Epson 4900 for film

[blue moon]

I have a 4900 that we use every day, and it has been solid. I paid a couple hundred bucks for it after the previous owner couldn't print photos with it because 3 colours were clogged.  (those colours are Black and a few others and for the record they are not at all firing these days. )

I would not buy one brand new. I WOULD buy one for a hundred bucks and use it until it died and wouldn't print any colours anymore. Ours is almost two years in our shop without so much as a clogged nozzle in the two that I have been using.

My 2 cents. I know I may bring down the hate with this, some people do not like this printer but ours has been great.... For the cost we paid.

(I Have a 4800, and a 1430 as well, so IF the 4900 died I wouldn't be up sh*t creek with a turd paddle.)

Again, just my experience.

It would be hard to argue with your success! For a couple hundred bucks it is a good viable option. Buying a new one for ten times that is a different story (at least in my eyes).

Pierre

[Alex M]

BTW, if you or anyone else needs a new 4880, someone on this board owns about 300 of them new in the box!  I won't say his name, but I am sure he is watching!  He told me personally, so its no joke!  This was about a year ago, but I would bet he still has them.

If you are speaking about us (M&R) we no longer have them.

[JBLUE]

I have a 4900 that we use every day, and it has been solid. I paid a couple hundred bucks for it after the previous owner couldn't print photos with it because 3 colours were clogged.  (those colours are Black and a few others and for the record they are not at all firing these days. )

I would not buy one brand new. I WOULD buy one for a hundred bucks and use it until it died and wouldn't print any colours anymore. Ours is almost two years in our shop without so much as a clogged nozzle in the two that I have been using.

My 2 cents. I know I may bring down the hate with this, some people do not like this printer but ours has been great.... For the cost we paid.



(I Have a 4800, and a 1430 as well, so IF the 4900 died I wouldn't be up sh*t creek with a turd paddle.)

Again, just my experience.

Same story here. Bought one on the cheap because of 1 dead channel. The thing has worked flawless for almost a year and a half. Only issue has been a couple of aftermarket cartridges taking a crap.

[Donnie]

They had an Epson T3270 "sure color" at the Fort Worth show this weekend. The films looked pretty impressive.... so did the price tag.

[ZooCity]

Who was selling them?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Donnie]

Who was selling them?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

So many booths... so many cards... I'm thinking maybe Lee's Screen Process supply..  leessupply.com

[Donnie]

Well the web link doesn't work. So I called them. Yes it was them.

800-447-8874

Ask for Mitch.

[ZooCity]

Cool, thanks Donnie.

[ZooCity]

Just fyi, Charlie at Accurip informed me that it was the first batches of 4900's (and also the T series) that had the big clog issues.  He said Epson actually tore the units he had down completely and rebuilt as they had realized the issues and updated a few things.  He thought the 4900 was rushed to market basically but, now that it has been revised, thinks it's a better printer than the 4800/80 series.  Thought I would share as everything else I read about the 4900 was universally negative, aside from print quality which is always good with Epsons.  Seems risky to me but it sounds like the revised production models of the 4900 would be OK to purchase. 

It looks like the T3270 is what we are going to bring in to replace the pair of franken-4800's in here and relieve me of my duties as late night inkjet technician.  The 5 cart setup sounds perfect for doing a CMYK dye sub + film positive system which would be 2 birds for us.   Might grab the scanner option too for oversized scans, I feel a little shitty telling people to go to the copy shop for their larger than legal sized scans, seems like a service we should provide.

[blue moon]

Just fyi, Charlie at Accurip informed me that it was the first batches of 4900's (and also the T series) that had the big clog issues.  He said Epson actually tore the units he had down completely and rebuilt as they had realized the issues and updated a few things.  He thought the 4900 was rushed to market basically but, now that it has been revised, thinks it's a better printer than the 4800/80 series.  Thought I would share as everything else I read about the 4900 was universally negative, aside from print quality which is always good with Epsons.  Seems risky to me but it sounds like the revised production models of the 4900 would be OK to purchase. 

the information I have was given by a retired EPSON tech who claims the design is inferior to the 4880/80 (not the quality of print, but the robustness of the printer ). According to him, heat sealed bags were used for ink distion rather than hoses and most of the components are significantly weaker and should thus last shorter time period. He also mentioned that the printer flexes when moved due to the less solid construction and that it can create problems.

My guess is that Charlie is talking about the printhead issues rather than the printer in general. Obviously, I don't have one and he does so my information could be ouright WRONG, but I have no reason to doubt it. In this it feels like we might be talking about two different things. . .

pierre

[ZooCity]

That sounds completely damning to me.  I can't imagine making some of the components of the 4800/80 weaker, some of the parts are already on the level of cracker jack prizes imho. 

I'll say that I don't see eye to eye with Charlie on some things but take whatever advice he has at face value, I understand that anyone selling output software and/or media would like to see users with newer model printers, updated drivers that work correctly with current OS's, etc.  He told me they ran a bunch of films...I think it might have actually been for M&R...where they ran a 4900 for days straight without issue.   

My guess is the more recent 4900 units are fine if you set them up, get a good routine going and don't change a thing.  But that's not much of an endorsement.  Workgroup printers should be built for simplicity, longevity, accuracy and consistency.   Seems like the T series looks more up that ally with the 4900 a lower cost concept for photogs doing their own higher end prints in house, etc. 

I'd like to hear what your friend has to say about the T series.

I also wonder if there are more robust printers than epsons that could be run for film positives.  A unit that could output @ 2880 or higher but do it faster than the Epsons could create near imagesetter quality films with the right film/ink combo.  My feeling is that inkjet output at it's very best is "close enough" but the very best quality settings are painfully slow.  I can't stomach lower res output or bi-directional. 

[ebscreen]

Every industrial inkjet printhead I've seen is significantly lower native resolution than the Epson printheads.
Epson owns (and closely guards) the patent on micropiezo inkjet technology, as well they should, they invented it.
Now if they got with the times, and screen printers demands, and made a larger printhead or ganged them up....


That T series looks tuff, maybe they are finally coming around to our wants.

[ZooCity]

Huh, I wasn't aware that the others where lower res nor that epson invented and patented micropiezo, that's interesting.  I suppose you don't need uber high resolution for most applications except pro photography output or, for us "fringe users", crisp vector and line screening output that resembles the chemical process the inkjet supplanted. 

I think the 2880x1440 or 2880x2880 res is plenty high, just needs to be a little more efficient on the output somehow and needs to have more variable dot control like the 1440x resolutions have.  The impression I get is that you only have 2 variable dot levels at 2880 res which is ultimately limiting for linearization, etc. but would be less of an issue with finely calibrated ink/media that could optimize the range of adjustment possible using the two dot levels. 

I doubt the screen printing film positive market will ever be there for epson, in their eyes, to make a dedicated film printer.  Who knows though, they did make dedicated dtg and dye sub units.  I wouldn't bat an eye at spending the extra on the official Epson media if it was tuned to our needs, in fact I bet it would yield fantastic results. You'd think they could just make an "edition" for one of the T series printers for film positives doesn't seem that hard or risky but lord knows how decisions like that get made in a company of that size. .