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by Scott Fairbairn on Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:40 am
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Hi,

I'm thinking about replacing my aging Epson 2200. I assume the latest breed of printers will produce a better print? The maximum I will be printing is 13x19.
I see there are a few options in the Canon and Epson lineups. Does anybody have an suggestions with their pros and cons?
thanks
Scott Fairbairn
 

by E.J. Peiker on Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:53 am
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The Epson 2200 is archaic by today's standards and much cheaper than $900 printers will give you better image quality.  You might look into an Epson 3880 though.  It's a bit more but with the current $250 rebates and the fact that it ships with $450 worth of ink make it a really good upgrade for not much more than your $900 target.
 

by bartley123 on Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:55 am
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Find another $145 and get the Epson 3880. The initial savings on ink cost more than makes up the difference (it also is much cheaper for future purchases). You'll also get the option of a 17" wide print which you may well want in the future. The Epson 3800 and 3880 might be 2 of the best printers ever available from Epson.
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by Scott Fairbairn on Tue Jun 11, 2013 11:46 am
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Yes, I see the rebates being offered, do they always ship with the extra ink or do I need to look for a special of some kind??
 

by E.J. Peiker on Tue Jun 11, 2013 1:26 pm
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They come standard with full ink cartridges which are 7 times the amount of ink of your 2200 cartridges.
 

by Kerry on Tue Jun 11, 2013 4:51 pm
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It should be noted that a significant minority of that ink will be burned through upon initial setup of the printer.

That still doesn't change my recommendation--the 3880 is a terrific printer. I moved from the 2200 to the 3880 2 1/2 years ago and I couldn't be happier.
 

by E.J. Peiker on Tue Jun 11, 2013 5:29 pm
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One other thing to note is that on the 3800/3880 the ink cartridges are pressurized which solves the biggest problem the 2200 had which is nozzle clogging. Here in the desert, when I was printing with the 2200, even if I didn't print for just a few days I'd have to run several cleaning cycles which consumes ink at a huge rate. With my 3800 I have only had to do this one in 4 years and sometimes it doesn't get used for a month.
 

by Mark Picard on Tue Jun 11, 2013 5:30 pm
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If you truly won't be printing anything larger than 13x19, you might look at Epson's Stylus R3000:   http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/7 ... jet.html00

It's a 13" K3 colors technology that also supports both sheet and roll paper. It's at B&H right now at $799., plus a mail in rebate of $150. That would put you in the $650. price range, well below your budget - with the extra savings you could buy lots of paper and ink! I love using the roll papers on both of my Epson printers as I think it's much cheaper in the long run and not hard to set up. But once you buy a 13" you can't print 17"!!! I agree with the other posters that the 3880 would be a good 17" upgrade if you went that route, although more expensive.
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by Scott Fairbairn on Tue Jun 11, 2013 10:23 pm
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Well I ordered the 3880, more than what I wanted to spend, but likely the wiser move overall.
Thanks for the input!
Scott
 

by E.J. Peiker on Wed Jun 12, 2013 12:15 am
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You won't be disappointed.  You will likely want to reprint everything once you het proficient with it. :)
Make sure you get profiles for this printer for all of your papers.  You won't want to use 2200 profiles as it is a completely different inkset.  Also, I'd recommend getting both the profiles and drivers off of the Epson website, not the disks that come with the printer as they are likely to be much newer.
 

by Scott Fairbairn on Wed Jun 12, 2013 6:27 am
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E.J. Peiker wrote:You won't be disappointed.  You will likely want to reprint everything once you het proficient with it. :)
Make sure you get profiles for this printer for all of your papers.  You won't want to use 2200 profiles as it is a completely different inkset.  Also, I'd recommend getting both the profiles and drivers off of the Epson website, not the disks that come with the printer as they are likely to be much newer.
Sounds good, thanks! Not having to do deal with clogged nozzles will be a relief, the 2200 drove me nuts with the amount of ink it used during cleaning runs.
 

by Alan Melle on Thu Jun 13, 2013 9:03 am
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You will love the 3880! I went through a 2200 and a 2400 before upgrading to the 3880. Vastly better!
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by Scott Fairbairn on Thu Jun 13, 2013 10:25 am
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Does anybody have any paper recommendations, or their personal favorites??
 

by E.J. Peiker on Thu Jun 13, 2013 11:58 am
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You are going to probably get almost as many favorites as there are people. But if you want 17x25 sheets for 16x24 prints there are very few choices. 17x21 sheets are made by most paper companies but not the larger 17x25 which give you the natural 3:2 aspect ratio of 35mm format cameras. Red River is the largest producer of 17x25 sheets and they have several decent papers to choose from. I believe Moab offers on e of their papers in that size.

My personal favorite is Canson Baryta but that does not come in the large 17x25 sheets.
 

by Kerry on Fri Jun 14, 2013 9:34 am
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InkJetArt also has a few offerings in the 17x25 sheet size, including Micro Ceramic Luster, which is an uncanny knock off of Epson's luster offering (at a much lower price).
 

by Scott Fairbairn on Mon Jun 24, 2013 9:32 am
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Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm pleased with the results so far, I'm just using up some glossy paper from before, but what I am printing is matching up very well with what I see on my monitor(calibrated).
As far as different papers are concerned , what are the advantages and/or disadvantages of some of the types? ie. velvet, luster, etc.
 

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