Epson 4880: good for digital negatives?

Peter De Smidt · Sep 20, 2009

Does the 4880 work well for making digital negatives?

donbga · Sep 20, 2009

Peter De Smidt said:
Does the 4880 work well for making digital negatives?

Peter I think it should, I believe the ink set is the same as the 3800.

Don

Peter De Smidt · Sep 20, 2009

Thanks Don. With rebates, the 4880 is currently priced about the same as the 3800. It's awfully tempting.

donbga · Sep 21, 2009

Peter De Smidt said:
Thanks Don. With rebates, the 4880 is currently priced about the same as the 3800. It's awfully tempting.

If you can swing it I think it is a better printer and the ink costs will be a little lower. The 4880 uses the K3 ink set but also has Vivid Magenta so I'm not sure how that would effect the production of digital negatives. My guess would be very little if any.

Don

Keith Taylor · Sep 21, 2009

Peter De Smidt said:
Does the 4880 work well for making digital negatives?

Peter,

I have no experience with the 4880 but I did use a 4000 for many years and I believe the two are fairly similar.

The 4000 was the most temperamental printer I've used and towards the end of its life, prone to bad banding. Despite using the printer on a daily basis I ALWAYS had to run head cleanings to unclog the heads (more than would be considered normal), and sometimes the power cleaning cycle that uses a lot of ink in the process.

I've been using a 3800 for a while now which is by far the best Epson I've used. Never a problem. Given the choice between the two I'd go for the 3800 and use cut sheets than suffer with the 4000 and gain the roll feed.

I hope this helps.

Keith.

Peter De Smidt · Sep 21, 2009

Hi Keith,

Thank you for relating your experience. I have worked with a 4000, and I agree with you. The 4880 is two generations newer, though, and so I hoped things had improved. Supposedly it has newer screening and improved heads, but I was hoping to hear from someone who used one to make DN.

The place I used to work bought a 4880 a few months before I left. That sample was very reliable pounding out 8x11 glossy prints, but DNs are more demanding.

Peter

Tom Kershaw · Sep 21, 2009

Is there an advantage to the Epson 4880 over the Epson 3880 for digital negative printing?

Tom

Peter De Smidt · Sep 21, 2009

Tom,

Well, the 4880 is currently a couple of hundred dollars cheaper here in the USA, being about $895 shipped, it is more of a production machine, and ink will be cheaper if one does a lot of printing. The last two are not important for digital negatives, but I would certainly make regular inkjet prints in addition to the DNs. The question is, though, can it produce a good digital negative without any type of banding?

Epson 4880: good for digital negatives?

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