To provide a counterpoint to Wayne's experience...
I had an Epson 1280 that was a major clog-monster. I've got an Epson
R200 that is even worse.
My HP DJ130 gets up and prints every time, even after long dormancy.
I don't think this is a
HP vs Epson thing - more of an dye vs. pigment thing.
-bw
On Mar 30, 2007, at 4:36 AM, Wayne S wrote:
At 04:44 PM 3/29/2007, Steve wrote:
I have always had very fast and helpful service from Canon. My
first i9900 would not even start right out of the box. I called
Canon, got someone right away, and within 3 days there was a brand
new one at my door, with the prepaid paperwork and shipping slip
to send mine back....
I've debated getting a different printer and wondered how
the Canon or HP's were. I have used Epson for a long time.
The Epson 800 and 1200, both tend to clog up, since when
idle, the print head stays exposed. The 1270 came out shortly
to replace the 1200 and solved that problem, so if you happen
to leave the printer on, the heads don't dry up.
I have had tracking problems with the Epson printers which can
happen if anything gets on this long piece of mylar(?) strip that
is used to tell the print head where it is. What happens is that
borderless prints can leave a thin white edge. Other than that,
the 2200 has been reliable and the large prints are great. The
Epson is much slower than a Canon printer.
No one has mentioned anything about the real cost of the printer,
the paper and the ink, but I suspect they are all comparable.
Replacing
individual ink colors is a must. I tend to run through the lighter
colors
2-3 times as fast as the deeper colors. Light magenta 1st, light
cyan 2nd,
and light grey 3rd. In the long run you will spend 10x as much on
ink and paper as the original printer, and if you print a lot, even
more than that.
The second consideration is how well do the prints last, what paper
can you work with, are ICC profiles easily available, how hard is it
to get the colors right, ... Nothing worse than getting a magenta
cast print only to figure out I set the profiles wrong, the most
frustrating
part of the whole digital printing process.
With the Epson, if I stick to their papers (mostly Glossy and
Luster) they
are very good. But I have had trouble trying to use Museo fine art
paper,
and other water color papers. I have never spent money for a color
checking prints, but probably would if I really needed it for such
papers. My head starts to spin with dot-gain curves and how much
ink gets laid down... But when everything works, the results are
very pleasing. I'm sure there are solutions, as I did these
experiments
several years ago.
Some of the newer printers can automatically switch to matte black,
which is a real pain with the 2200. That is a definite must for any
future printer I get, the ability to switch between matte and glossy
type papers without changing ink cartridges.
Wayne S
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