Epson P5000

[Maff]

Anyone out there with this printer yet? Anything good or bad heard?

We are looking to upgrade our film printer.  Although our old Workforce 1100 will print fine films, it needs a ton of babysitting.
I want to bump up to 17" films, and rolls.  I also would prefer films to print faster.
Originally I was going to look for a Used 4880, but we have the budget to go new and Epson is offering a $400 cash rebate on the P5000 right now until the end of this month, which would bring the price tag down to $1400.   

We also have Accurip Black Pearl and they list this printer as compatible.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!!
Thanks as always!

[blue moon]

be careful! The 4900 had major issues and in general was not recommended for screenprinting. 'not sure what changes were made to the 5K though so hopefully it's a much more reliable piece of equipment.

pierre

[BP]

Last summer my film printer took a crap. But before I ordered one I talked with accurip and they said they had not plans to make the all black system for the P5000!

[Maff]

Last summer my film printer took a crap. But before I ordered one I talked with accurip and they said they had not plans to make the all black system for the P5000!

Ok thanks, What did you go with instead?
I should give them a call to see if that has changed.
Currently we just use one channel to print, If we get one I thought I'd just use one channel to start and use Epson ink, since I'm not sure I would want to void the warranty in the first year. 

[Maff]

be careful! The 4900 had major issues and in general was not recommended for screenprinting. 'not sure what changes were made to the 5K though so hopefully it's a much more reliable piece of equipment.

pierre

yeah I've read some of the old 4900 reviews. The Photography reviews seem pretty good so far for the p5000, but it's not even 2 years old yet. The upgrades seem to be more about the new ink system and the automated maintenance and better dust protection.  I did speak to the guy at inkjetcarts.us and he said it is good upgrade over the 4900, but didn't give much details, they are getting refillable ink cartridges for it.

[BP]

Maff, I found a new in the box 4900 last summer. I have had 4 Epson 4900 and they can be a pain at time but not bad. Also a few years back at another shop I got a new 4900 that stopped working after 1 day and Epson aired me a new one. The bad one we sent back to Epson had all black in it with nothing said. So that should not void the warranty. But if someone is now making carts of all black for the P5000  is good to know.

[rusty]

Following this since I am just starting to look for a new printer. Been using 1430 for the past 2 years but that's now discontinued and I need to bigger.

Please update if you pull the trigger on a 5000

[jupmode]

We have the P5000 with Black Pearl Accurip. It works as well as the 4900 in our experience. We've gone from the 4800 to the 4900 to the 5000. This was the right decision for us and I'd buy it again.

[blue moon]

We have the P5000 with Black Pearl Accurip. It works as well as the 4900 in our experience. We've gone from the 4800 to the 4900 to the 5000. This was the right decision for us and I'd buy it again.

can you please explain your reasoning? Most of us here don't have hands on experience with all three printers so it would be great to hear from somebody who does!

pierre

[Maff]

We have the P5000 with Black Pearl Accurip. It works as well as the 4900 in our experience. We've gone from the 4800 to the 4900 to the 5000. This was the right decision for us and I'd buy it again.

can you please explain your reasoning? Most of us here don't have hands on experience with all three printers so it would be great to hear from somebody who does!

pierre

We have the P5000 with Black Pearl Accurip. It works as well as the 4900 in our experience. We've gone from the 4800 to the 4900 to the 5000. This was the right decision for us and I'd buy it again.

That's great to hear. So no major issues or criticism so far with the p5000? There was a lot of old reviews of the 4900 being problematic for people...

[jupmode]

We started with a used 4800 that we bought from someone local. When that died, we moved on to the newer version of that model, the 4900. And that's what we've done ever since and how we ended at the 5000. Switching printers is not something that you typically plan for. It's out of necessity when a printer starts to fail. So the decisions were made quickly.

Since all three of these models have quite a few similarities, it was easy to go from one to the next. We're using the same film rolls, get the ink from the same supplier, and can replace parts with the older model if necessary.

We aren't the most technical print shop. We run halftone work on a weekly, but not daily, basis. We're close to going CTS. These Epson printers get the job done for us, however I've never used anything else so I can't compare it to another film printer. 

I can send you some halftone tests we ran with the 5000 if you want to see them.

[Maff]

We started with a used 4800 that we bought from someone local. When that died, we moved on to the newer version of that model, the 4900. And that's what we've done ever since and how we ended at the 5000. Switching printers is not something that you typically plan for. It's out of necessity when a printer starts to fail. So the decisions were made quickly.

Since all three of these models have quite a few similarities, it was easy to go from one to the next. We're using the same film rolls, get the ink from the same supplier, and can replace parts with the older model if necessary.

We aren't the most technical print shop. We run halftone work on a weekly, but not daily, basis. We're close to going CTS. These Epson printers get the job done for us, however I've never used anything else so I can't compare it to another film printer. 

I can send you some halftone tests we ran with the 5000 if you want to see them.

Thanks for the info!
What ink and cartridges are you using? Refillable carts?
All black carts or just 1 channel?
Did you try printing with the Epson p5000 ink?

[jupmode]

We use the Epson ink.

https://www.itsupplies.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=p5000+ink

[Maff]

Update here -
So we got ourselves a P5000. This thing is a beast! Well I guess I'm just not accustom to printers this big, as I'm pretty sure it's similar in size to it's predecessor.

Anyways,  it set up pretty easy. Network connected setup went very quick. I needed to adjust the sensor setting to recognize the roll feed. I still can't get the cassette feed to grab cut sheets one at a time though. I also need to figure out how to adjust the cut margin.

Accurip recognized it without issue, but it will only print one channel as previously mentioned. I asked accurip if they have any plans to update it to all black channels printing and they said no, not at this time since it's so new still. For now it's fine, I can deal with single channel printing. Maybe we will use it to print digital posters or something as well...

Currently I'm using the Epson black ink, but eventually will switch to dedicated film positive ink. So far the Epson photo black seems to be darker and more durable then the matte black.  But it's not as dark compared to our previous printer with a dedicated film positive black ink, but it's subtle difference. I'm judging that by eye. 

Either way, after lots of test prints and getting my accurip settings straight, I'm able to print films and expose screens just fine. Only spot color stuff at the moment, but I did a few halftone strips and they exposed fine as well. It prints crazy fast, even at 2880x1440 it prints faster than my workforce 1100.

So, so far so good. I will update if it goes south.... Hopefully not!