Epson Fine Art Paper pull downs.
Alan
It does here, 6.72, Windows7.
Rich
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I've been one of those who has been unfortunate to receive not one but two Epson P800 printers that exhibit pizza (star) wheel marks. These are particularly evident on Canson Baryta and Platine papers but also on the Epson exhibition fibre but not as bad.
I am contemplating returning the P800 for either the new 24" P6000 or P7000 which does away with the feeder mechanism all together. I just have to justify the difference in price and the space that will be required :-)
I like to do fine art prints for my friends and am not happy producing anything with even the slightest markings.
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It turns out that there are two drivers for Windows as there are for Mac. I've downloaded the "Series" driver and it does, in fact, have a setting for each of the epson fine art papers, Hot Press Bright in particular.
After some consternation with the driver telling me that it is recommended that Hot Press Bright be fed thru the front manual tray, I found the driver will accept a roll paper setting that it just overrode.
I fail to understand why Epson has two drivers for each system and it tries to force the front manual feed, but I think that I now have it working to my satisfaction.
Thanks, Mark, for your presence and persistence in this matter.
Alan
You are welcome. Yes, there are two drivers for each OS: Airprint and Series. Unless one is very attentive when setting up the printer, by default the Airprint driver gets installed, which has a very limited range of settings useful for printing from mobile devices. Epson should amend this; most people buying a printer like this would want the Series driver. The driver installation should either install both at the same time and advise users which to select for what purpose, or install the Series driver by default and let people know they can use Airprint for mobile devices. More people, including myself very early on, have been hung-up by this "de-faulty" behaviour.
As for the FFA feed, yes for sheet paper, those heavy papers should be fed through the FFA. According to Epson this is better for the longevity of the feed mechanisms. BUT, this does not apply for roll paper, where you simply follow their instructions for the roll paper path.