Epson Stylus Pro 4000 wide format inkjet printer

The Epson Stylus Pro 4000 is improved in every way, shape, and form, albeit probably still has a healthy appetite for pricey ink. It is widely estimated that the Epson Stylus Pro 4000 will set sales records throughout the US and Canada . When a product is designed with the features that the niche market is looking for, and when a product is so skillfully “packaged” and presented, it deserves its success.

Unfortunately, so far practically every word about the Epson Stylus Pro 4000 on the Internet appears to be a direct copy of official Epson advertising. There is not much substantive outside independent assessment of anything. And the main portion of the Epson ad is to roast the competing printers in a kind of advertising blitz previously unheard of in the inkjet industry. Since the printer itself is not available to test in a real-world situation, all we have to go on is the blistering attack on other printers. This makes one ask what is it about those other printers that makes them such hardy competition?

Printing digital photos of Nicholas Hellmuth on the Epson 4000 at Parrot Digigraphic. We do not yet have this printer ourselves, so do not yet have test results, so do not have a formal opinion until we do testing in-house back at our university.

Very daring to attack competitor’s head on because to do so you have to list where your printer is supposedly superior. This exposes and draws attention to precisely those points where actually HP and Canon may have advantages. Indeed the printhead design of Canon is good enough to already be causing positive commentary from a wide spectrum.

Considering that Canon printers have been chosen by leading New York publishers as a proofer of choice, it is daring for Epson to suggest that only their Epson printer can handle proofing. Yet Epson sold a dye-ink proofer for years. So the ad claims are very bold.

It would be so much easier to stick with the actual specs, find out which printer is ideal for the application at hand. The Epson 4000 will be great for many applications; the HP 130 will be appropriate for others; and people with a Canon copier in their office may prefer to select a Canon inkjet printer while they are at it. There is seldom a really bad printer, just the wrong printer for inappropriate applications. We would much prefer to itemize the nice features of the Epson 4000, since clearly engineers have done their homework. Thus it is unfortunate that the ads descended to a withering attack on the two main competitors, Canon and HP. If those two printers were as bad as claimed, then there would be no need to go to such noticeable effort to slander them. Besides, Epson did not compare themselves with the newer HP 30 or 130.

One result of Epson trying to compare the 4000 with the HP 120 and Canon counterpart is that Epson provides incentive for people to seek out our FLAAR report on that DesignJet 120nr and the newer HP 130. Indeed we have the Canon imagePROGRAF 7250, Canon W8200, Epson 7600, and HP 120nr in our university test lab (have 19 printers presently). Our review of the 120nr had been accomplished before the Epson comparison became available. So will be interesting to see which features we also found were lacking, and which counter-claims do not hold up in a fair comparison. We already have a preliminary report on the HP 30 – 130 and will update that in-depth when the printer itself arrives. The HP 130 is sufficiently revolutionary that we will test it at each university (in other words, two teams will evaluate it independently of each other).

In summary, Epson has come a long way since the days of their 1520 and 3000. Epson offers what the photographer and artist ask for:

• Pigmented ink
• Nice color gamut even with pigmented ink
• Good grayscale with extra black
• Ideal size for pro-sumer, second business, retirement business

As would be expected, options do exist. We like the idea of a free RIP with the Canon imagePROGRAF w8200. That we did not see in the Epson check-off sheet, but the free Canon RIP has not yet migrated to the desktop Canons, nor do we know if it will be available for the 24” Canon W6200 (the only pigmented ink available in 24” size other than Epson 7600).

Eventually an Epson 4000 printer was provided by Parrot Digigraphic (parrotcolor.com). We have had this printer for two years with no major problems.

Curious about the FLAAR review process? Check out these real-world comparative evaluations. They are still on-going, but the first editions are out and can be ordered from www.wide-format-printers.NET.

In reality the printer may have been okay, but they bought it low-bid on the Internet or from some friendly local hometown dealer... who could not pronounce giclée much less had the foggiest idea how to produce a giclée print.

Once you already take delivery on the printer, what can we do? Yet every day we get e-mail saying "I wish I had seen your web site and knew the downside of procurement from a supplier which suckered me into buying by slick advertising."

FLAAR has also itself searched over the last several years for reliable companies with experienced capable people who know all about scanning, digital photography, about the fine art giclée market, about photo-realistic printing. You have to reach your own personal decision as to what make and model you wish, but if you feel that Epson is what you want, then the place to contact is not a local used-car salesman, but an experienced digital imaging graphics person who is willing to work with newbies as well as with professional photographers, artists, and art gallery owners. This company is Parrot Digigraphic

e-mail imaging@parrotcolor.com, fax (978) 670-7744, Tel (978) 670-7766