Epson 9880 ver 9800

stargate

Well-known member
Does anyone have both of them? Any comparison? speed? head clogging? color gamut comparisons?
 
Re: Epson 9880 ver 9800

We have one of each. We use the 9800 for two sided sheetfed proofing with Kodak's Media Kit attachment, and the 9880 is used for high res calibrated color proofing on glossy rolled paper. The only difference between the two printers is that the 9880 uses two unique Vivid Magenta ink cartridges that will not work in the 9800. Of course, they will fit in the 9800, which might lead you to believe that they could work, but Epson warned us that loading the Vivid inks into the 9800 would be catastrophic. It's just a matter of time until we find what that really means.

Other than that, the printers are great. We get occasional streaks on the 9800 which can be removed with a cleaning or nozzle check test. The 9880 produces a beautiful print, but must be calibrated pretty regularly to maintain consistent color.
 
Re: Epson 9880 ver 9800

We had one 9800 for about a year before it started acting strange. After several technicians from Epson (who never got the machine working like it did befor), we decided to get two 9880. Besides the magenta inks they are pretty much the same.

We use them for GMG proofing and had to convert our MX4 to the new machine which was a bit of a mess in the beginning. And yes, you have to regularly callibrate the machine.

But the results are great.

Cheers
 
Re: Epson 9880 ver 9800

Could you specify what you mean with "regularly"?
How often do you need to recal with GMG? Daily, weekly, monthly?
More often than the 9800?
Do you have them in a climate controlled environment?

We are going to replace all our machines with the x880 generation, so your experiences would be helpful.

Thanks,
Ulf

Edited by: Ulf Wittenberg on May 20, 2008 9:03 AM
 
Re: Epson 9880 ver 9800

Kodak recommends every 7 days, and the software that controls the proofer lets you know the last time that it was done. I've gone beyond the 7 days just to see the difference, and after two weeks I could see subtle color shifts, but a client would probably never notice unless they carefully compared both proofs in a viewing booth. So, if your clients are the type that bring a loop to a press check, better stay on top of your calibration.

It's definitely more volatile than our old Veris. I have proofs from almost 4 years ago that print looking identical to a Veris run today, and I never calibrate it manually. The Veris is more expensive to operate and maintain, although the quality is superior to the Epson. The complaint we got with the Veris from our sales team was that it was "too good" and looked better than our press sheets. They wanted a proof that we could improve upon once it was on press, and since more shops are leaning towards the Epson because of price, we followed suit. It's official over here... the inmates are running the asylum!

Seriously, the Epson's make beautiful proofs on a variety of media. Time will tell how much trouble they will be with print head failures and nozzle clogs. We've had our for about 5 months, and so far, so good.
 
Re: Epson 9880 ver 9800

We calibrate the 9880 every monday morning. The 9800 we only did once a month. Now I would also calibrate the 9800 every monday however I tend to notice that the 9880 is off more than the 9800.
Our prepress isn't climate controlled (press dep is).


We made the switch from the 9800 to the 9880's because we had a printhead problem and the technicians couldn't get the epson to print in register anymore. The 9800 was with us for 14 months...
 
Re: Epson 9880 ver 9800

I got my 9880 2 days ago because 9800 had issues with constant dirty nozzles, was out of warranty and on top of that was marking inks that were half full as empty. You know how much the 220ml cartridge cost right?
I calibrate all my 3 printers every Monday am. It is not in climate controlled room. I am building my mx4 at the moment...
 

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