Digital BW, The Print

For those interested in a large format printer (LFP), HP is offering a $1200 rebate with $300 worth of paper on their new Z3200 printer 24" or 44" model, I believe you get your choice of paper.  In the past there has been much discussion on this forum of HP's superior fade resistant inks.

The dealers in the Dallas area are retailing the printer for $3395 for the 24" model; so this puts the printer down to around $2200 not considering the free paper.  Considering the paper this puts the printer at about the price of the older Z3100 refurb.  HP is offering this deal until the end of April.  The rebate requires a trade in of a 24" or larger printer, plotter, or vinyl cutter; the dealer I'm buying mine from is going to use a refurbished printer they have in stock for the trade in since you don't actually have to trade it in, you just have to give them the serial number.  So if you have an older large format printer that you want to keep and convert to B&W only this is a great opportunity.  If you don't have a trade in I would call around to all of the dealers in your area as I did and tell them that if they want you to purchase the printer from them that they will have to help you find a trade in or provide it themselves as my dealer is doing; if they want your business they will probably help you out.  Even if you have to pay someone a hundred  dollars to use their serial number, they could keep the machine and would still be a great deal for you.

I have decided to purchase the New HP after considering the Epson's and Canon's as well.  If you are in the market for a LFP you should take a look at these two reviews of the HP Z3200 and the Epson 7900 by Julian Mussi at:

http://www.spectraflow.com/files/pdf/Z3200%20User%20report%20f2.pdf

and

http://www.spectraflow.com/files/pdf/7900%20review%20V1.pdf

The reasons I have chosen the Z3200 over the others:
*  comes with an embedded spectrophotometer (ESP) from i1 with software that will create icc profiles on media of choice, additional software is available that uses more patches and creates more robust profile.  Epson charges $1500 extra and doesn't even come with software for creating icc profiles
*  HP has the best Wilhilm fade test with their color inks fading more consistently in unison with each other
*  HP's blacks are neutral with no color inks used when printing neutral B&W prints
*  HP's color gamut is comparable to Canon and Epson with differences being academic
*  HP's heads are user replaceable
*  I also believe that HP's extended warranty is less expensive than Epson's

Epson's advantages is that it's faster and has a better cutter, which aren't big concerns of mine.

Hope this may help anyone considering the purchase of a LFP.  I won't be online for probably a week or more; so if you have questions of me it will have to wait, or do as I did and read the reviews and do the research.

Randy

On Mar 28, 2009, at 11:40 AM, Peter De Smidt wrote:

> How about the Canon IPF6100?   It's priced right in that ballpark with
> specially, including free ink and paper.  Many of us here will already
> have print spectro's, and so having one built in to the printer isn't
> that big of an advantage.

One of the reasons the HP printers require a major special to be  
competitive is that they only come in one configuration: with the  
spectro included. So the price reflects the rather high price of the  
built-in spectro... Epson chose to make their version of the built-in  
spectro optional, and as such it was relegated to a small percentage  
of the units sold.

C. David Tobie
Global Product Technology Manager
Digital Imaging & Home Theater
CDTobie@...


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Datacolor
www.datacolor.com/Spyder3




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

>     
How about the Canon IPF6100?   It's priced right in that ballpark with 
specially, including free ink and paper.  Many of us here will already 
have print spectro's, and so having one built in to the printer isn't 
that big of an advantage.    There's also been lots of complaints about 
HP tech support and customer service.  For example, read Paul Butzi's 
blog at www.butzi.net.   I'm in the market for one of these printers 
myself, and it's really difficult to decide.  They probably can all make 
really great prints, with only minor differences, but then we're the 
type of people who care about minor differences :)

i ended up buying the 7900 for 3100 (after the rebate) plus two rolls of
paper that should cut the cost to 2900. i choose the epson for couple
reasons

1) it is much faster than the HP about two times
2) i like the new paper handling
3) my other printers are also epson

since i  already have a profiling unit, having one in the printer was a plus
but not something i want to pay for again.



On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 5:49 PM, Randy Rancier
<randy_rancier2004@...>wrote:

>   For those interested in a large format printer (LFP), HP is offering a
> $1200 rebate with $300 worth of paper on their new Z3200 printer 24" or 44"
> model, I believe you get your choice of paper. In the past there has been
> much discussion on this forum of HP's superior fade resistant inks.
>
> The dealers in the Dallas area are retailing the printer for $3395 for the
> 24" model; so this puts the printer down to around $2200 not considering the
> free paper. Considering the paper this puts the printer at about the price
> of the older Z3100 refurb. HP is offering this deal until the end of April.
> The rebate requires a trade in of a 24" or larger printer, plotter, or vinyl
> cutter; the dealer I'm buying mine from is going to use a refurbished
> printer they have in stock for the trade in since you don't actually have to
> trade it in, you just have to give them the serial number. So if you have an
> older large format printer that you want to keep and convert to B&W only
> this is a great opportunity. If you don't have a trade in I would call
> around to all of the dealers in your area as I did and tell them that if
> they want you to purchase the printer from them that they will have to help
> you find a trade in or provide it themselves as my dealer is doing; if they
> want your business they will probably help you out. Even if you have to pay
> someone a hundred dollars to use their serial number, they could keep the
> machine and would still be a great deal for you.
>
> I have decided to purchase the New HP after considering the Epson's and
> Canon's as well. If you are in the market for a LFP you should take a look
> at these two reviews of the HP Z3200 and the Epson 7900 by Julian Mussi at:
>
> http://www.spectraflow.com/files/pdf/Z3200%20User%20report%20f2.pdf
>
> and
>
> http://www.spectraflow.com/files/pdf/7900%20review%20V1.pdf
>
> The reasons I have chosen the Z3200 over the others:
> * comes with an embedded spectrophotometer (ESP) from i1 with software that
> will create icc profiles on media of choice, additional software is
> available that uses more patches and creates more robust profile. Epson
> charges $1500 extra and doesn't even come with software for creating icc
> profiles
> * HP has the best Wilhilm fade test with their color inks fading more
> consistently in unison with each other
> * HP's blacks are neutral with no color inks used when printing neutral B&W
> prints
> * HP's color gamut is comparable to Canon and Epson with differences being
> academic
> * HP's heads are user replaceable
> * I also believe that HP's extended warranty is less expensive than Epson's
>
> Epson's advantages is that it's faster and has a better cutter, which
> aren't big concerns of mine.
>
> Hope this may help anyone considering the purchase of a LFP. I won't be
> online for probably a week or more; so if you have questions of me it will
> have to wait, or do as I did and read the reviews and do the research.
>
> Randy
>
>  
>



-- 
 -------------------------------------
 regards, mehrdad


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]