Inkjet Art review of HP B9180

[DarkPenguin]

http://www.inkjetart.com/news/archive/IJN_07-27-06.html

[jani]

That's interesting news, thanks!

It does indeed seem that Epson is getting some serious competition these days, and that's wonderful.

Key features from my viewpoint are (if those live up to their implicit promise):

 - reasonably priced, user serviceable print heads
 - the feedback loop for ink density
 - neutral grays

[DarkPenguin]

The bigger ink cartridges could be interesting too.  (All depends on the cost.  If they're 50% larger but cost 50% more that isn't really a win.)

[Lisa Nikodym]

The self-calibration sounds interesting.  Does this mean that the canned profiles will be much better than other printers' (say, Epson's) canned profiles, and we won't need to get custom profiles anymore?  (At least if you use HP & similar papers...)

Lisa

[JeffKohn]

Self-calibration, the new nozzle-checking technology, and larger ink tanks certainly sound promising. IJA hints that B/W prints may not match the tonality of K3 due to only having 1 gray ink, if so that's disappointing. I'd also like to see a green ink added as I feel dark greens are the biggest weakspot of K3 printers. Blue would be OK too but IMHO the green is more imprtant. I wonder if the larger wide-format models that are sure to follow will use the exact same inkset as the 9180, or if they'll follow Canon's example and expand the inkset for "pro" models.

IJA's comments about the B/W modes are puzzling to me. They criticise the 2400 for using some color ink but this is necessary to get neutral results. You can actually print with just K, LK, and LLK on a 2400 using Quadtone RIP but the results are quite warm. Is IJA claiming that the HP's gray inks are perfectly neutrual? Is that even possible?

The lack of a roll-paper mechanism is pretty disappointing for those who shoot panos.

I'm happy to see they're undercuttong the price on Epson in the 13" printer space, I hope the follow that lead in the large-format space.

A 17", 12-ink Vivera inkset printer priced well below $2K sure would be sweet.

[DarkPenguin]

A new review over at Photography blog...

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews_hp_...t_pro_b9180.php

Oh, and much bigger versions of the 9180 are due to be announced sept 26th.  Now if only the 9180 was actually available.

[opgr]

The self-calibration sounds interesting. 

On the contrary, it means that the printer is inherently unstable. HPs are notorious in that respect. Of course, we don't know until people get day to day print experiences, but it is not specifically a good sign...

[DarkPenguin]

Or it means that you don't need to make custom profiles.

(Edit:  I don't know that that is true.)

[JLK]

On the contrary, it means that the printer is inherently unstable. HPs are notorious in that respect. Of course, we don't know until people get day to day print experiences, but it is not specifically a good sign...
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HP's tend to be extremely stable in day to day usage. My designjet has never had a problem, and I've printed the same image months apart and gotten the exact same print. The closed loop calibration is a good thing in order to get the printer to "exactly" factory specs---I use it when I replace a cartridge. I've not seen any cartridges where I've felt that I've had to recalibrate---but it's just part of my workflow.

The closed loop calibration attempts to eliminate the variation in color with printers that come off the factory line, as well as eliminate problems with cartridge variability.

The issue of profiling is separate. Profiling a paper will (likely) give you a better print in the end, although the HP profiles are pretty good for the DJ series.

Jim

[DarkPenguin]

Another 9180 review.

This time from Neil Snape...

http://www.neilsnape.com/HP9180_review.htm