Looking to buy a large format printer, anyone got recommendations?

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Ub3rTiger

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I'm looking at picking up a newer large format printer to replace my current one for better photo accurate images and colour reproduction.

Would like to go straight for a 44" one, but may look into getting a 24" one as a stopgap.

Looking at possibly a used HP Z3100 at the moment, but I hear they had some issues and were quickly replaced by the Z3200.

I'd like one with an 8 or 12 ink system for better grayscale gradients and vivid colours. Someone also recommended that an HP Designjet 5500 might be suitable, but it only has the one black ink cartridge which worries me a bit.

Does anyone have any advice or recommendation? Thanks.
 
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the HP Z3100 is a pretty decent printer my studio friend has the 44 inch version. not cheap to replace all the carts ~800 lol

the 8 or 12 carts are more to do with colour than B&W. really the question comes down to cost of ink.
 
Thanks for the reply, yeah, the inks aren't cheap by the look of it. I do hear that the Z-Series have some issues though and some people are even reverting back to the Designjet 5500 series, however I've spoken to so many plotter people this week and it's very difficult to differentiate the sales spiel from quality and accurate information.
 
plotters are a totally different type of printer - they draw lines!

the correct term is "large format inkjet"

Each company - HP, Epson & Canon being the mainstream each have strengths and weaknesses. I'm afraid its a bit like asking which is the better camera - Canon or Nikon etc...
 
Sorry snap, although to be fair these can print lines ;)

I was hoping that someone with experience in any of the ones I've mentioned could comment or owners of competing models perhaps.

Clearly canon FFS isn't really the kind of answer I'm looking for :p, I've had people come to me asking for reprints from someone locally with a £10,000 Canon printer and my trusty old HP beats it on certain paper types. Not that I'm adverse to them at all and was seriously looking at the iPF8300 for a bit but a combination of the required canon callouts after a certain number of prints and £400 printheads has me veering back towards another HP.
 
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If it helps I am about to add a canon - I'd love to go for the 8300 as the ink costs are lower than that of the 6300. I know the head has to be replaced after a few thousand large prints - its a user replacable item so no expensive visit from engineer.

I have owned epson and to get the same width of printer its a load more than the canon - and I object to the amount of ink that ends up in the maintance cart.

A friend has the z3100 and
 
I rate the Epson large format printers, as long as you get one where you don't need to change between matte and photo ink. Their Mirage Print Photoshop plug in is really useful too.

Having said that as long as you take the time to profile for each paper you are using the results from any of the main manufacturers are going to produce good prints.
 
snappingsam said:
A friend has the z3100 and
Click to expand...

You left me hanging there....I actually picked up a Z3100 in the end to see how I like it and if it's worth upgrading in the future to something similar in the series. So we'll see how it goes!

Thanks for the info craikey, are you saying that you need to switch out the inks depending on the paper media your printing on? Seem like a bit of a pain?
 
note to self - don't press the button too soo
 
Canon Pixma Pro 9000

Had it a few years now...No problems!

Very fast output of colour prints up to A3+ size.....B&W take some time due to only one black ink cartridge.

For that reason I am considering purchasing a dedicated B&W printer.
 
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