Canon Pro 100 to Epson 3880 upgrade?

[chris pope]

Hi,

I currently print with a Canon Pro 100s. Its the first proper printer that I have owned and although I am happy with its results I have nothing to compare it to.

A good friend of mine is selling a good condition 5-year-old Epson 3880 with a healthy supply of 3rd party spare ink.

Apart from the obvious increase in print size, is there any print quality benefits in favour of the Epson???

I have compared the specs and the canon states 4800 x 2400 dpi and the Epson 2,880 x 1,440 DPI... Is this difference an issue?

Does it mean the print quality is better on the Canon?

I currently only sell a handful of prints per year but do intend to increase that over the next 18 months. Any help will be gratefully received.

Thanks, Chris

 

[stratman]

You can get superb prints with either printer.

The Epson 3880 uses UltraChrome K3 inks which are pigment inks. Even third party pigment inks have very good archival capability, ie fade resistant. Your Canon Pro 100 uses dye-based inks and only Canon OEM inks are archival quality - no aftermarket ink escapes fading, albeit YMMV.

Regardless of the added benefit of larger paper handling, having a pigment ink printer for its archival quality is a benefit, especially if you are selling prints, although OEM Canon or OEM Epson inks are suitable for this purpose as well. It's aftermarket inks that are the issue with Canon dye-based printers.

 

[The Hat]

I have compared the specs and the canon states 4800 x 2400 dpi and the Epson 2,880 x 1,440 DPI... Is this difference an issue?
Does it mean the print quality is better on the Canon?

Simply put, no but the Pro 100 prints will look much better on Glossy paper...

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

- Just forget looking for differences in print resolution - 2880 vs 4800 etc whatever.

- You should consider some issues - to a degree conflicting when making this decision between a Pro 100 and the 3880.
- What type of paper are you typically using - glossy or matte ?
- It is correct that only Canon genuine inks give you a decent permanence/stability against UV and ozone, and that pigment inks - Canon or Epson - even perform much better in this respect, as well 3rd party refill inks in this case, you are not tied to expensive Canon or Epson inks in this respect.
- There are visible effects with pigment inks on glossy papers - mostly bronzing visible against reflecting light, and gloss differentials between different colors and areas with a higher or lower ink densitiy and against unprinted areas in your print.
Some people don't see these effects, other people recognize them but don't care since other people don't see them , and some other people just don't like them - at all - like me.
It is all related to a complex mix of inks - 3rd party - and paper surfaces - glossy and similar - semiglossy - lustre - silk
Epson has these effects very well under control with their latest printers like the P600 or P800 and their genuine inks but as soon as you use other inks or papers you may see those effects much stronger.
Canon has those effects much better under control with the additional chroma optimizer used on printers like the Pro10s or Prograph Pro1000, and the Pro10s allows you to get very good prints with pigment inks on glossy papers with refill inks - you have a much wider choice for those - inks and papers.
All these issues have been discussed in this forum several times, in detail, it is not an easy decision, some of the judgements are subjective, specifically mine, I would recommend in your
case - in light of your intentions to sell such prints - to go for a Pro10s , but there could be a caveat as well - the Pro10s is much more limited with custom paper formats like panorama prints than Epson printers, and may not allow you borderless printing on some matte papers.
So collect these comments and make a concious decision for yourself.

 

[chris pope]

You can get superb prints with either printer.

The Epson 3880 uses UltraChrome K3 inks which are pigment inks. Even third party pigment inks have very good archival capability, ie fade resistant. Your Canon Pro 100 uses dye-based inks and only Canon OEM inks are archival quality - no aftermarket ink escapes fading, albeit YMMV.

Regardless of the added benefit of larger paper handling, having a pigment ink printer for its archival quality is a benefit, especially if you are selling prints, although OEM Canon or OEM Epson inks are suitable for this purpose as well. It's aftermarket inks that are the issue with Canon dye-based printers.

Thanks very much for the reply, you raise some very good points about dye/pigments. I will almost certainly remain with the 3rd party ink regardless of Canon or Epson, with this in mind maybe "pigments" are a better choice going forward anyway.

 

[chris pope]

Simply put, no but the Pro 100 prints will look much better on Glossy paper...

Thanks for responding.... the word "much" worries me. I print mainly on pearl or satin finishes rather than matte or gloss so far from straightforward.

 

[chris pope]

- Just forget looking for differences in print resolution - 2880 vs 4800 etc whatever.

- You should consider some issues - to a degree conflicting when making this decision between a Pro 100 and the 3880.
- What type of paper are you typically using - glossy or matte ?
- It is correct that only Canon genuine inks give you a decent permanence/stability against UV and ozone, and that pigment inks - Canon or Epson - even perform much better in this respect, as well 3rd party refill inks in this case, you are not tied to expensive Canon or Epson inks in this respect.
- There are visible effects with pigment inks on glossy papers - mostly bronzing visible against reflecting light, and gloss differentials between different colors and areas with a higher or lower ink densitiy and against unprinted areas in your print.
Some people don't see these effects, other people recognize them but don't care since other people don't see them , and some other people just don't like them - at all - like me.
It is all related to a complex mix of inks - 3rd party - and paper surfaces - glossy and similar - semiglossy - lustre - silk
Epson has these effects very well under control with their latest printers like the P600 or P800 and their genuine inks but as soon as you use other inks or papers you may see those effects much stronger.
Canon has those effects much better under control with the additional chroma optimizer used on printers like the Pro10s or Prograph Pro1000, and the Pro10s allows you to get very good prints with pigment inks on glossy papers with refill inks - you have a much wider choice for those - inks and papers.
All these issues have been discussed in this forum several times, in detail, it is not an easy decision, some of the judgements are subjective, specifically mine, I would recommend in your
case - in light of your intentions to sell such prints - to go for a Pro10s , but there could be a caveat as well - the Pro10s is much more limited with custom paper formats like panorama prints than Epson printers, and may not allow you borderless printing on some matte papers.
So collect these comments and make a concious decision for yourself.

Thanks for such a comprehensive response.
I mainly print on satin or pearl, so neither gloss or matte but closer to gloss in properties I suspect.
I don't really have the funds at the moment to move to a pro 10 or similar. If I don't end up buying the 3880 I will most likely stick with the 100. I can have the printer and a significate amount of3rd party ink for £250 which seem to me like a bit of a bargain. I don't really have the room or funds to run 2!! Plenty to ponder.
Thanks again.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Can you get test images printed on this printer in question - on your papers and with those 3rd party refill inks as available so that you get a chance to have a look to the prints before you buy that unit ? Please let the prints dry overnight before you inspect them. At best you do a print on your Pro 100 and compare the test prints to those off the Epson printer before you decide. It's not so much the colors to look for - you can correct that with a profile but check for surface effects - gloss, uniformity - bronzing against reflecting light - mostly on black or cyan sections , and if you are happy with go for it - it is a good deal if the 3880 is in good shape hardwarewise. A clean nozzle check should be the minimum you can expect.
But as soon as you get a feeling that some service may be required soon stay away from it.
There is one component which is prone to failure after longer use - there is an ink switch in the printhead , the printhead runs one nozzle row for two types of black inks - matte and glossy, both are loaded with cartridges, but the printhead needs to switch between those which takes some time for flushing the printhead and dumps that ink into the waste ink reservoir. The switching is triggered automatically by the paper selection in the driver.
Please - if you consider selling prints - don't use 3rd party dye inks with your Pro100, their long term stability is questionable since you don't know what your customers will do with them - putting them away into a cabinet or album or framing them and hanging them onto a well.

 

[J.Emmett Turner]

One more thing the 3880 has over the Pro-100 is a flat-path input tray for thicker media, like poster board. It’s limited to 16” and even Epson doesn’t seem to make photo printable poster board in that size, but I’ve seen it used for other cool stuff... like printing directly on photo-treated metallic plates.

Last I checked, the Pro-100 is still current while the 3880 is getting very old so there are a lot of other ways where you will start to notice differences. Don’t expect anything like a full-color touch screen or Apple Air Print or Google Cloud Print or direct print from USB/SD/CF/WiFi any of that modern “smart device” fluff. Not that the Pro-100 has all that stuff, but at least the drivers and all that are modern.

 

[chris pope]

Thanks for that, I will speak to him to see if I can have a play first. I have been reading about the switch that fails. It seems that just the switch can be bought and replaced rather than the whole expensive unit. I am an engineer and it sounds like the sort of job I could maybe do myself. Famous last words!!! cheers again.