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OK, I admit that Epson's rebates are tempting me. I have an Epson 3800 and I have been happy with the quality of the prints to now. I have to make a number of new prints and I am wondering if I would gain print quality by switching to the three year old 3880?

So in terms of print quality only (color gamut, sharpness, detail), has anyone made the switch and have you seen easily visible improvement in print quality at say 11 x 14 or 16 x 20 sizes?

Or should I just wait for the next model to be released?

Thanks for any help.

Dick B.

The difference between a 3800 and a 3880 is not detectable by the human eye IMHO. If your 3800 is functioning well and making good prints I can see absolutely no reason to replace it with a 3880.

Thanks EJ.

I thought you might have some experience with the question.

Dick

Totally agree with EJ.
I was forced to replace a 3800 with a 3880 when the 3800 developed problems that were not worth fixing and I have not noticed any discernible improvement in print quality.

Thanks Mike. I appreciate the real world feedback. How did your shorebird workshop go? Sorry I missed it but I hope you do it again next year.

Dick B.

Why would Epson devote the time, effort and expense of updating the 3800 to the 3880 if there were not a significant improvement in print quality? Perhaps to keep their UltraChrome K3 ink sets with Vivid Magenta uniform throughout their entire Pro printer line?

Here are some relevant articles from Macworld:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1044736/epson.html
http://www.macworld.com/article/1059226 ... pdate.html
http://www.macworld.com/article/1135442 ... _3880.html
http://www.macworld.com/article/1144102 ... _2009.html

I would like to compare prints of Bill Atkinson's Labtest picture (or the modified version from Digital Outback Photo) made on the 2 printers but haven't been able to do so yet. Has anyone else tried this?