Canon pro 2600/4600 to replace HP Z 3200?

[HCHeyerdahl]

I am in the process of deciding on a new printer to replace my HP Z 3200.

I recently had a demo of the Canon pro 4600 and really liked it. Searching online for reviews and experiences, I find mostly positive feedback.

Does anyone have any experiences with these printers to share?

Chris

 

[aaronleitz]

I don't have experience with the 4600 but I've had a 4100 for about 4 years and really like it. No major issues so far.

[Czornyj]

I am in the process of deciding on a new printer to replace my HP Z 3200.

I recently had a demo of the Canon pro 4600 and really liked it. Searching online for reviews and experiences, I find mostly positive feedback.

Does anyone have any experiences with these printers to share?

Chris

I have PRO-4000 that works flawlessly for 10 years and never had a single service. I also have PRO-2600 and must admit it's MUCH better - ink is very improved, and machine is much more convenient in use. I believe it's the best printer you can get, and after HP Z you'll be spoiled by how good it is xd

[HCHeyerdahl]

Thanks, this seems good!

One ting, how noisy is the pro 2600 when not in use? The HP Z 3200 has a fan constantly running when not in use. Does the pro 2600 have a similar fan running?

[Richard.Wills]

4600 is very quiet - I can barely hear ours, next to my desk (though we do have a fairly effective air handling system).

[Czornyj]

Thanks, this seems good!

One ting, how noisy is the pro 2600 when not in use? The HP Z 3200 has a fan constantly running when not in use. Does the pro 2600 have a similar fan running?

No, it's completely noiseless when not in use, and also much quieter when printing

[HCHeyerdahl]

Thank you again, that is nice.

Do you have any experience with printing on sheet paper. Does it really work on A4 paper sizes?

[Richard.Wills]

pretty easy to load sheet material, though the smallest I've used was 16" (off cuts from long pano prints, used for calibration targets)

[Kyle Jackson]

No, it's completely noiseless when not in use, and also much quieter when printing

That's a huge plus. The Z3200 idle fan noise is ridiculous. I had to modify mine to make the fan go to sleep like it does in the Z3100.

[Lessbones]

I used a pro 6000 and 4000 extensively in the past, and yeah, you can load A4 media no problem.  There will be about 3/8-1/2" of space at the back edge you won't be able to print however because it has to hold onto the paper somehow.

Can anybody comment as to whether or not they improved the situation with paper feed adjusting on the x600 series?  My biggest problem with the original models was that they dramatically decreased the diameter of the feed roller from the previous ipf 8400/9400 which I believe led to my having to constantly do feed adjustments to compensate for paper slippage, especially at the beginning of a roll vs. at the end.

Ironically I recently got a really good deal on a used HP Z9+ with the vertical trimmer, and never having much experience with HPs in the past I wanted to check out the quality vs. my Canon 9400s.  Especially since HP makes a 64" version, the only other company to make a 64" aqueous printer besides Epson.  Haven't seen a SINGLE word about the Z9+ Pro anywhere here or on the internet at large though, so I have no idea who is using them.

[Kyle Jackson]

Ironically I recently got a really good deal on a used HP Z9+ with the vertical trimmer, and never having much experience with HPs in the past I wanted to check out the quality vs. my Canon 9400s.  Especially since HP makes a 64" version, the only other company to make a 64" aqueous printer besides Epson.  Haven't seen a SINGLE word about the Z9+ Pro anywhere here or on the internet at large though, so I have no idea who is using them.

Anything on PrintPlanet? I went there in many yrs past (didn't know about LuLa at the time) and often found useful info/help. The users in their Wide Format forum seemed much more commercial printing oriented than casual home users like me, so might be more likely to find feedback on the 64" Z9+ Pro there. Or absolutely zero, which would be very telling...
https://printplanet.com/forums/wide-format-and-inkjet-discussion.57/

[Richard.Wills]

I used a pro 6000 and 4000 extensively in the past, and yeah, you can load A4 media no problem.  There will be about 3/8-1/2" of space at the back edge you won't be able to print however because it has to hold onto the paper somehow.

Can anybody comment as to whether or not they improved the situation with paper feed adjusting on the x600 series?  My biggest problem with the original models was that they dramatically decreased the diameter of the feed roller from the previous ipf 8400/9400 which I believe led to my having to constantly do feed adjustments to compensate for paper slippage, especially at the beginning of a roll vs. at the end.

Ironically I recently got a really good deal on a used HP Z9+ with the vertical trimmer, and never having much experience with HPs in the past I wanted to check out the quality vs. my Canon 9400s.  Especially since HP makes a 64" version, the only other company to make a 64" aqueous printer besides Epson.  Haven't seen a SINGLE word about the Z9+ Pro anywhere here or on the internet at large though, so I have no idea who is using them.

I used the media compensation in Fiery Rip to adjust, and didn't have a problem with length adjustment on our 8400 between start, middle, and end of roll. I believe there is a per media calibration for start and end adjustment, but never needed it.
I've not yet needed to adjust this on our 4600, using Mirage (I miss a fully fledged rip...)

I was really interested when the Z9+ came out, but there were mulitiple reports of fine art media handling problems, here and elsewhere, so it dropped off my list of candidates.

[Lessbones]

I'm not talking about media length compensation in software--  there is a function per paper type that you adjust on the printer itself that adjusts feeding so that you can avoid any kind of banding associated with the media not feeding perfectly on each head pass.  But the fact that you haven't had to use that is good news in itself 

[Richard.Wills]

I'm seeing an annoying random light band with the latest roll of Phototex OP (shows up 12" or 60" into a print), but I suspect this is a fault in the media, rather than the printer. Other media are playing nicely.

[Lessbones]

try the feed adjustment!  make sure you set the paper type on the printer to match what you select in the driver at the time of printing, then go to maintenance > feed adjustment set the "feed priority" to "quality" then run the feed adjustment (auto other).  I've had that often not be enough, but redoing it using the manual setting pretty much always works, it just uses a lot of media.  Phototex is quite slippery because of the peel off backing.

[Lessbones]

Anything on PrintPlanet? I went there in many yrs past (didn't know about LuLa at the time) and often found useful info/help. The users in their Wide Format forum seemed much more commercial printing oriented than casual home users like me, so might be more likely to find feedback on the 64" Z9+ Pro there. Or absolutely zero, which would be very telling...
https://printplanet.com/forums/wide-format-and-inkjet-discussion.57/

I used to trawl printplanet kind of regularly, but I got frustrated with the quality of discussion there (there were a lot of "help me I have no idea what I'm doing" type posts asking for help with problems that could easily be solved by RTFM).  Also I just did a quick search for just "Z9+" and only found a single post related to whether or not GMG supported the printer for proofing.  There are more posts on this forum about it from a few years back, but nothing about the "PRO" version--  This printer is supposed to arrive in about 30 mins, so maybe I'll start a thread about it once I get going with it.  There's no silver bullet right now for printers in that 60"-64" range IMO, the HP being the only one of the 3 that I haven't tried personally.

@Czornyj  --  I'm wondering if you could explain your statement about the ink being "much improved" on the x600 series-- I hadn't heard anything specific about them changing the inkset between the variants of this model (or maybe I did hear that they had improved the yellow fading issue?  It's hard to remember the quiet details) and I haven't seen any longevity studies comparing them.  I do recall feeling like bronzing was definitely worse on the PRO x000s vs the Epson P20000 I was using at the time, but it wasn't enough of an issue to bother our clients at all-- and this is with or without full page gloss optimizer.

There is an HP produced video comparing the Z9+ Pro to the P20000 where they claim it's faster, has considerably less gloss differential, etc. but I've not heard any firsthand anecdotal evidence to back that up, and it does feel like HP printers (besides the diehard users here of the older models) are mostly the providence of non-"fine-art" print service providers...  but the specs are enticing to me.

[Gryphon69]

The x600 series and the 1100 all come with the updated V2 of the Lucia Pro ink set (all colors have been reformulated except MK, which is the same as on the previous generation Lucia Pro 1).

The changes appear to mostly be aimed to deliver increased lightfastness (an area where the Lucia Pro 1 ink set had fallen considerably behind the latest generations of Epson UltraChrome inks), expanded gamut, deeper blacks and greater resistance to scuffing thanks to the introduction of some kind of waxy ingredient.

Regarding supposedly improved lightfastness, as far as I know until now there is only a claim by Canon that prints can last “up to 200 years” with no visible fading. No independent third party like Wilhelm has backed up that claim yet though.

[Czornyj]

@Czornyj  --  I'm wondering if you could explain your statement about the ink being "much improved" on the x600 series-- I hadn't heard anything specific about them changing the inkset between the variants of this model (or maybe I did hear that they had improved the yellow fading issue?  It's hard to remember the quiet details) and I haven't seen any longevity studies comparing them.  I do recall feeling like bronzing was definitely worse on the PRO x000s vs the Epson P20000 I was using at the time, but it wasn't enough of an issue to bother our clients at all-- and this is with or without full page gloss optimizer

x600 has new LUCIA Pro II
- MBK has much better dmax
- scratch resistance on photo papers is vastly improved and just as good as it gets
- neutrality of BW is improved
- yellow pigment is completely reformulated, and the new inkset has much better longevity, better than Epson Ultrachrome Pro and not as good as HP Vivera, but pretty close

It's hard for me to say if banding issues that you experienced are adressed, because I didn't encounter such issues neither in my x000 nor x600 printers. My observation is you need to find proper print media setting through trial and error, and the media setting suggested by 3rd party paper manufacturers are not necessarily always optimal.

[Richard.Wills]

I'm not seeing banding, rather I think there might be a fault in the Phototex. Dimensions are spot on, and the faults are almost an arc (lighter area 3-4mm across the width of the roll dropping to center, if that makes sense). For some reason, I've forgotten how t oupolad images here...

Images on Phototex, with a new photoblack profile are much more vibrant than 8400, but it still bruises on dense colour using the softest felt squeegies, though goes up nicely with a brayer roller (but takes 5x as long).

Only other issue I'm seeing on the 4600 is the number of head cleaning it runs - no headstrikes, but every 3-4 prints, and no sign of print deterioration prio to clean.

[Czornyj]

Only other issue I'm seeing on the 4600 is the number of head cleaning it runs - no headstrikes, but every 3-4 prints, and no sign of print deterioration prio to clean.

PRO-x600 has new automatic head alignment system that self checks frequently and makes head alignment without printing charts when needed. It also auto checks if all nozzles are unclogged. So it does self check cycles often, but doesn't really use ink - unless heads are clogged or misaligned, which is rare case. You can weight maintanance cart, or put a tissue and check it after such cycle to get the idea how small amount of ink it really uses for maintance.