Epson SureColor P900 – The Epson SureColor SC-P900 promises to be among the best large-format printers for professional digital photographers. Initially announced in March 2020, its accessibility was postponed due to the Covid pandemic – but it is currently finally available to buy and for us to test out.
Epson SureColor P900
Epson SureColor P900 Review
The vast bulk of your camera’s megapixels is most likely to waste if you limit on your own to A4 or Letter-sized prints, and the completion item is most likely to appear totally shed if you hang it on the wall surface. Popular A3+ or 13-inch printers bump points up to about two times the dimension of an A4/Letter publish; prominent instances of that include the Canon PIXMA PRO-200 and Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300, as well as Epson’s own SureColor SC-P700.
The new SureColor SC-P900 ups the risks also further, providing A2 or 17-inch publishing, so you can produce supersized 420x594mm (16.5×23.4-inch) A2 picture prints or also go bigger with cut-sheet media or by including Epson’s optional roll feed adapter.
The Epson SureColor P900 complies with on the heels of the older Epson P800 and previous A3+/13-inch and A2/17-inch printers. The older models were excellent but typically featured an ink network within the publish head common in between picture black and matte black inks.
Other Printer: Epson SureColor F570
It was a significant aggravation for many users because each time you switch between matte media and shiny/semi-gloss/luster picture paper, you need to clean up the publish network and replenish it with the alternative ink. The treatment is both lengthy and expensive. Fortunately, such as the smaller-sized P700, the P900 finally features a dedicated network for each of its 10 inks, so there is no need to share.
The ink line-up itself is totally pigment-based, as preferred for durable, long-lasting quality, particularly on matte and fine-art media where there is no safety covering in between the top-most tattooed layer of the media and the outdoors.
The 10 inks featured in both the P900 and P700 consist of Picture Black, Matte Black, Grey, Light Grey, Cyan, Light Cyan, Yellow, Vivid Magenta, Vivid Light Magenta, and Violet. Because of this, there are 4 black/grey inks and 6 color inks, going for excellent integrity for both mono and color picture publishing.
Various other improvements over Epson’s previous large-format printers consist of enhancing a 4.3-inch color touchscreen, which is truly useful for changing setups and maintaining track of publishing conditions.
For instance, you can easily change paper and quality setups, maintain tabs on ink degrees and see how much time is remaining for the present publish job. Another truly nice touch is that the printer has a translucent area in its top panel, with the option of turning on interior LED illumination. This enables you to view your publish as it is being produced and gives greater assurance that you’ve used all the right setups.
Compared to the P800 is that the new printer takes lower-capacity cartridges of 50ml, below 80ml. Even worse still, the ‘setup’ cartridges provided with the printer do not last long at all. Certain, some ink is had to charge the publish goings throughout the initial installation fully, but the cartridge condition is disappointingly reduced also before you’ve made your first publish.
In our tests, the cartridges ran out after producing just 8 A2 prints, and others were very reduced. When you’ve paid over $1,000/£1,000 for the printer, it can be a bitter tablet forking out an extra £380/$420 almost instantly later on for an extra set of cartridges.
On the plus side, the price of the ink itself is very sensible, exercising to about £0.76/$0.84 each milliliter. That contrasts positively with A4/11-inch printers such as the Canon PIXMA TS6300 and TS8300, for which standard-capacity ink cartridges exercise at about $2.14/£1.92 each milliliter.
The P900 is also more affordable compared to the A3+/13-inch P700, the latter’s smaller sized (half-capacity) 25ml cartridges exercising to about £1.12/$1.52 each milliliter. However, the larger-capacity 80ml cartridges of the older P800 A2 printer exercise to simply £0.58/$0.73 each milliliter.
Media handling is excellent. An upright paper input feeder at the back and a reduced, straight input tray that draws out of the front. The last is a better choice for art media, as well as stringent poster board, as the transport system is totally level and does not flex the media at any point.
However, if you are publishing aboard using the straight front tray, you need to beware of permitting sufficient space at the back so that it does not collide with a wall surface or various other objects behind the printer. A CD/DVD/Blu-ray tray consists of a printer for direct publishing into white-faced discs. Still, the roll paper feeder ($249/£213) is just available as an optional extra for producing panoramic and non-standard-sized prints.