Thinking about buying a 24 inch printer

[Cornfield]

Considering the Canon iPF6400 or the HP Z3200

Anyone here used both of these or have thoughts on how they compare.  Two key areas for me are print quality and reliability.

[Mark D Segal]

Speaking of the Canon, why do you want yesteryear's technology? If print quality is one of your criteria, the new Canon Pro-2000 makes visibly better prints than the iPF6400.

[kevinmcdnyc]

"If print quality is one of your criteria, the new Canon Pro-2000 makes visibly better prints than the iPF6400.'

If you don't care about ink (print) longevity.

[Dan Wells]

I just put in a Pro-2000, and, with an upcoming show, have printed nearly 150 feet of paper in a couple of weeks. Relatively cheap by 24" printer standards, easy to set up (I thought so, but I've dealt with a lot of big printers - there are a few things that can trip you up if you haven't dealt with them before). Beautiful images characterized by unusually deep blacks and no gloss differential (set chroma optimizer to "overall"). If you haven't dealt with big printers before, there are a couple of places to look before you leap.

It's brand-new, so I know nothing yet about reliability, but a friend's iPF-6100 is approaching 10 years old, and has had only one set of new heads in that time (with the sporadic use typical of individual photographers).

Keith Cooper at Northlight Images has both an excellent review of the Pro-2000 and an article on the setup.
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/canon-imageprograf-pro-2000-printer-review/
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/canon-pro2000-setup/

Mark Segal has reviewed the Pro-2000 here on Luminous, with a lot of technical information about color profiles...
https://luminous-landscape.com/canon-pro-2000-review-and-related-items-of-interest/

I have a detailed (but nothing like Keith's) setup report and a first prints report here on Luminous - both should still be on the first page of the printer forum. After the show I'm working on, I'll post some more thoughts from all the recent prints.

[Mark D Segal]

from kevinmcdnyc: "If you don't care about ink (print) longevity."

That's a good question which I don't think is resolved yet. Canon has published some information but it is completely unsupported: https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/index?page=content&id=ART164634&actp=RSS. There is some evidence that Wilhelm was testing the new inkset but I couldn't find any results, nor did I see anything in the Aardenburg database.

[Ryan Mack]

Has anyone tried emailing Henry to inquire about the state of the tests? I tried the info@ email included in his recent Epson longevity study but it bounced. I would imagine someone on this forum has been in contact with him in the past?

[deanwork]

How's you know Canon even submitted  samples? They usually do this before they release the printers. That is the sane thing to do. I suspect they didn't like the outcome. But you never know. I would Call Canon if you really want to find out and see what they say. They may not want to admit it if Epson is kicking their butts. Best to wait for Marks tests anyway. But all this kept me from buying a new Canon. I went with the Z on sale

Has anyone tried emailing Henry to inquire about the state of the tests? I tried the info@ email included in his recent Epson longevity study but it bounced. I would imagine someone on this forum has been in contact with him in the past?

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[Ryan Mack]

https://www.pdnonline.com/gear/printing/can-photo-prints-really-last-a-lifetime/

That article indicates Lucia Pro is in test as of 19 months ago.

[deanwork]

We'll see. That article was May 2016. I really do hope Canon has not gone backwards because I'm sold on thermal technology and that inkset is up there with Epson in gamut.

https://www.pdnonline.com/gear/printing/can-photo-prints-really-last-a-lifetime/

That article indicates Lucia Pro is in test as of 19 months ago.

[Mark D Segal]

We'll see. That article was May 2016. I really do hope Canon has not gone backwards because I'm sold on thermal technology and that inkset is up there with Epson in gamut.

It depends. The gamut volumes of the profiles I've measured for the Canon Pro series printers are wider than those for the same papers in the Epson SC-P800 printer, but narrower than similar for the Epson SC-P5000/7000/9000 printers. That said, whether these plus or minus differences of gamut volumes actually make meaningful differences to print appearance depends very much on particular hues and saturation in the photos.

[John Hollenberg]

If results of testing on Lucia Pro inkset were good, we would have heard about it by now.

[Mark D Segal]

If results of testing on Lucia Pro inkset were good, we would have heard about it by now.

"by now" - yes agreed, more than enough time has gone by; and what "kills deader" than perhaps warranted is lack of transparency - always leads people to think the worst. At least I haven't seen in depth technical reports from either Wilhelm or Aardenburg (in each case likely different reasons) for either Canon or Epson latest materials.

[kevinmcdnyc]

"At least I haven't seen in depth technical reports from either Wilhelm or Aardenburg (in each case likely different reasons) for either Canon or Epson latest materials."

Actually there is a full report on Epson's latest P7000 and P9000 on Wilhelm now –

http://www.wilhelm-research.com/epson/Epson_P7000_and_P9000.html

[Mark D Segal]

Super - thanks. That should also apply to the SC-P5000 (same inks). The dark storage numbers are very impressive. Wish we had similar kind of reports for the Canon Pro printers.

[kevinmcdnyc]

You're welcome, Mark! And I completely agree on Canon and yes, these numbers on the Epson are impressive.

[mearussi]

And here's the one from Aardenburg:  http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com/epson-uchd-versus-k3-inks/

[Mark D Segal]

And here's the one from Aardenburg:  http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com/epson-uchd-versus-k3-inks/

Yup - but that one isn't for the HDX inkset applying to the larger format printers (SC-P 5000/7000/9000). Perhaps the results would be similar, as HDX adds another couple of colours, but I certainly don't know for sure.

[mearussi]

Yup - but that one isn't for the HDX inkset applying to the larger format printers (SC-P 5000/7000/9000). Perhaps the results would be similar, as HDX adds another couple of colours, but I certainly don't know for sure.

My understanding is that the inks that are used are the same as in the larger printers, especially the yellow which is the one most sensitive to fading, so the results should be comparable.

[Mark D Segal]

My understanding is that the inks that are used are the same as in the larger printers, especially the yellow which is the one most sensitive to fading, so the results should be comparable.

Your understanding is 8/10ths correct - the other 2/10ths are Orange and Green which are part of the 5000/7000/9000 inkset, but not the 600/800. So as Aardenburg's report covers two papers for the 600, for completeness we would need to know the behaviour of Orange and Green as well, which his reports don't cover because they aren't part of the 600 inkset.

[deanwork]

As Mark has pointed out in the past, yellow is the big problem that Epson has had in the last series, and really every since the discontinued acrylic encapsulated Epson "archival" cf yellow that was so stable ( and dull ) in the 10 k printers we used 17 years ago. With the improved yellow, the yellow content of the green and orange is improved also , though there is a lot less of it than the pure  yellow channel. The last hd series was way behind Canon in that regard and both of them were behind Hp. It still astonishes me that the hp Vivera yellow can be so strong and maintain that longevity.

It will be very interesting to see exactly how the new Lucia inks pan out. Course we've been saying that for a year and a half now.

Your understanding is 8/10ths correct - the other 2/10ths are Orange and Green which are part of the 5000/7000/9000 inkset, but not the 600/800. So as Aardenburg's report covers two papers for the 600, for completeness we would need to know the behaviour of Orange and Green as well, which his reports don't cover because they aren't part of the 600 inkset.