About to order a 7900, Any comments ?

[MichaelWesseling]

Hi there,

I am about to order a Epson 7900 with some paper, it will be home / hobby use, no commercial intentions. Started with the R800, then the R2400 and now owning a 3800 but still wanting bigger   I have lots of experience with Epson papers and still Have a pile of A2 fine art paper.

Do you have any remarks, additions or ideas on this order ?

Epson Stylus Pro 7900
Premium Semigloss Photo Paper Roll 24x30,5m 251g
Traditional Photo Paper, 24 x 15 m
Somerset Velvet Fine Art Paper Roll, 24 x 15 m
PremierArtTM WaterResistant Canvas Roll, 24 x 12m
Maintenance Tank Epson Stylus Pro 7900/9900
 
Thanks for watching

Michael

[Ken]

The instructions say that you need three people to handle moving the beast to its work station. That's ideal. Two can do it, but it ain't easy. Be prepared for a challenge if you're taking it up or down stairs.

Make sure your high-quality Ethernet cable will reach.

Check the Epson printer support website before you install software. There could be a notice that you should download and install software from the site instead of using what's on the disk that comes with the printer.

Read the instructions carefully about removing the tape from the dozens of places shown, as well as the little blue plastic gadget that protects the print head.

You'll run through the 150ml ink tanks pretty quickly so replacements would be handy. 350ml tanks are a better deal than the 150s.

Run a nozzle check before you start printing if the machine's been off for more than a couple hours. Plain paper's fine for that. If the test has broken or missing lines, more than one head cleaning might be necessary before you get a perfect test print.

The machine attracts dust and any speck that's on your paper will get sprayed with ink, and then fall off leaving a little white "star" in your dark blue sky. I try to keep my printer covered as much as possible.

Good luck. I've had mine for almost two years, and what it produces still elicits an occasional "Wow!" from me.
 

[neile]

If you have to move the printer any distance (like upstairs) hire some piano movers to move it for you. I did that with my Canon ipf8300 and it was the smartest $300 I ever spent.

Neil

[pindman]

Best advice I received was to get a 9900 instead!  I didn't think I'd want to print that large, but with canvas you need wide borders, and you'd be surprised how often you'll use 44" paper.  But... you need lot's of room.  It fit with an inch to spare.

Also, strongly suggest a service contract.  When I had a problem about a week after the warranty expired Epson was nasty, even bringing it to the top level management!  It's a great printer, but their support, at least in the US gets one star at best.

Paul

[MichaelWesseling]

Thanks all for your great advice, I will let you know how It went.

Michael

[bill t.]

Any media list that includes canvas just simply begs for a 44" printer.  Really.  About 3/4 of my gross this season was from pieces with a small image dimension that required a 36" roll.  Big prints = more profit for the same amount of work, it's a fact.  And at least around here sofa-sized pieces are easier to sell.  And big pieces are so not Prissy, but that's just me talking.  The 24/44 price difference is trivial compared to greater earnings and easier sales from the larger format.  Etc.

And listen to Neile about the movers for an emergency-room-free experience.

But whatever you do you're gonna love that printer, so pull that trigger.

[Ken]

Big prints = more profit for the same amount of work, it's a fact.  And at least around here sofa-sized pieces are easier to sell. The 24/44 price difference is trivial compared to greater earnings and easier sales from the larger format.

I agree with all of bill t's remarks above, but Michael's original post was "...it will be home / hobby use, no commercial intentions", for which the 44" might be overkill.

[bill t.]

it will be home / hobby use, no commercial intentions

Hah!  That's exactly what I was telling myself when I bought the 7800, many years ago.  Little did I realize what was to follow. 

[Peter McLennan]

I agree,  I would have suggested the 9900 also had he not said it was more or less for personal use.

I wish I had gone bigger 

A lesson I learned, too.  I'm a non-commercial user and I outgrew my Epson 4800 as soon as the word "canvas" appeared.  Now I use a 9800.  MUCH more fun. : )

FWIW, 9800s can be had used in good shape for near the thousand dollar US point.  Shipping is an issue, of course.

[langier]

Long story short: an extra maintenance cart, a black cart (or matt black) and a set of the Lt. carts... I outgrew my 2200, then went to a 4000. We put in cabinets in the studio with that size in mind. The next year it was a 7600 and 24 inch cabinets for prints and sheets and little room to spare...now I have a 9800 and 9900 and run them both. Thought that 24 inch would do, but now find that for canvas, 24 isn't. Wish I had just gone large from the git-go and had been done with it!

I was lucky with my 9900 and found a second-hand unit about a three-hour drive. It's probably the best printer I've used, but any time you let it sit, you need to run a nozzle check to make sure it's going fine.

For the most part, the 350ml carts work well, not too large and expensive and they seem to keep going quite a while after the low-ink warning starts flashing, especially the Cyan cart, just like the rest of my printers. Cyan and MK are the ones that seem to last the longest followed by Cyan on my printers. On the 9900, the Orange and Green also last quite a while. The Light Blacks and both Light Cyan and Light Magenta go quickly.

If you can get your ink in a couple of days and don't print quite a bit, order as you need it, or start stockpiling as you watch the ink gauge drop.

Try the canned profiles since they are pretty good, but if you start using other surfaces, you may want to have at least a Colormunki to profile the different papers and keep your monitor in check.

You probably will be fine with the built-in cutter and won't need to change it for awhile. I've used mine for nearly a year now and have run several hundred canvas prints through it with no problem.

Black switch-over from PK to MK goes pretty quickly and easily. Best bet if you need to run each is to batch them to save time, space in the waste tank and, of course, ink.

Though I originally bought the 24 inch 7600 was simply for my own amusement, it didn't take long until others wanted me to print there work and it more than paid for itself and I found that it wasn't large enough. If you have the room and you think that in the next two-three years you need/want to print larger, then it may be a good idea to bite the bullet and go to the 44 inch. You can always print smaller. If you are like me and stumble into canvas printing, its the minimum machine you'll need.

[Ken]

While we're on the subject... Every time I download new software from the Epson site, I check the box to be notified of updates... must be 20 times by now... but I never get notified. For example, I just noticed a new (to me) Mac Lion Printer Driver v8.66 (Epson 14575) posted 12/20/11.

[MichaelWesseling]

Thanks all for your comments gentlemen! (any ladies around here ?)

I've made the decision and ordered a 7900 today. A 9900 is simply to large and besides, way out of the WAF scale (where the 7900 already had some 'work' in regards to that subject)

Tomorrow I will be visiting the shop but I ordered now to benefit the current Epson campaign with a € 400,00 discount plus a 9x 150 en 2x 350 inktset for free, today was the last day to order. I am so exited and can't wait to learn all the new stuff and ways of printing. I think I will be selling my 3800 if I can get a decent price for it. It still is a great printer.

Any tips for a dust cover for it ? or just sew one myself with some nice flowers on it (which my wife certainly would appreciate ) 

[JRSmit]

Michael,

Enjoy the printer. Just got my 4900 installed by arca, and just starting to enjoy its qualities. Sadly enough i had no room for a 7900. First set of testing papers used, awaiting the profile for harman gloss baryta, which is my paper of choice for delivering to clients. sofar used a HP 9180, quite good but 4 years of age, so replacement was needed.

[plui]

Any tips for a dust cover for it ? or just sew one myself with some nice flowers on it (which my wife certainly would appreciate ) 

1 techie came onsite to deliver my 11880 so I thought I'd help out by gathering up all (tons) of the packing materiel to throw away... As I started to gather up the giant plastic sheet the printer was wrapped in he said 'hold it, you can use that... It's a form-fit dust cover'.  Perhaps it looks a bit ghetto, but I still use it today.

[bill t.]

My favorite dust cover is a big ol' reject canvas draped over the parts where dust can settle in from above.  Rolls up easily, doesn't generate static.  Was just right to cover up the gap between the plastic media lid and the machine intake which is where the dust used to have a field day on my old Epsons.  Always leave the same side up.

My original full-machine dust cover was just too much trouble and I gave it up.  The more bikini-sized canvas was easy enough to actually use routinely and kept the dust out just as well.

[Ken Doo]

.... Perhaps it looks a bit ghetto, but I still use it today.

Ghetto?  Hell, I use a black sheet of cloth.  Ghetto it is, but you'd be surprised how many people overlook and never notice the 9800 underneath...   

[MichaelWesseling]

Something remarkable happened today

I just bought a Epson SpectroProofer for the 7900, you would not believe it.

While surfing the local classified sites looking for a dust cover I ran into the 7900 Epson SpectroProofer. The ad displayed the Proofer as being new, never used, a bid was requested.

I thought, "Hey lets try € 150,00 you never know." and I knew that if the seller would react he either did not know what he was selling or that he was desperate in cash. I did not suspect that it was stolen because all the information of the seller was there and he had a websiteprofile of over more than 6 years.

The seller reacted "Thats ok !"  and I was like "gulp"  

A long story short, I drove to the sellers house this afternoon (20km from my hose so really close) and bought the unit. The box was open but the unit was unused, the reason for selling the unit was that the seller didn't know what to do with it. He bought the printer with the unit last year and found it to complicated after he read the manual, besides the box was standing in his way  

So I now have a Spectro over here and a printer arriving monday ! Boy, will I have a lot to learn next week  

 

[langier]

Don't try to learn it all in one week or you will go bonkers! Take your time and break it up into smaller pieces and you won't get overwhelmed!

[Garrick L]

Michael, enjoy your new 7900. I've had mine now for a couple of months and really like it. It's already been said, but I second the suggestion to buy yourself a 350ml cartridge of light black as you will find that this cartridge will run out first. I bought all 150ml replacements for all the others. Also, I have played with leaving the printer on or turning it off and what I have found to work the best is to leave it on but turn off the auto clean feature and every time you go to make a print simply insert an 8.5X11 sheet of plain paper and run a nozzle check. Then only clean any appropriate nozzles that need it. I have found that I'm only having to clean once every couple of weeks on average and never more than once & I'm a light user with mine.

You're going to love your 7900 

Cheers,
Garrick Liddell Photography
http://500px.com/Garrick_Liddell