Epson Stylus Office B1100
Another primarily SOHO machine, capable of A3+ print, this printer has a couple of interesting takes on wide-format print. For a start, it’s five ink cartridges include two identical blacks, which feed the print head simultaneously – a higher capacity single cartridge would make more ecological sense. No card slots on this machine and just USB at the back, but plain paper print speed, at a measured maximum of 12.2ppm, is higher than the competition. Photo prints are slower though, from 2mins 13s for a 15 x 10cm to 4:48 for A3. Black text quality is a bit rough round the edges, but photos are good. Running costs are comparatively low with ISO black costing 2.5p and colour costing 5.8p.
Reg Rating 70%
Price £240
More info Epson
Epson Stylus Photo R2000
One of few A3 printers designed specifically for photo print, it has a full complement of eight inks. As well as the normal CMYK, it adds red, orange, photo black and a gloss optimiser. This makes the printer particularly good at skin tones and its photo output is the best in the group. It also has a front panel PictBridge socket and a CD-DVD carrier, so you can print direct to disc. Speeds are fair at 59s for 15 x 10cm and 3mins 56s for A3. Running costs are surprisingly low, even with the extra inks, at 1.8p for ISO black and 4.9p for ISO colour. The printer itself is pricey, though.
Reg Rating 80%
Price £420
More info Epson
Next page: HP OfficeJet 7000 Wide Format
COMMENTS
The Brother J6910Dw is incredible
I got the brother J6910DW on sale for < $250 just before Christmas at newegg
amazing printer:
- can use "3rd party" cartridges (<$2 each on amazon)
- prints AND scans at the same time (found out by accident -- expected one to wait until the other was done)
- will print in black and white if the one or more of the color cartridges is out (try that with any of the other printers)
- paper path makes it easy to clear a jam (remove paper tray/open door on back and access the entire paper path)
- the duplex scanner scans quickly and would probably scan a brick if you could get it to fit (I haven't been able to make it jam, even with odd-size and odd-weight originals that were in "less than perfect condition") Since it scans both sides "at once" it doesn't have to feed the paper back and forth to scan the back, it works so much better at scanning odd-size/weight paper
- does everything (duplex printing, duplex scanning, ledger-sized flatbed for scanning, etc...)
I have a canon PIXMA Pro 9000 mark II that I got just for printing large photos (and it was on sale for < $200 after rebate) and it prints gorgeous pictures (on the canon paper), but the capabilities and speed of the brother beat it to death for anything else
I used to use hp officejets, but i'm done with them -- the build quality, the pickiness with cartridges (sometimes they won't even take original HP cartridges) and the "trust us--it's empty" attitude to rip you off on ink
K8600 - just don't.
I've installed two of these in long term locations, and both have had massive problems with Windows 7 drivers and physical problems with the head assembly/train, and HP business support have been utterly useless.
Long story short, both printers were replaced - one with an A3 colour laserjet, and one with an A3 Brother B+W laser (the customer never bothered using colour in the end - the colour cartridges running out stopped him from printing black though...), neither of which have been any bother, really.
There's an Officejet 7500 on another site that comletely refuses to deal with envelopes, either - constantly multifeeds and jams regardless of the stock used, on it's second replacement printer within warranty now as a result.
I realise one persons experience is not representative of everyone, but personally it's going to take a metric fuckton of convincing to make me recommend that one of my customers get an Officejet - especially after fiddling with a Canon Pro 9000, which felt like it was solid as a rock in comparison to the flaky, cheap feeling Officejet K8600, even though (without discounts) they both rock up at around the £300 mark.
Posting Anon as my management may recognise these patterns of events and read here....
Epson
Or reject *any* cartridges after a dozen or so, claiming it "needs cleaning" because a cartridge counter ran out.
I wonder if it has HP's "legendary" build quality?
In *legend* HP's build quality was excellent.
Whereas today I've always found it a bit s**t with a real nasty tendency for cartridges to report empty when half full and not permit re-fill.
Missing info
All very well, but:
(1) How are they supported on various OS? Linux in particular for me, but also MacOS versions, etc.
(2) Any offer postscript?
(3) Do they allow 3rd party ink as well, or like the Epson I got rid of, throw a wobbly and reject its *own brand* cartridge after a few pages were printed?
