The current equivalent of the Epson 1800 is the 1900. It should work fine for making digital negatives if you use it with QTR but I don't think it would work with PDN. The Epson 3800 is a very good printer (17" carriage size) for making digital negatives and works fine with both QTR and PDN. It has been replaced by the Epson 3880 which is similar but with a vivid magenta. This should not have impact on alternative printing since magenta does not block much UV, but I don't know anyone actually using the 3880 so I can not say for sure that it will work as well as the 3800.
As Don mentioned, the 2200 had good UV blocking inks but tended to cause banding with digital negatives, even when new, and any printer you are likely to find now would be very old and not worth the risk.
There is also an Epson R2880 that I assume has the same inks as the 3880, and it should work well also with digital negatives if you only need a 13" carriage
Learning to make digital negatives has a fairly steep learning curve, but once you have it down it seems pretty simple.
Sandy
The QTR and PDN workflows exist in order to create negatives with sufficient UV blocking. The great benefit of the 1800 is that it can provide sufficient blocking with b&w negatives printed using all colors with the Epson driver.
It couldn't be simpler, and the 1.5 picoliter droplets make very smooth negatives. I have never tried colorized negs with the 1800 because they aren't necessary, but I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work. For these reasons, I rank the 1800 ahead of my 3800 for making digital negatives.
That said, as long as you can get smooth tones and achieve paper white, one printer and workflow is as good as another for making negatives. After that, it gets down to details like speed, paper handling and ink usage.
I would expect a 1900 to work well, but I have never tested one; I may get one as a backup for my aging 1800.
