But with my P800 already having passed its firmware upgrade and the backdating of this giving me queasy feelings... the option of a B&W committed printer moves on to how to get a point of entry.
I think a lower cost, dependable entry (considered a new printer by Piezo folks) would conform to the suggestion of the P400. Suggestion's been made that the heads are "better" and/or more easily maintained. Jon Cone even suggested it would be better for Digital Negatives. Looks to me that a full set of 2 X 8 cartridges, ink, chip resetter, flush, and so forth PLUS the printer itself could be in the $1,000 ballpark.
The big assumption in all of this is that Epson delivers the printers with a workable firmware rather than the current firmware they want everyone to upgrade to. If this is so, then it seems a good idea. If it's a crapshoot, then it stinks, game over, etc. and I'd be better of gambling on converting my existing P800 by trying to backdate the firmware. Yipes! But yes there is a resource out there and I did download it.
Does anyone know which firmware P400's are being delivered with? If the OLD firmware, how do you assure yourself of defeating an update upon first and EVERY use? THere must be some app within the Epson firmware you could move to another directory or some "secure" way to protect yourself.