Epson's SC P400 has won my heart

voyager

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[If you're not into the narrative, skip to the bold section.]
My Background:
I bought my first PC in 2000 as a business expense, but set it up for my personal usage needs.
I outfitted it with a Brother MFC laser printer for the business uses.
Then, as a serious amateur photographer, I bought an Epson 1270 for my personal usage.
I still used labs for film development, but quickly stopped using them for prints, unless I wanted one larger than 13 x 19.
I purchased a Nikon Super Coolscan LS 4000 ED as soon as I could get my hands on one [I still have and occasionally use it], and began to digitize my thousands of slides so that I could print them for my personal display around the house and as gifts for friends.

I was happy with the 1270's performance.
But, after 2 or 3 years the ink nozzles clogged up.
I replaced it with a 1280, again happy with its performance until the ink nozzles clogged up a few years later.

By this time I was beginning to think that clogged nozzles were a basic fact of inkjet printers.
I replaced that 1280 with another 1280.
Again, it was lost to clogged nozzles.

I had stayed with dye inks because I thought they would be less prone to clogging than a pigment ink, thinking that a dye ink was a solution as opposed to a pigment ink being a suspension of particles.

So, I replaced the last 1280 with a 1900, again very happy with its performance.
It did last longer than any of the 12xx series printers, but eventually succumbed to clogging of the nozzles.

Finally, I decided to try a pigment inkjet, the SC P400.
I was very happy with its performance except for what looked to me as a more restricted color gamut, real or not.

I retired from Alaska to Hawaii 5+ years ago and have not been as active in photography as I was before the move.

My photo printing is much reduced in quantity.
But, I still consider a 13x19 photo color printer to be a piece of necessary PC equipment.

Last May we began to have our lives interrupted by Kilauea's LERZ eruption going on less than a mile from our home, more so due to the reaction of the local authorities than the actual eruption.

The SC P400 has sat idle for 10+ months, its non usage before the eruption, the duration of the eruption, the evacuation, and the bringing of our lives back together.

I've been afraid to try starting it up again, assuming that I'd need to buy another inkjet to be able to print in color again.
I had some color printing I wanted to do, so I fired it up yesterday.

The first nozzle check showed only a little clogging in the yellow ink.
One of the blacks was missing a few, but everything else looked good.
It showed as being low in several of the inks so I installed the last of the Epson inks I had, MK, PK, R, O and M.

I had bought a set of Murratt inks as soon as they became available, and want to give them a try as soon as the Epson inks run out, the Y and C are getting low and soon I'll substitute for them.

The O wouldn't print at all.
The Y was still very spotty.
I tried a few nozzle cleanings and checks with no improvement in either ink.

I reset the O and Y cartridges lat night and let them sit overnight.
This morning both the Y and O were almost printing as they should.
One head cleaning and it was up and running.

My experience with the dye based inkjet printers had me convinced that I'd be needing to buy another printer.
The SC P400 has taught me otherwise.
 

stratman

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Enjoyed the narrative! Congratulations of restarting your printer after a long slumber. :clap

I retired from Alaska to Hawaii 5+ years ago and have not been as active in photography as I was before the move.
:ep Less with all the splendor and beauty of Hawaii?

I'm a Canon guy so my knowledge of Epson is limited. That said, printers seem to do best when used frequently, the more the better, like a race horse. Print something that uses all the cartridges once a week or so to decrease risk of clogs unless one of the Epson experts here say otherwise. A nozzle check usually suffices.

Pigment printers may have a seeming decrease in eye popping color but they can produce superb prints and pigment ink, including aftermarket refill inks, have superior longevity over non-OEM dye-based inks. To get best results you will want a custom ICC printer profile if using either non-OEM ink and/or non-OEM papers. Paper sellers, like Red River, often offer ICC's for their papers. So might your aftermarket ink seller.

Hopefully we'll get to see some of your art in our humble Picture Of the Week (POW) thread. :thumbsup
 

voyager

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Quote stratman:
voyager said: ↑
I retired from Alaska to Hawaii 5+ years ago and have not been as active in photography as I was before the move.

:ep
Less with all the splendor and beauty of Hawaii?
----------------------------------------------

We did not leave AK for a more beautiful place to live.
After 35 years in AK and reaching the downhill slide towards our 80's, we could no longer enjoy the winters.
We left for a warmer place where we can play outdoors the entire year again.

We are not sorry we left AK.
We are not sorry we now live in HI.
But, HI doesn't hold a candle to the beauty and grandeur of AK.
That we do miss, not bad enough to go back, though.
Been there, done that.
----------------------------------------------

I am aware inkjet printers need to be used regularly.
Knowing it and doing it are two different things, for me at least.

Question:
I have used Precision Color dye inks for my Epsons for several years now.
I switched to Marratt inks this time because they were the first to have an after market ink set available for the SC P400.
Any thoughts on the pros or cons for their inks?

EDIT:
In my looking around before beginning this thread, I saw something about Epson taking steps to thwart the use of aftermarket inks.
While setting up the SC P400 utilities and drivers, A firmware update was done.
Has this shot me in the foot for the use of the Marrott or other aftermarket inks?
 
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Ink stained Fingers

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Lyson/Marrutt inks vs. PC inks - I think they are quite similar - is there any significant price difference between those for you ?
Firmware updates may filter out refill cartridges - they have something like a mfg code/date code in the chip and firmware may rule out such codes older than e.g. 3 years, and with a moving time window of the firmware updates now or the following years such older date/mfg codes may get outside that window - now or next year...so just deactivate those automatic updates in the driver on the utility tab and the Epson software updater which gets installed from the driver installation disk.
 

The Hat

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Never do a Firmware upgrade if at all possible, avoid them like the plague.. ;)
 

voyager

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@ Ink stained Fingers
I just compared the present pricing for Marrutt and PC, almost choked on my bubble gum.

The 8 x 4oz [125ml] bottles + 8 x empty cartridges + 8 x syringes & needles.

Marrutt = $250
PC = $150

Not sure if that was the Marrutt pricing when I bought, it was probably well over a year ago, but $200+ does sound vaguely familiar.
But, it was the only source available at the time, and I wanted them on hand.
Didn't count on the eruption happening.

PC does advertise as having a reset chip.
Didn't see that for the Marrutt, but assume their chip is a reset chip also.
I will email their support to see if there will be any problems expected.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
@stratman
I had let my domain laps.
I thought I had lost my web album.
Some Dutch outfit snapped it up and is selling shoes from it now, probably trying to take advantage of the traffic it was generating.
It can be accessed through this now:

https://mr-correll.000webhostapp.com/

It is a delayed work in progress with no schedule to renew adding and updating it in the near future.
It has only a small amount of the planned final content.
I've got too many irons in the fire right now to start working on it again, or mess with searching for photos to upload.

I thought retirement was supposed to be sitting around, drinking pina coladas and relaxing.
Best laid plans gang aft agley.
 

The Hat

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I thought retirement was supposed to be sitting around, drinking pina coladas and relaxing.
Most of us Oldies taught the same too, but I’m planning on getting another job to have more spare time.. :D
 

Ink stained Fingers

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Marrutt = $250
PC = $150
I'm very sure that this pricing difference won't get you that much more 'quality' with the Marrutt inks than with the PC inks - 'quality' in regards to the overall color space, black level, gloss/bronzing, the same would apply to Conecolor inks - just go with the PC inks.
 

stratman

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Such beauty of Alaska. Great images. You are quite the active family skiing, hiking, traveling to distant points. Still, I bet Dexter likes Hawaii better. :)

Thank you for sharing.

My 94 year old uncle has a much busier social calendar than I. He is on the move constantly. Like the rolling rock, no moss gathering under his feet.
 
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