Canon G series. "megatank" CISS printers

[Ink stained Fingers]

that archival quality was poor compared to other Canon inks

Yes, Epson and Canon both are doing the same thing - giving a weaker ink to the users of their tank printers - no Claria or Chromalife type inks

Found a fun article on Total Cost of Ownership comparing an Epson EcoTank, an HP, and a Canon Maxify:

As soon as you do such TCO calculation for a business environment you would need to add additional overhead cost for procuring cartridges, handling/inserting them, running a nozzle check and cleaning cycle if needed, all those minutes are unproductive overhead and additional cost, and don't forget the additional cost for the waste ink disposal which is more with the cartridge printers; it's just more convenience for a private user with an Ecotank printer.

Any Epson tank printer experience? I was hoping to hear your opinion

I'm happy with my L series printers - L310, L805, L1800

 

[stratman]

I'm happy with my L series printers - L310, L805, L1800

Would the L310 and L805 provide comparable quality photo reproduction compared to non-Tank photo printers of a similar class? Since there is no Canon tank model that compares to a non-Tank Canon photo printer, knowing that Epson exceeds performance with their Tank models is an important point for consideration.

I cannot find the printers you listed on Epson USA. What would be their US version models?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I cannot find the printers you listed on Epson USA. What would be their US version models?

You are victim of Epson's model and sales policy , they devided the world wide market into several destinct sales regions - with different pricing, a different product range, different product numbers, different firmware in various cases - to reap the most from the market - not giving you the advantage of budget level refill inks for particular tank printer models - to block you out from the use of refill cartridges e.g. on the P800 - in the U.S. and more. It is similar in Europe, a range of Epson tank printers is only offered in the eastern european countries, e.g. Poland, Czechia etc, not in Germany or the U.K. But there are companies bypassing that with gray imports, and some dealers from Czechia or Poland even have a sales office in Germany selling those products.
There is a long range of Epson A4 photo printers like the R265 - 6 inks incl. light inks, followed by the R285, followed by the P50 followed by the XP-55 - (German model numbers), and there is a L805 which is hardwarewise identical with the P50 + attached tanks and resp. driver adjustments. So you get the same print quality as with the P50 .
There is a 1500 A3 photo printer, I think the U.S. name is a Artiscan 1430 ? - the correspondig tank printer is the L1800 , same hardware, same parts , same print quality - just with 6 tanks attached. Or there was a B1100, a 4 color A3 printer and a corresponding L1300 A3 tank model, but Epson was playing some dirty tricks here, the B1100 did borderless, the L1300 does not - you are forced to upgrade if you want to print borderless with a tank printer.
You are right - Canon is not following the approach - there are no otherwise identical models - with and w/o tanks, no 5 ink megatank models.
I was told that people went to Mexico to get the corresponding Epson tank printers, and there are some gray imports popping up here and there in the U.S. but Corona may complicate all that at this time.

 

[stratman]

Thank you for the good information. My most basic interest is whether the US tank printers would be good photo printers in addition to using pigment ink for text regardless of dye-based or pigment-based inks for color reproduction.

I am interested in the Epson line for my own edification, knowing so little about the printers, as well as for potential recommendations in the future.

The Artisan 1430 is a discontinued model in the US. They do not even list Windows 10 drivers on the Epson page describing the printer.

The Epson US website has printers called Expression, Workforce, SureColor and more. The SureColor seem to be the higher end with P700 and P900 models which also command top prices. There is an Expression Photo HD XP-15000 (best of the middle performers?) which uses 6 Claria inks and prints up to 13x19" and can be had for $350, less than half of the SureColor models.

Can these Epsons utilize aftermarket inks? I saw on one printer's page that only OEM ink cartridges can be used.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

The Artisan 1430 is a discontinued model in the US. They do not even list Windows 10 drivers on the Epson page describing the printer.

The L1800 is prolonging the life of the Artisan 1430 hardware for quite a while.
Most Win 7 drivers can be installed on Win 10 if you disable the driver signature enforcement

www.tenforums.com/tutorials/156602-how-enable-disable-driver-signature-enforcement-windows-10-a.html

Thre are plenty more entries like this one on the internet, and as well lots of Youtube clips.

What is a 'middle' performer for you ? Have a look to the ET7750, an Ecotank model with both dye and pigment blacks and a very good print quality for photos. You get 2 sets of ink bottles, the inks are the best Epson inks you can get.
I had the ET7750 for a while, prints are very good, I gave it away, I didn't like the overall handling so much - my problem - and the rear paper bin - for the larger formats - is pretty flimsy and collapses easily - I taped the parts together. O.k. - the rear paper bin only takes about 10 sheets of photo paper which was not so practical for me, and this was the main reason to give it away - nothing else

 

[stratman]

What is a 'middle' performer

It seemed to me that printer was not in their high end nor their low end printer series models (SureColor and business or higher end professional image printers). It was not a criticism of the printer but identifying it in the Epson hierarchy.

Have a look to the ET7750

Wide format EcoTank 4 dye-based color ink (CYMK) plus 1 pigment black ink. Looks nice but I got sticker shock - $650. Ouch! Some may not be able to get beyond the price even thought the printer comes with "up to 2 years of ink in the box1, equivalent to about 30 ink cartridge sets."

There are Epson Certified Refurbished ET7750's for $445 on the Epson web site. They come with the 2 year supply of ink and 1 year warranty. Depending on how long they last this could be a good deal.

Watched a couple of reviews of the ET7750 and it looks good. Lighter shades and dark areas may get blown out but the reviewer found some of his printed images to be of good quality and worthy of display. Basically the reviewer found the image quality not as could as you can get for the money, and does not advise purchasing if images is your main purpose, but it is a good all around printer for his workflow. The image quality is definitely better than the Maxify and it has pigment black ink and wide format capability.

At 1/3 the cost I would not give up my Maxify. I'd keep the Maxify and get a dedicated photo printer.

Maybe the Expression Photo HD XP-15000 wide format printer might make a reasonably priced addition to the Maxify. Given the discounted price that Canon Pro-100's have been going for in the US, I'd probably get it instead of the Epson.

Here's one review that has a comparison between the Artisan 1430, the XP-15000 and the Canon Pro-100:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDG65MdSDSs

Now I know a little more about Epson offerings in case someone asks me about getting a new printer.

Thanks, ISF.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Basically the reviewer found the image quality not as could as you can get for the money,

@stratman - do you have a internet reference for this assessment ?

Epson pricing - they want your money...................

A 2 year ink supply - the inks of the ET7750 didn't last that long for me - I'm probably printing too much. You get quite some features - additional pigment black, an A4 scanner, duplexer (with some quirky handling in my eyes)

I take those Youtube reviews with quite some reservations when it comes to the judgement of print quality, driver settings, profile use, paper choice etc are not evident in lots of cases and results can be quite different if they would run a profile first on all printers under review, that would show much better the printer capabilities and would let you compare remaining variations and differences.
Those reviews are o.k., helpful in lots of cases , they show quite some details and problems with the overall setup and handling of those models.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Printers do not always differ in print quality - different models in different categories may even use the same printhead but paper handling is another important characteristic - how many sheets you can load - which range of paper thickness can be handled - is a bypass for stiff/thick carton available etc.

 

[stratman]

do you have a internet reference for this assessment ?

Yes, it is the link I posted in my last post.

the inks of the ET7750 didn't last that long for me

A different reviewer of the printer said, IIRC, the 2-year ink supply lasted him less than 2 months! He admitted he was not a typical user. That 2-year ink supply might last me 3 years.

Every reviewer I watched said they really liked the printer for what it was, even if they had better performing (photo) printers. As @The Hat is fond of saying: Horses for courses.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

even if they had better performing (photo) printers.

I def. cannot confirm such statements, I had an ET7750, I could compare to prints with the 6 ink photo printers - L805 or L1800 - there is no visible difference. You can take a microscope and inspect lighter colors, the dithering might be slightly different when you print with or w/o light inks but that's not visible on regular prints. But beyond that print quality depends not just on the ink set, there is the min droplet size, driver settings, use of a correct profile, the correct paper selection to prevent possible ink overload, and the gamut is on par with the other printers.