hp 8750GP V EPSON R2400 ON COST AND RUNING COSTS

[freddie]

Hi all
I'm having i hard choice on picking my new a3 printer
I'm looking at the Epson r2400 and now the HP 8750 OR HP8750GP
IS IT WORTH PAYING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 8750 AND 8750GP FOR THE PROFILES AND IF SO WILL IT BE WORTH THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE EPSON R2400 ON THE 8750GP
As just read a piece on runing costs that the hp 8750 came out on top(PC PRO APRIL 2006 ISSUE 138)

[Murray Foote]

Welcome to the Forum Freddie

I wouldn't believe a word you read in PC Pro: http://www.photo-i.co.uk/BB/viewtopic.php?t=1284.

Running costs for the R2400 will be somewhat more than for the R1800 (due to larger jets and changing black cartridges). No-one here has made estimates for R2400 running costs but we do have some for the R1800: http://www.photo-i.co.uk/BB/viewtopic.php?t=289&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=75.
Magazines doing superficial reviews wil overestimate running costs (for Epsons at least - don't know how HPs work) due to the initial charging of the lines.

Regards,
Murray

[JSR]

Running costs for the R2400 will be somewhat more than for the R1800 (due to larger jets and changing black cartridges).

It's worth bearing in mind that, depending on how often you change the blacks, the R2400 could conceivably be cheaper to run than the R1800 due to the cheaper cost of ink cartridges.

The RRP for R1800 carts is £11.90, the RRP for R2400 carts is £9.92 (cart prices will be cheaper if you shop around) - so each ink cart is about 20% cheaper for the R2400 yet the capacity (13ml) is the same. There's also no GLOP cost to factor in when doing glossies on the R2400. It's hard to imagine that the R2400's cost-per-print would be noticeably higher than the R1800.

Regards,
JSR

[jo-1]

@Freddie,

refering to the deliverd profiles I'd tend to say that non of the deliverd profiels do a real good job.

If you want to get most out ouf your printer you'll have to get tailor made ones. I am using the HP 130 NR with internal calibration unit and still the deliverd profiles are only a first step.

You might also want to use other papers so it's worth thinking about a device to do that or tho send testcharts to dealers who do the job for you.

jo-1

[freddie]

Hi all
Thanks for the hello, however the main question is the epson r2400 price difference from the hp 8750gp
I can get Epson r2400 for around £515 HP 8750GP FOR £315.
Is this worth the difference off £200.
I'm mainly going to start doing portraits and weddings and want to do all my own printing. I'm not try not by the 2400 just looking if its worth the difference on the work i'm trying to do.

[Kevgermany]

Freddie, the Epson's a known machine. The prints will last... The print quality will be as good as you're capable of doing. The HP's an unknown at the moment. Given that you intend to do sork that matters a lot to other people, then I'd say get the epson. Running costs in this situation are negligible compared to your other costs.

As for profiles, the epson ones are, from the posts I've seen, excellent - no need for custom ones if you stick to epson papers and inks. Again the HP is new and an unknown...

[jo-1]

As for profiles, the epson ones are, from the posts I've seen, excellent - no need for custom ones if you stick to epson papers and inks.

this is exactely the point where it comes to costs!

I've compared roll paper EPSON with roll paper HP and equvalent papers @ EPSON are 2x till 3x more expensive. The Hahnenmühle are even more expensive.
Of course not everyboday prints huge amounts but if costs matter I'd suggest to think also about a completely different solution e.g. the DesignJet 90 - you get for roughly 1 k EUR the printer and for sure the lowest possibel running costs at the same quality level and also > 85 years on the Premium Plus papers from HP. If you then use rollpaper + 3ink packs from HP the costs should be roughly 1/3 cheaper compare to the 4800 EPSON.

If you're not intending to produce huge amounts of prints the running costs should not affect your decition - I'd wait for test results or agree to kev and get the 2400 from EPSON - for sure an excellent printer but for sure in the long run more expensive than a HP DesignJet 90 where the runnings costs are approcimately only 1/3 of the costs of a normal HP prosumer printer.

HP states that the midrange printers are for low throughput @ reasonable costs and the pro printers (DesignJet family) are for high thoughput at reasonable costs. It's always all about the typical use case.

I'd only get a 2400 EPSON if I'd mianly print on very expensiev Fine Art paper (a very valid reason I think)

The running costs of my HP DJ 130 (with exceptional printing quality) are much lower than previously of my EPSON Stylus Photo 900.

One last remark to ICC profiles - I'd always try to get tailor made ones because I love to try out different papers (also due to lower printing costs)

Just have also a look here - and you'll get an impression what tailor made profiles do to the EPSON 2400: http://www.camerahobby.com/Digital_PrintFIX_PRO.htm
(first with EPSON profiles and 2nd with tailr made ones

[Fer]

I have an HP 8750 since September, 2005.

I use it for photographic prints on HP Photo Plus and Ilford Galerie Classic swellable papers; I use "Best" printing quality, my cartridge setup is Tri-Color + BluePhoto (n.101) + Gray (102).
My average usage pattern includes about 13% of BW prints.

I normalized everything to the A4 size (so an A3 was computed as 2xA4 etc.); occasional text/charts prints were computed as 3% (text) and 6% (charts) coverage.

As for cartridges pricing, I used the prices of the most famous web seller in Italy, which is SOSCartucce.it; prices include 20% VAT. All cartridges were genuine HP and were in single, retail blister.

Of course ink depletion due to cleaning cycles, alignment cycles etc. are included in the computation.
So... my final figure (ink cost only) is 1.32 Eur for an A4 photo print.

I'm very satisfied: the 8750, despite the initial worries, proved to be frugal enough, and I'm very happy by the prints I got from it. Rich, vibrant colours, deep blacks, good BW prints, no bronzing at all on any surface.

Since the printer did cost me way less than competitor models (Eur 410 incl. 20% VAT vs. 700 for the 2400 and 610 for the i9900), I am really happy of the purchase.

Hope this helps someone who does not want to face the higher initial costs of a B9180 or a R2400.
Bye!

Fernando