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Author Topic: Replacing an Epson 7900 with a 7890  (Read 3231 times)

prepper

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Replacing an Epson 7900 with a 7890
« on: February 25, 2014, 04:56:52 pm »

We have a 7900 that gets minimal use, no problems for 2 years and 1 month, now yellow nozzles are partially clogged.  Going to replace it with a 7890.  Looking at Epson site and others now I see the same ink cartridge numbers for both machines, looking at my carts here it lists being for:  7700/7700M/7890/7900/9700/9890/9900 so I'm assuming now that the only difference between the inkset for the 7890 and 7900 is the addition of orange and green in the 7900 so it's called Ultrachrome HDR inks and the 7890's are called Ultrachrome K3.

As far as I can tell both are the exact same machine with the 7900 just having 2 more inks? The main need for that was for better spot color matching for proofing in flexo and packaging markets, not necessary in commercial sheetfed printing.  We got a deal at the time that put them both at the same price so went for the larger gamut, situation now is 7900 is up to $1000 more and uses 2 more inks to keep supplied with.

We have a SpectroProofer on the 7900 so I guess it can be taken off and attached to the new 7890 without any problems?

Is there any used market for this 7900 with a slight clog in the Yellow head only?  Prints look pretty good, just won't pass as a verified contract proof.


Thanks for any input you may have to provide.

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Farmer

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Re: Replacing an Epson 7900 with a 7890
« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2014, 05:53:32 pm »

Same printer, less inks.  Same spectro.

Don't know about second hand market but I presume someone would be interested - it always comes down to price :-)
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Phil Brown

shadowblade

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Re: Replacing an Epson 7900 with a 7890
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2014, 05:56:01 pm »

Have you tried unclogging it?

The Ultrachrome HDR inkset also has a much better print permanence compared to the Ultrachrome K3VM, since the addition of orange and green means that a lot less yellow ink is used.
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hugowolf

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Re: Replacing an Epson 7900 with a 7890
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2014, 09:30:08 pm »

Have you tried unclogging it?

The Ultrachrome HDR inkset also has a much better print permanence compared to the Ultrachrome K3VM, since the addition of orange and green means that a lot less yellow ink is used.

Probably only if you are using a RIP. The driver seems to only use O and G, if it fails to reproduce the color any other way. So with the driver, you only get more permanence with colors that would have been out of gamut with 3K and VM. If you look at ink consumption under the driver, the O and G inks are hardly ever used.

Epson Y is definately a weak link.

Brian A
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shadowblade

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Re: Replacing an Epson 7900 with a 7890
« Reply #4 on: February 26, 2014, 04:31:34 am »

Probably only if you are using a RIP. The driver seems to only use O and G, if it fails to reproduce the color any other way. So with the driver, you only get more permanence with colors that would have been out of gamut with 3K and VM. If you look at ink consumption under the driver, the O and G inks are hardly ever used.

Epson Y is definately a weak link.

Brian A

On Aardenburg, Ultrachrome HDR seems to have much better permanence than K3, even without a RIP, when printed on the same papers. And, when you look at colours that don't use yellow ink, they weem to be just as lightfast - sometimes moreso- as HP Vivera inks. A RIP only improves things further, by restricting yellow and limiting light inks.

I wonder what would happen if you replaced Epson's yellow with HP yellow, but left the rest of the inkset the same. Obviously you would need a profile for the modified inkset.

Hope the carbon and gold nanoparticle pigments make it to inkjets sometime soon - these are completely lightfast (being made of inert elements) and produce colours based on particle size rather than particle composition
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Benny Profane

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Re: Replacing an Epson 7900 with a 7890
« Reply #5 on: February 26, 2014, 07:50:59 am »

So, why are you switching to the 7890? Reliability, or cost, or, both?
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Christoph C. Feldhaim

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Re: Replacing an Epson 7900 with a 7890
« Reply #6 on: February 26, 2014, 08:02:03 am »

If you don't need to proof, you don't need the 7900.
The 7890 (which I own) is a terrific printer.
Slightly less gamut - you'll miss a little on few prints with extreme gamuts, otherwise nothing.
Cheers
~Chris

Benny Profane

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Re: Replacing an Epson 7900 with a 7890
« Reply #7 on: February 26, 2014, 08:50:01 am »

If you don't need to proof, you don't need the 7900.
The 7890 (which I own) is a terrific printer.
Slightly less gamut - you'll miss a little on few prints with extreme gamuts, otherwise nothing.
Cheers
~Chris

How long have you owned it?
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prepper

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Re: Replacing an Epson 7900 with a 7890
« Reply #8 on: February 26, 2014, 05:00:45 pm »

Cost mainly, about $1000 less, although I found a 7900 today for just $246 more than a 7890, 2 less inks, which everyone says is not needed for commercial proofing which is what we are doing.  The Orange and Green are needed more so in the packaging market proofing area to meet more of the Pantone PMS inks which are used way more in packaging than commercial print, and in the art\photography area as well because of the larger gamut.   The Orange and Green are seldom used here either.  One thing I have learned is that Epson states and it's on all the boxes the carts come in is that you should only use them for 6 months after opening.  We are a low use shop, some of the lesser used colors have been in our printer for a year or more so I guess I exceeded that recommendation!

Will probably just stick with the 7900 now at that price though because everything is set up for that already.  I do believe also that the 2 printers are exactly the same except for the 2 extra inks, even the printheads, so I don't think reliability would be better either way?
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Christoph C. Feldhaim

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Re: Replacing an Epson 7900 with a 7890
« Reply #9 on: February 26, 2014, 06:22:03 pm »

How long have you owned it?
About 2 years low use (private non pro )

Farmer

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Re: Replacing an Epson 7900 with a 7890
« Reply #10 on: February 26, 2014, 09:21:37 pm »

I do believe also that the 2 printers are exactly the same except for the 2 extra inks, even the printheads, so I don't think reliability would be better either way?

Yes.
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Phil Brown
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