I don't have a lot of experience with HP printers, except for the Designjet 130 I have. The main problems with that printer are: limited gamut compared to Epson K3 printers, poor construction, firmware that had bugs in it which were never fixed, poor roll feed design, and worst of all drivers which produced off-color shadows in many cases.
At this point, I would probably recommend to stay with the company with the mature, proven technology--which means the Epson 3800. From reports I have seen on DP Review, it appears that clogging problems are much less than with previous Epson printers. Of course, your experience may be different. I just haven't seen that many reports of problems with these printers, and Epson has been in this business for a long time. They have worked out most of the kinks in their product, with the possible exception of clogging. The one thing I would miss if I had the 3800 is the roll support. I have become rather fond of printing on rolls on my IPF5000.
If you can wait, I will be interested to see the successor to the 4800. Don't know how soon it might be coming, but if they fix some of the flaws in the 4800 design it could be a real Canon killer.
Just my thoughts.
--John
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John,
Most of this makes a lot sense. Some added observations:
My 4800 has had far less clogging than the 4000. When it did start to clog, I got the machine serviced - they found the capping mechanism was faulty. Since they fixed it, five months and 800 prints have gone by, sometimes intervals of weeks, and NO clogging. I expect the 3800 would be at least as good. But the 4800 does consume a lot of ink for routine cleaning cycles - over the last 5 months about 23% of total ink is consumed in start-up cleans. I measure this rigorously.
The 3800 produces gorgeous prints in less time than the 4800, but the external build quality of the unit is dreadful. Destructive testing is unfortunately very easy to implement. However, I am prepared to believe the core print engine is probably quite robust - but it does not have the rated throughput of a 4800. Still for all but the most intensive working, probably OK.
There is no noise about a 4800 replacement. For me, all they need to do is solve the ink swapping silliness in a machine that is otherwise a 4800, and I'd stick with Epson.
The HP Designjet130 I think is not a good predictor for the more recent models. I think they've learned alot from that experience, and HP on the whole manufactures quite a bit of solid equipment.
I like your idea of waiting, because that is exactly what I am doing. No panic, and I just feel there are still better things to come within this year or next.
