Please share experience: Canon Pro9500 MK II and Epson R1900(or R2000)

[Chakonari]

@jtoolman Thanks for the link and the other information. Managed a 21 on the colour test - with tired eyes and a display adjusted by eye a while ago using the images on http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ . I swear those little colour squares were dancing around

 

[pharmacist]

I do feel there is something weird in this discussion...

 

[jtoolman]

Huh??

 

[Chakonari]

<rant>
Ok, so I decide to get the Canon due to the availability of refills. On the second last step of my order, the site encounters an error and my basket is empty "Please try again later...". Decide to sleep over it and after a chat with the missus, proceed to order the R3000 from another dealer who confirmed via e-mail that they'll ship to me. Put the R3000, one photo and matte black cart each, and a pack of paper in the basket - proceed to check out - my country is not on the list. So I call them and get a message, "Sorry but our office is closed today"
</rant>

I've decided not to do postcards by the way, and concentrate on photo and art prints instead and also found a place where I could sell some B/W prints - hence the choice to get the R3000. Also not being able to print borderless on all media the printer accepts, is something which troubles me more than the ink loss when switching between matte/photo black. Additionally it's so easy to stitch photos together as panoramas these days and not printing them restricts their use to website banners imho.

EDIT(To not bump the thread- 27th June): brbrbrllll ... so, as my country was not available on the website's form, they asked me to e-mail them my order (Friday) - of course they didn't process it, and it looks like someone bought the last printer they had over the weekend. That shop had the lowest price for all the items I ordered. Now they say the printer will probably be available in 4 weeks - would have been shipped immediately before.

@ jtoolman Thanks again for the tips. At this rate, Canon will have a new line to replace their current Pixma Pros before I place my order and sway me towards Canon again. I won't really be printing borderless, just want to use smaller borders than the enforced 35mm from Canon.

 

[jtoolman]

Well, hopefully you'll get your printer soon enough. Regardless of which brand you end up with. Speaking of borderless, I just finished printing a set of 11x17 printes for a client whose wedding I shot this past Sunday, on the R1900. Used Epson premium luster. Set the gloss setting to full which will make sure that ALL areas of the image recieve a coating. They really turned out beautiful. Even my wife who is always there to deflate my ego had to admit it.
If the R3000 prints even better than my R1900 presently does, I'll be exctatic!

I do believe however, that borderless setting only works on designated default paper sizes and not with any of your own custom sizes you might create.

Another weird thing, unless it is doing it so lightly that I don't even notice, the photo ink and matte ink swop, is not as wastefull as I expected. I only see a tiny squirt of ink going in my external waste bottle. Yet when I do print on matte media I get still great deep blacks without a hint of any gloss and when I switch to glossy or luster stock I don't detect a hint of matte black. Possibly the caoting of hte GLOP is taking care of that. I do show both black ink levels going down on my CISS tanks. More of the PK than the MK which makes sence.

Anyway, enjoy your new machine!

 

[Chakonari]

Something just struck me about the Canon in regards to the enforced 35mm margin: It was only after carefully reading the manual, did I realize that the margin is only at the beginning and end of the print (top/bottom in the manual). This is not clear from the reviews, and I had been under the impression that the margins are on all sides of the print.

So all that is needed is longer paper (perhaps cut from a 13" roll) and it is possible to do A3+ "borderless" on fine-art paper or canvas. I would always have a (smaller) border anyway. Couldn't find any 14" rolls though(The printer accepts up to 14"x23" through the front tray). So it looks like I might just get the Canon instead.

@ jtoolman: I thought the R1900 doesn't swap inks, i.e. each ink has it's own channel on the printhead.

@ The Hat: What do you do about the waste ink on your Pro9500 MK II?

 

[The Hat]

Chakonari So all that is needed is longer paper (perhaps cut from a 13" roll)
and it is possible to do A3+ "borderless" on fine-art paper or canvas.

@ The Hat: What do you do about the waste ink on your Pro9500 MK II?

When using the front tray on the Pro9500 it is difficult to override printer margins settings so be careful with that one,
but youll have much more success while using the back tray.

I have seen no evidence of a build up of waste ink at all on the printer so there wasnt any need to do anything about it;
Canon printers are much lighter on waste than Epson..

 

[rodbam]

When using the front tray on the Pro9500 it is difficult to override printer margins settings so be careful with that one

I bought some Canon A3+ fine art matte premium paper & I couldn't get rid of the 35mm border that Canon insists fine art papers should have so I used the another profile for matte paper & could print with any size border I liked & the print turned out great. I always use the front try for A3 & A3+ & I was wondering why by using the front or back tray would the border sizes we set would be affected? I'm using the pro9000 not the pro9500, I'm not as rich as you