A few people have emailed asking for more information/examples regarding improvements in 4800 prints vs the 2100 (or generally the older series of printers).

I've printed the image to the left again tonight so have included it here (not a scan, just an example). The area roughly indicated by the red rectangle is so much cleaner in the 4800 print vs the print made on the 2100 using a custom profile. It's almost as if that part of the image is printed from a different (and much better processed!) file.

It's difficult to convey online using images. I guess one way to describe my general experience with the 4800 is that problem images on the 2100 that never looked quite right are no longer problem images on the 4800, and images that looked great printed on the 2100 still do on the 4800.

Hard to believe it's already been five weeks plus since the arrival of the 4800. May 25th has well and truly faded into the dark corners of my highly fragmented and volatile RAM-like memory :)

So where are things at for me and the 4800?

Paper-wise I'm using Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, Canson Canvas and Epson's Archival Matte - those three cover the range of products I sell and/or am getting ready to sell.

I've settled on running matte black ink. At the end of the day I just prefer the look and feel of matte papers. Depending on what workarounds become available in the future regarding changing/using blacks I might revisit coated papers, it's a way down the list though.

Any problems with the 4800? Not to date, it hasn't missed a beat, no clogging etc. I'm still impressed by how well the printer itself is built, it's a mighty piece of hardware compared to the 2100.

I prefer the prints out of the 4800 vs the best I could achieve with the 2100, but the difference to the eye isn't huge and varies image to image. The blacks are richer, the lighter tones are cleaner - overall prints of the same files look cleaner, crisper, but not by much (keeping in mind I'm printing with MK/matte papers).

Sometimes I think we (photographers) are the only ones who look so closely at ours and each others prints, and obsess over details that don't really matter at all. I'm not sure there are huge leaps left to be made regarding print quality - weren't we gushing over quality of color inkjet prints years ago? Look how easily we can make outstanding prints today.

We might need to get used to smaller improvements as we approach digital nirvana.

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.