New Epson Pro-printer with highest DMax (P600)

[Mark D Segal]

Yes, Mark. I thought the whole new thing was just that - new inks and delivery system. Didn't you take that away from Michael's interview?

Hi John, what I took away is that it's "ALL NEW"  :-)

It was good communication, huh - sticks in the mind - "all new", so I gotta see it.

[Stefan Ohlsson]

Yes, Mark. I thought the whole new thing was just that - new inks and delivery system. Didn't you take that away from Michael's interview?

It wasn't just new, I think I heard that it was ALL NEW a couple of times.

But when I spoke to Epson's rep here in Sweden, he said that the major change is the new printer head that allow them to use new inks. The head also has an automatic check for clogging, which sounds promising. But I have just seen the printer and some prints made from it. I hope to get my hands on one in late November for a test. But how do you test for clogging problems?

[Mark D Segal]

It wasn't just new, I think I heard that it was ALL NEW a couple of times.

But when I spoke to Epson's rep here in Sweden, he said that the major change is the new printer head that allow them to use new inks. The head also has an automatic check for clogging, which sounds promising. But I have just seen the printer and some prints made from it. I hope to get my hands on one in late November for a test. But how do you test for clogging problems?

I've learned over the years that you can't. This gets revealed in time with experience under actual conditions of usage.

And by the way, what did you think of the prints you saw? Were you able to see them compared with the same photo printed on an x900?

[Stefan Ohlsson]

I've learned over the years that you can't. This gets revealed in time with experience under actual conditions of usage.

And by the way, what did you think of the prints you saw? Were you able to see them compared with the same photo printed on an x900?

Even without comparing them, I saw a better black. But it was even more visible when I saw prints from a x900. Not from the same file, though. But both contained large areas of black. So, not a small incremental change, it was an ALL NEW BLACK 

Some might say that a deeper black isn't that important, but for me it translates into a longer range of hues that I can work with and a possibility to increase the separation in the mid tones and shadow areas. And that's important.

[Mark D Segal]

Some might say that a deeper black isn't that important, but for me it translates into a longer range of hues that I can work with and a possibility to increase the separation in the mid tones and shadow areas. And that's important.

I agree with you. If it's doing that, this is a significant improvement, and whets the appetite for 17-inch + versions. But I think what you said above about the beta testing makes sense, and the more "tested" these machines are before they hit the remainder of the market the better.

[Stefan Ohlsson]

I will start some light fade testing on the P600 ink set with various media as soon as I can, but I'm not on any of those "industry influencer" lists that companies use to give advanced access to the new stuff.  I will have to wait until the P600 is available for purchase in stores.  I do get a laugh when watching the Epson guys trying to maintain a straight face when saying there are "no plans" to phase this "ALL NEW" ink set into larger format printers at this time

I hope to get my hands on a printer in the middle of November, so if you haven't had a chance to get som sample prints before that I will print some and send it to you. As you know, we at Projektor is really interested in the longevity of the prints that we deliver. The tests that you did on our ImagePrint samples were very interesting and showed very clearly that the yellow ink is the weak chain for Epson.

[Rawcoll]

It will be interesting to see how this printer pans out. As a relatively infrequent printer I'd like to be satisfied that clogging is not an issue, though when I read that the new print head auto-detects clogs it does bother me that this might be a fix for a problem not inherently solved, and a means to sell more ink lost through head cleaning! Can't help being cynical here.

I'm also keen to see how well it handles the thicker papers. My old 2100's rear feed slot worked beautifully with the thicker papers, albeit with some manual intervention, but I find my 2880's rear feed is hopelessly unreliable. I gather that the 3000 is much better in this regard. So I'd want to see a lot of user experience before dropping the cash for one.

Ian

[PhotoGap]

Hi Alan, I was a little surprised Epson would have chosen the 13 inch format for rolling out such a new technology - surely they have their reasons, I just don't know them. ....

I'll be in the market for a new printer in 2015, and the P600 looks very promising. Though I consider myself an advanced-amateur, when I take a critical look at the sizes I like to print, a 13" printer will work more often than not. I just don't print the big stuff enough to justify replacing my old 3800 with an equal size machine. Perhaps I'm not alone, and that explains why Epson considers 13" to be a good entry point for the new tech.

[Dan Wells]

One thing that has been left unsaid - how does this inkset compare in overall gamut to Ultrachrome HDR (or Canon Lucia EX)? It has deeper blacks than any previous Epson inkset (including HDR), and it has better overall gamut than Ultrachrome Vivid Magenta - both according to the Epson rep in the interview. He didn't address whether the improved gamut makes up for the two "extra" inks in HDR. Some say you can't really see them, but, when I look at prints from my 7900 against my old 3880 (or a friend's iPF6100, which is similar in gamut to a VM printer), there's a serious extra "pop" from the orange and green inks! If the next-generation large-format machines go back down to 9 inks, will we actually lose gamut in some colors? Alternatively, Epson could be working on the two extra colors right now... An inkset with this base (if it's as good as Epson says), plus orange and green (if we get greedy, add a dark blue, Canon-style, as well) might well be significantly higher gamut than anything else we've seen, certainly from an inkjet - and perhaps the best way of putting color on paper yet seen, regardless of process. As I understand it, the widest inkjet gamuts already go significantly outside the gamut of any other process, with the possible exception of extremely saturated blacks?

Dan