Epson SureColor SC-P800

eeyore

eeyore

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eeyore
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Morning all, i'm toying with getting one of these over a p600 model.
Has anyone on here used one and set one up?
Its a huge outlay so i'm trying to find out as much about it as possible.
Are there any decent non-epsom inks for it for example?
 
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I've had the P800 for just over a year, totally pleased with it.
I have the roll holder attachment too and have printed off a few panos, no issues at all.
A2 prints are great , its good to have the option to print A2 even if you don't do it all the time, I often do.
Easy to set up and use and the print quality on both Matte and gloss paper is excellent.
I bought a replacement ink kit from Fotospeed that uses refillable cartridges, I just installed them recently and they are fine, can't tell the difference from the Epson inks, don't know what longevity they have but that's not really of any concern to me.

The Epson inks are about £45 per 80ml cartridge where the Fotospeed inks cost £250 for a complete kit including 125ml bottles of ink, the individual bottles are £25 each (for 125ml) so much cheaper than the OEM ink. They also include a test pack of A3 paper with a variety of A3 paper for free.

I've used a variety of paper, Epson gloss, Matte and lustre and got excellent results, but I also used paper from Fotospeed gloss, matte and lustre and get excellent results there too, Fotospeed offer a free profiling service for any of their own papers .
Don't buy paper from Fotospeed though, it's actually cheaper to buy from Online Paper you can buy the Fotospeed paper from them and still get the free profiling from Fotospeed.
 
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Cheers for the help guys :)

Kiwi Paul said:
I've had the P800 for just over a year, totally pleased with it.
I have the roll holder attachment too and have printed off a few panos, no issues at all.
A2 prints are great , its good to have the option to print A2 even if you don't do it all the time, I often do.
Easy to set up and use and the print quality on both Matte and gloss paper is excellent.
I bought a replacement ink kit from Fotospeed that uses refillable cartridges, I just installed them recently and they are fine, can't tell the difference from the Epson inks, don't know what longevity they have but that's not really of any concern to me.

The Epson inks are about £45 per 80ml cartridge where the Fotospeed inks cost £250 for a complete kit including 125ml bottles of ink, the individual bottles are £25 each (for 125ml) so much cheaper than the OEM ink. They also include a test pack of A3 paper with a variety of A3 paper for free.

I've used a variety of paper, Epson gloss, Matte and lustre and got excellent results, but I also used paper from Fotospeed gloss, matte and lustre and get excellent results there too, Fotospeed offer a free profiling service for any of their own papers .
Don't buy paper from Fotospeed though, it's actually cheaper to buy from Online Paper you can buy the Fotospeed paper from them and still get the free profiling from Fotospeed.
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Have you tried stiffer / heavy paper stock in it?
The spec says up to 1000gsm and 1.5mm thick (Not even sure I would ever use it... but I would probably try at least once!
 
As well as Marrutt check out FotoSpeed for inks and papers too, I use their pigment inks (and paper) and am very pleased with the end results.
 
eeyore said:
Cheers for the help guys :)



Have you tried stiffer / heavy paper stock in it?
The spec says up to 1000gsm and 1.5mm thick (Not even sure I would ever use it... but I would probably try at least once!
Click to expand...

Nope, not printed with anything heavier than about 280gsm
 
PaulButler said:
As well as Marrutt check out FotoSpeed for inks and papers too, I use their pigment inks (and paper) and am very pleased with the end results.
Click to expand...

It's cheaper to buy Fotospeed paper from Online Paper, quite a bit cheaper but they don't sell the aftermarket ink.
I think Marrutt and Fotospeed use the same inksets just rebranded but Marrutt charge just under £300 inc VAT, Fotospeed are £250 for the kit and include a test pack of A3 papers and offer a free profiling service for any of their papers. I had all my papers profiled by them and its excellent, the prints are just like what I see on my monitor.
 
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Bumping this one, as we have an Epson Surecolor P800 in the studio that has not been used very much.

I was testing printing yesterday with it for the first time and could not find where to get additional profiles, e.g. for the Epson Archival Matte paper. I tried sending from photoshop with the standard profile and also letting the printer manage, but in both cases the colors were muted and very different to the edited picture.

It's a long time since I did my printing course and I've forgotten how to calibrate. Any clues please on the best workflow and where to get extra profiles for the exact paper?

​

 
Have you updated the print driver since you last used it?

My Epson P900 works really well without any profiles on most papers - although the ones I've had the most trouble with (and don't use any more) are the Epson ones.
 
TimHughes said:
Bumping this one, as we have an Epson Surecolor P800 in the studio that has not been used very much.

I was testing printing yesterday with it for the first time and could not find where to get additional profiles, e.g. for the Epson Archival Matte paper. I tried sending from photoshop with the standard profile and also letting the printer manage, but in both cases the colors were muted and very different to the edited picture.

It's a long time since I did my printing course and I've forgotten how to calibrate. Any clues please on the best workflow and where to get extra profiles for the exact paper?

​

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If the printer has been standing are you sure all colours are firing properly. Have you done a nozzle check?
 
Harlequin565 said:
Have you updated the print driver since you last used it?

My Epson P900 works really well without any profiles on most papers - although the ones I've had the most trouble with (and don't use any more) are the Epson ones.
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Yes, I did a fresh reinstall yesterday and checked the nozzles, and printed from photoshop. The result was clear, just colours were muted and different, I thought it was the paper. I'll try printing directly from capture one next.

Do you guys have any recommendations for paper? I have two main styles, for black and white I'm thinking Hahnemühle Bamboo and for bright and colourful images Hahnemühle Baryta. Probably makes sense to get a couple of sample packs.
 
TimHughes said:
Yes, I did a fresh reinstall yesterday and checked the nozzles, and printed from photoshop. The result was clear, just colours were muted and different, I thought it was the paper. I'll try printing directly from capture one next.

Do you guys have any recommendations for paper? I have two main styles, for black and white I'm thinking Hahnemühle Bamboo and for bright and colourful images Hahnemühle Baryta. Probably makes sense to get a couple of sample packs.
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I use fotospeed paper.

NST Bright White and Cotton Etching for Matt prints and Platinum Baryta for black and white.
They’ll do free custom profiles for you too.
 
ecoleman said:
I use fotospeed paper.

NST Bright White and Cotton Etching for Matt prints and Platinum Baryta for black and white.
They’ll do free custom profiles for you too.
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Thank you Elliott, more choices to think about :)
 
My favourites...

Permajet Photo Art Silk for matt - I love the texture and the rendition - both B&W and colour depending on the image.

If I go non-matt, it's Canson's Plat Fibre Rag for straight prints, Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Metallic for really nice B&W, Moab Slickrock Metallic for the wow factor (again B&W only, and preferably bright/high key images)... Ilford Gold Fibre Gloss for prints I want to "fake" the darkroom look on.

I also think that Innova's Fiba Print Ultra Smooth Gloss is an excellent cheap paper for test prints (i.e. I want to hang them on the wall a bit to see if I like it before printing), & giveaways.
 
Thanks guys, I got some samples of different papers, found where to get the paper ICC profiles, and how to store them in the correct folder for the mac. I'm finding printing directly from Capture One is easier than via Photoshop. The results are very good. Nice printer :)
 
If you buy your paper from Fotospeed there are two codes to try

DANSON20 (20% off - An old code but worked for me around a month ago)

FSYOUTUBE15 (15% off)
 
Quick update. After trying a variety of papers, I'm really drawn to the results with hahnemühle baryta fine art so testing a few A2 sized prints next. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy printing, it's a bit like listening to some favourite tracks on hifi for the first time, so different from just looking on the screen.
 
I've run the maintenance tasks to clean the print head and roller. A4 prints are no problem, however, with some A2 prints it's not perfect:
1. the printer is staining a small part of the right-hand corner of the paper at the start of the print
2. after carefully placing the paper in the feeder, the result is slightly misaligned
Any ideas what I need to do to correct these?
 
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