Another 2 cent opinion-
I've owned a 24" Z3100 for about three and a half years. I've loved the output quality, when everything works right. Black & white prints have been wonderful, with the deepest D-max you can get on either matte/cotton rag paper or glossier paper. Saturated red/orange colors are a definite weak point, and no amount of profiling or fiddling will give you anything remotely approaching Epson reds. I presume the Z3200 is better in this regard. The built-in spectro was great, and worked like a charm for me. I really wish Canon and Epson included this feature as a standard; it was that good and easy to use.
But it's always been a delicate, fiddly, finicky printer. Loading sheet paper was always an exercise in frustration, typically taking four or five tries to get it to load properly. The roller & starwheel paper transport system tends to mar the surface of delicate papers, and is much less robust than Epson's vacuum system for heavy sheets. I repeatedly had problems with long panoramic prints, which would randomly develop obvious banding about 75% into a 72" pano. This seemed to go away when I started doing a head cleaning cycle before any expensive big print. Doing any high volume production printing generally meant having to take a break to clean off the accumulated matte black ink that collects under the printhead assembly, otherwise you get random black drops and smears on your (very expensive) 24x36" sheets. The inked print surface is insanely delicate, both matte and gloss. The slightest brush with a fingernail or the corner of another print badly scratches and burnishes it. And don't get me started on the driver/firmware update process. I did two major updates, each one harrier and buggier than the previous one. I finally decided to keep a firmware/driver setup that worked, rather than chancing more chaos and downtime.
My experience with HP service has been mixed. About 4 months after getting the printer, the optical paper sensor died, rendering the printer unusable. Two HP technicians showed up two days after I called, and after a one day delay replaced the sensor assembly under warranty. After the second driver update Photoshop kept crashing, so I called HP tech support. They patiently spent an hour talking me through manual removal of all the older driver bits and reinstalling. This worked, but why was the software so absurdly buggy in the first place?
I gritted my teeth and bought the 2 year extended warranty because of my experience with the optical sensor failure. Go figure, I had not another significant problem (other than the paper transport woes and need for repetitive messy cleaning of the printhead carriage assembly). Two weeks ago an HP rep called my home to point out that my extended warranty was about to expire, did I want to buy another? Seeing as how this costs $1,383.99, I decided to pass on it. Of course, the printer then failed catastrophically a couple of days ago, about 10 days after the warranty ended. I wonder, do they program it to fail if you pass on the very expensive extended warranty? Just joking.
But I can tell you my next printer won't be an HP.
When I bought my Z3100, my initial problem was something really stupid, out of my control, and caused me great inconvenience. During the installation of the hp-branded eye-one, the supplied serial number failed, rendering installation of the software impossible. It took a significant amount of effort and time to get the issue resolved. Other than that, I've had one printhead go bad, and that was replaced in two days.
But trying to get information from HP tech support to do basic things, is like trying to pull teeth. Trying to find information or tips on their web site - is a joke. And getting through their annoying phone system requires much patience.
If I had the opportunity to extend the warranty for two or three years for $1500 Canadian - I might consider it. When I bought the printer, I never considered paying a $50 a month "protection" fee because HP's reputation for producing good quality printers preceded them.
But I too, got a fantastic price on the 44" GP Photo model with built-in Advanced Profiling Solution. I think it was half the regular price? Less than $4000 anyways.
HP Tech support aside, this printer was/is pretty darn impressive.
Before investing in a large format printer, I was using the cheap consumer inkjet printers from Epson. Ink was expensive, and I went through printers like a kid eats candy. I had nothing but problems with print head clogs that ate ink to get working, or failure of the printhead from infrequent use.
So, all in all, I'm like a happy little pig rolling in excrement. While I occasionally have stupid little problems (most frequently with paper sizes), I continue to produce incredible prints.
Unfortunately, I have been plagued with scratches on prints and have been pulling my hair out trying to figure out where it's occuring. Now I understand. Everyone is plagued with scratches if the print is not very carefully handled. Though I had read about such problems, I never encounted the types attributed to the star wheels or rollers in the printer. My prints would come out looking gorgeous, and after some (i guess) careless handling, I would be dismayed to see fine scratches and dents.
Anyways, I'm excited where technology has been heading in printers and digital cameras. The money I spent on this large format printer, has been probably the best money I ever spent, regardless of problems or potential problems. The money has been well spent - I have learned many new things - and I am able to produce at a quality I consider more than good enough.
If this printer ever packs it in, I would have no problem considering another HP.
But things can change. Just today it was announced that HP is shedding itself of another 6,000 employees.
Something has to suffer as a result.