Digital BW, The Print

Daniel,

 

I have a Canon iPF5100 that I have owned for 18 months.  I can tell you that
it is an excellent machine.  Like you, I made my decision because the
current Epson 4800 series at the time did not have matte/glossy ink
capability and I wanted a more robust machine than the Epson 3800.

 

I have found the machine to be very well-built and trouble-free so far.
Canon provides very good telephone support and updates firmware and drivers
continuously.

 

The ipf5100 has great image quality.  I would consider the color image
quality to be functionally equivalent to the Epson models.  I have printed
images on 3800's and 4800's owned by friends.  The very latest Epson printer
(11000 series, it think)  is supposed to have a new ink formulation that
improves gamut, etc. but I have no way of knowing when this will translate
into a 4800 series model.

 

For black & white, I strongly recommend that you get Joe Berndt's TrueBW RIP
made for the canon series.  This software is reasonably priced ($200) and
provides total Black Only control and linearization and terrific black &
white prints.  I have used it with Ilford Gold Fibre silk, several
Hannemuhle papers, Innova fibaprint, and others.  The B&W print quality with
this setup is as good as you can get without dedicating a printer to a full
BW inkset like Cone K7.  I still have an old Epson 1280 with cone K6 inks
and see a slight improvement in B&W quality with matte papers and this
setup.  I have not used the Cone glossy inks or workflow so can't comment.

 

The Canon print driver has the typical B&W "advanced" mode for color toning,
etc.  - I still greatly prefer the results I get with the TrueBW RIP setup.

 

The printing mechanism is solid as rock, the printer is very fast, it does
nozzle cleaning/alignment, etc automatically when needed.

 

I would be happy to make a couple of test prints for you to compare.  Please
contact me off list to coordinate..

 

Best Regards,

George

 

George C. Pappas

george@...

(703) 268-3196

  _____  

From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
danielstaver
Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 8:31 PM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Digital BW] Canon IPF 5100 vs Epson 3800 vs Epson 4800

 






I'm going to upgrade to an A2 printer within a month or two, and I'm going
to get one of these three printers. Incredibly, I can get all three for
exactly the same price - A used 4800 in very good condition, a brand new
3800 or a brand new Canon IPF 5100 that's on a super promotion from a photo
store because they want to get rid of it.

Why would I even consider a 3800 when I can get a 4800 for the same price?
If it wasn't for the costly and time consuming black ink swap I'd just get
the 4800 now and not even consider anything else. I've printed on matte
papers for many years now, but recently I've really wanted to explore the
new fibre based glossy papers and possibly switch to that. But I see a
period of time coming where I will want to print on both just to experiment
so this is really a huge turn off when it comes to the 4800.

Another thing the 3800 seems to do better is handling small papers and
borderless printing on sheet papers. The 4800 and 5100 can only print
borderless on rolls and the smallest sheet size possible is 8x10 I think.
Neither is a very big deal for me, as this appears to be a limitation of all
big professional grade printers.

The Canon seems attractive. It's HUGE though. Even bigger than the 4800. I
think I can fit it in, and even got permission from my wife to put it in our
bedroom/office, so I'm not going to let that be a decisive factor. The
limited print head warranty is more worrying. It has about one year warranty
and is treated as a consumable. Buying new print heads (there's two of them)
will cost me around $1200, nearly doubling the price of the printer. With
the volume I print I expect the heads to last much longer than that, but
still...

Other than that I hear many good things about the Canon printer. It never
clogs, doesn't have microbanding problems, handles papers very well, has a
motorized roll feed, prints much faster than either of the Epsons, uses less
ink, and is self linearizing.

I've found the Canon wiki which goes into much more detail:
http://canonipf. <http://canonipf.wikispaces.com/> wikispaces.com/

Does any of you have experience with the Canon printer? I'm very familiar
with Epson printers so I know what I'm dealing with there, but the Canon
printer is new for me. In particular I'm interested to know more about BW
print quality on both matte and glossy papers compared to Epson. After all,
that is what I will print most, and I simply don't trust reviewers who don't
primarily shoot BW who says the printer makes very good BW prints.

How is gloss differential and bronzing? How is the dmax on various papers
(both matte and glossy)?

If anyone would be willing to send me some sample prints from the Canon, or
even print out a few of my own images for me I'd be happy to pay you for the
trouble.

Thanks!





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