EPSON Stylus Pro 3880 A2 Printer
“Following the launch of the Epson Stylus Pro 3880 in September this year,
Epson’s share of the A2+ market grew by almost 3% in Q3 to 93%…”
Epson recently up-rated their 3800 to the 3880 by the incorporation of the UltraChrome Vivid Magenta ink set, to bring it in line with their 4880 and 7880 stablemates. The changes though are more than a badge change and new ink. The driver engine that controls droplet placement has been upgraded to the new AccuPhoto HD2 with claims of increased smoothness and improved metamerism. We can confirm that the engine does not work in the same way; we sent a print through using a 3800 profile and got a quite different print (it was much lighter).
Of all the printers that have passed through our hands and remained for any
length of time, the 3800 has been a favourite by a mile. For many
photographers, both enthusiast and professional, it is the perfect size. It
can make up to A2 prints which fits the standard competition size of 20x16
inches (more recently 50x40 cm) but can also deal with postcards, greetings
cards and 1.5mm board. The ability to easily switch between matt ink and
photo ink is a huge and continuing bonus.
The cartridge size of 80ml also marks the 3800 and 3880 out from the crowd.
For a marginal investment you move from the 13ml cartridges of the A3
printers to one that lasts for a long time in normal use. Our own 3800 has
carts installed from as far back as May 2008 and four of those remaining are
2008 vintage (we always date them!). For the record the 2008 carts are Mk,
M, LC and Y). This despite the fact that the old warhorse is used on almost
every paper test that we carry out. In some ways the ink usage is an
illusion; the same density on a print usually means an identical volume of
ink has been used. Our machine has now made 1,760 prints and has used
1,056ml of ink in total (it tells you in the menu!). This is equivalent to
0.6ml per print or about 38p per print at today's prices. Most of our prints
are A3. This then is the background against which we tested the 3880.
For this review, we initially worked on a project with Permajet who have
been profiling the 3880 for their entire range and they asked us to audit
their output for colour precision (this represents more than 30 papers).
Following that we have obtained a test 3880 ourselves to carry out further
work.
The Ink Set
ABOVE: As usual, our pronouncements on print accuracy are
based on instrumental measurement although as Jan Hardman's lovely Corel
Painter illustration on the right shows, we also made 'real' prints. The
painting was output onto various Hot and Cold Pressed media from Epson
although the Traditional Photo Paper version, printing here, was particulaly
sumptuous, making full use of the additional gamut of colour.
The addition of Vivid Magenta ink increased the gamut of the printers using
it. We looked in detail two years ago (how time flies!) at the 4880 and
measured the boost at about 8% on Premium Luster Photo Paper. This brought
additional Pantone colours into gamut but for the average user the change up
to the 3880 is a marginal improvement on an already superb printer and you
have to look with care to discern any differences.
The Colour Audits
Permajet Testing
Permajet profiled their 3880 using The X-Rite Eye 1 ISIS and Profile Maker
5.5. This is different to our X-Rite DTP41/Monaco Profiler Platinum set-up
and might or might not be different to that used by the Epson engineers. We
only mention this because it can make subtle difference to the outcomes of
the profiling. Breaking open profiles to examine the authorship tags can be
very hit and miss, and we see all manner of variations.
We had the opportunity to measure 26 surfaces for Permajet and have yet to
fully analyse the data for them. However, the data so far look excellent and
we have initially divided the data into two groups: those using Matt Black
ink and those using Photo Black ink. The errors in the matt/art surfaces are
associated mainly with the limiting density which is round 17% Lab
luminance. In the break out of the statistics this shows as a rising error
in the colour values for those tones with luminance components between 50%
and that of the Macbeth black swatch (20% luminance, nominal). The average
errors for PK are smallest for the black swatch with red standing out as the
high error (this will bear some additional analysis in due course).
The Dmax was high and one reading of 2.51 was recorded. The CII was about
1.9 (Lab) for all settings of ABW and was also similar for the allcolours
profiled print. In D65 light the 'all-colour' print was slightly green, but
by a very tiny amount, a result confirmed by the measurements.
Regardless of the statistics, the resulting print was excellent, as always
with Traditional Photo Paper, and the ABW driver produced the best quality
of monochrome image.
Overall
The Epson 3880 is a superb printer and recommended without hesitation; as we
said in the introduction, it remains in top spot for both professionals and
enthusiasts. Significantly, the 3800 was voted by the Societies' membership
as the best professional printer, this can only add to that sentiment. It is
unlikely that any 3800 owners can justify the upgrade unless they are
desperate for a bit more gamut, but if you are in the market your prayers
are answered! If productivity is an issue then you would have to move to the
roll-feeding 4880, but if you have that much inkjet work it is likely that
the more expensive machine will pay for itself even more quickly.
Join SICIP today and receive a fantastic free gift: Apply here
