Initial impressions of the 4800 have been posted on Luminous-Landscape. It's worth a read - the 4800 seems to elicit an initial schizophrenic love/hate reaction from 4000 owners - a 'wonderful disappointment' in Michael's case, but a keeper none the less(?). His key complaints seem to be:

* Advanced B&W Mode - not overly impressed with results
* Printer Driver - having Imageprint withdrawals
* Black ink changeover - the cost and hassle

The first two are more about personal preference imo, YMMV.

Quite a few 4000 people out there are more than happy with the 4800's (and 2400's) B&W capability via both Adv B&W and Color Mode - preferring it over results gained using Imageprint with the older series of printers. Will be interesting to hear 4000/Imageprint users opinions when the 4800 is also supported. Bottom line - check out the B&W capability yourself. I haven't found much to be unimpressed about.

Re the printer driver: yes it's still kludgy but is it that big a deal? Not for me. That seems to the way by and large from Japan- beautiful hardware, not so beautiful software (e.g. Canon's raw converter vs their hardware). Fwiw, people also diss on Imageprint. Do you spend hours a day working in the driver? No. Does it work ok? Yes. Could it better? Yes. Couldn't everything? Yes.

The cost and hassle of the black ink changeover process is the only mud that sticks in Michael's review imo and isn't anything new. It's clear users would have preferred it if Epson had provided a better solution vs milking their existing hardware/production line and users - purchasing two 4800's as a workaround isn't an appropriate solution for typical 4800 users.

I'm hopeful that a modified changeover process will become available one way or another so there's less of a penalty when it comes to exploring other papers - but as it stands it doesn't impact my day to day printing, I'm primarily a matte-man.