Epson 7890 vs. 7900

[Mark D Segal]

It's not just gamut volume, it's also how colours within that volume are rendered.  Somewhat obviously, an orange ink is useful in things like sunsets, because you have orange ink to use - call it a dark yellow in a way, it means you don't need to use yellow-and-something-else to create an orange - you start with orange.  This is most clear in smooth gradations of such colour ranges.

Whether it affects any particular image you'd have to test, and whether it affects a signficant number of images from a given photog, again you'd have to test.  But there's certainly more to it than just numerical gamut volumes and in particular more to it than just gamut volume boundaries.

Hi Phil, I'm standing here comparing the outputs of the Atkinson test page for Epson 3800 vs 4900 under D50 Solux illumination  - the sunset image, the orangy rock structure image, the fall tree leaves image, and the smooth colour ramps (orange not being one of them, but red and yellow are represented) and the difference is ZILCH. And my visual perception of fine colour differences is very acute, even at my age! And to boot the 7890 has Vivid Magenta, which the 3800 didn't have. Assuming the 7890 is even better than my 3800 was, I just can't see what Chris has to gain of practical significance spending an extra thousand Euros on a 7890 versus a 7900. The image quality of all these machines is so close that in the final analysis in this kind of situation it really comes down to price - unless you would suggest any major differences in build quality having a real impact on prospective longevity.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

Is ZILCH for Epson what gloss enhancer is for HP ?? 

[Mark D Segal]

If gloss enhancer for HP does nothing, then yes  :-)

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

Seems I just learned a new funny word.
How I love it!

Now the last question for today - no - its not if I want a RIP - I think I can skip that.

But what would you recommend as a simple means for storing all these awesome prints I'm going to create on this even more awesome printer?
Since I'll most likely print 24*36 and 24*28 inch I wonder if storing vertical is appropriate or if a horizontal storage is recommended?
My feeling tells me vertical, but with protection from bending.

Ideas

I mean its going to be art and art is expensive ... 

[Mark D Segal]

The kind of cabinets that print galleries, architects and engineers use for storing drawings flat.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

I was afraid that migth be the answer.
Maybe I can get one spare from a friend, but these are space eaters ...
Now I must go to bed or I'll ask too much.

Thanks everyone for helping out in this thread, especially Mark.

G'night 'n cheers
~Chris

[Farmer]

A few years ago, when the HDR inkset was launched, I was discussing an issue regarding rendering of certain colours with Eric Chan.  To cut a long story short, he had an image that didn't print too well on a 3800, but when I printed it using an HDR inkset machine (think it was a 9900, but honestly don't remember), it was significantly better and the stepping/graininess went away.

That was a particular image and a particular colour, which is the key point.  There are some instances in which it will assist a photographer.  For proofers trying to hit spot colours, it can be of assistance more often, of course.

It's just that the whole tale is not told by gamut boundary maps nor even just by the number of inks.  The Epsons have a massive LUT that they use that will choose different ways of rendering a colour depending on a host of factors.  That's perhaps even more important than the absolute gamut volume and boundaries and the internal gamut "depth" derived purely from the inkset colours.

All that said, of course as Mark says there are going to be a lot (most? - depends on the photog and their subject preferences, I reckon) of images where it matters not one bit?  Absolutely.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

I made test prints on Canon and Epson with heavy red, orange and magenta tones and it is clear the "issue" mentioned above is history. I showed them to that print shop guy and he jawdropped and said he'll checkout Epson on the upcoming photokina. Difference was "zilch", indeed.

In the meantime I got my 7890 and it seems It needs a technician (will visit me on thursday), since it likes to spit cyanish ink in big drops on the paper. Phone support said it might be a jammed valve somewhere. The good thing is: They will most likely be able to fix it and I'll get a new set of starter ink and a new maintenance tank.

The 2 prints I made were awesome, but I also had to learn at  16*24 the print is already quite unforgiving against any postprocessing errors. 24*36 cm must be even worse.

Seems I have a learning curve ahead. The new C2PS videos will help a lot I assume - quite a blow up in content compared to the old version. Good stuff - thanks Michael and Jeff for the good work.

I'll report how the story goes on.

Thank you very much so far to everyone on the thread here.

[Mark D Segal]

Yes Chris, these printers very faithfully reproduce all our errors, and what I find even more disconcerting are the times I see stuff on paper that I didn't see on the display - only to go back to the display and observe that indeed the "new" problem I saw on paper was also evident on the display. Something about seeing an image on paper that really focuses the mind. This could be a generational thing, because my appreciation of graphic arts matured before the digital era took hold - in the days when all that counted was what is on paper.