Z3100 vs. iPF8000

[redneckphoto]

Has anyone done a comparison of the 44" Z3100 against an iPF8000?
I'm in the market for a 44" inch printer and these are my top 2 choices.

[Mussi_Spectraflow]

What are your criteria? If you want a general sense of ink on paper performance look to the IPF5000 reviews, that will give you a sense of the image quality produced by the 8000. My experience has been with the 9000, and personally I was not thrilled with it. The canon's sure are speedy though! If speed and cost are you major concerns then you may want to keep looking at the IPF series. The cost associated with the "semi-permenate" heads still worries me. Also canon's support by some 3rd party RIP's leaves a lot to be desired.

Julian Mussi
www.spectraflow.com

[John Hollenberg]

My experience has been with the 9000, and personally I was not thrilled with it. The canon's sure are speedy though! If speed and cost are you major concerns then you may want to keep looking at the IPF series.

In what ways were you not thrilled with the iPF9000 compared to the Z3100?  Specific differences might be helpful to many thinking about a Canon vs HP.

--John

[Happyfish]

sorry my grammar is bad


I chose the IPF8000 over the Epson and HP

all three are great printers and have pros cons and none are perfect

I want to switch media more often so the Epson was out
and I thought the Epson BW was not as nice as the Canon and HP

I have a eye one pro already so the HP built in did not really matter
I looked at prints from all 3 and thought the canon had the nicest output
the HP red issue I could see a bit in the strawberries when side by side with Epson and Canon

since all output was close it was a hard decision to make

the price of the canon when I got it was a factor and the fact it comes with about 3x the ink the HP does is a factor also the speed was a factor

some have said the prints scratch or take a  while to dry  with the Canon ?
on certain papers I might agree but this goes true for any printer and paper combo not all things are perfect the paper choices so far I am working with seem to be nice and I have not had any problems
in my darkroom days I did not take prints out and abuse them the second they were out of the tray  so I dont do this to inkjet prints

my printing is going to be on various papers so far I am testing every paper out there pretty much
and in the future plan to write out my thoughts on them as they relate to the Canons
my printing will be wedding/portrait photos a lot and also my own personal stuff mostly underwater stuff.

if I had to say the pros for the canon:
Speed (way faster than the HP and Epson)
ink tanks are large

cons:
manual is pathectic !
so info is hard to get !
what are all the settings etc.. for sure !



I do say if you are not into printing heavy and are not sure about settings and other things the Epson are hard to beat and the HP might be easier to use for some and get great results
I think Canon will make things easier and I am willing to put up with some down sides of manual etc.. and get a great printer that should make me lots of $$$


a bit of a rant and thoughts  

as far as the head issue ?
I do think canon should have a better warranty etc..  if they were failing all over then I would worry a few hear and there is not to bad but so far I really have just heard about mr Recichmann's failing
I will cross that bridge when I get to it  

also I would rather get new heads once in a while then waste $100 of ink every time I want to change inks !!! or pay for a spectro I wont use
so for me saving $2000 on the canon will pay for 3 sets of heads  if and when I need them

same analogy when I buy a BMW I know I am going to be going through brakes and pads more often and am glad to pay that for the performance !
since the printer is faster than the Epson I will pay a bit more for that head technology that can kick out prints I am willing to buy new heads when I need to

the head design is such that they dont last forever (while they are to expensive ?) so is the ink waste etc.. of other printers so if its a balance pay a little bit over time or one big lump at X amount of time so be it !

I dont hear to much about the IPF8000 online ? yet I know there are quite a few out there
I think many are using them making money with them and they are working fine


hope this helps ya out and again sorry for my bad writing

[redneckphoto]

Thanks for the feedback!
My criteriea are:

1. High quality output, especially on canvas.
2. Efficient use of ink. I used to have an Epson Pro 4000 and wasted a lot of ink just keeping the heads clean.
3. Speed.
4. Ease of use.

Daryl

[Happyfish]

my thoughts to those questions  


1. High quality output, especially on canvas.
I love it and canvas is something I will be doing but not more than say half will be on canvas
so far the canvas I am printing I am happy with but I am testing every canvas I can get my hands on and will end up with two ! one matte and one glossy or semi and going to hold off on coment of brands until I am done testing and they sit around for a month or so and I go through some other testing with them  
but I think if I was only printing on canvas ? I would look at the epson also
but since I print on glossy & matte papers and canvas the Canon was my choice

2. Efficient use of ink. I used to have an Epson Pro 4000 and wasted a lot of ink just keeping the heads clean.
I can not say yet ? but so far its great on ink and from what else I have read I think this is one of its strong points

3. Speed.
the canon is fast ! way faster than the Epson and the HP Z series
here the canon has a huge lead !

4. Ease of use.

not sure what exactly ease is ?
if its known settings etc.. I think the Epson leads here since there are so many users with known settings etc.. the canon you have to do a bit of play but once you get it dialed in no problem !
also you want to build or get built your own profiles !
me I build my own
the Epson has some good canned ones the canon so far I am not to impressed with the canned profiles out there

if the ease of use is the driver interface etc..  
well I have found it easy but I know some have not ?
so this might be a comfort of computers and how much printing on other printers you have done in your past etc....

for me its super easy but for some it might not be


as far as ease of loading paper etc.. I think its a great machine easy to load single sheets and I like the front load roll very easy
the downside is super thick media such as metal etc. the IPF8000 does not have a straight through feed which could kill the deal for some !

for me everything up front and easy to get to is great

hope this helps