Printer Choices

[HalftoneStudio]

I've been on the verge of buying a 13" inkjet for a while now and have come across a couple good deals that are really tempting me. I've determined I want to stick with Epson. I have never done much printing myself on inkjet in the past. I've always sent-off to pro labs for stuff I want to show. My main concern is having it sit and the print heads dry and clog up, because I'm not going to be very high volume, at first anyway.

The first deal is a lightly used R2880. This thing is like new and would cost me $300.

The second is a new R3000 from Epson that's been on sale for a while now for around $650.

$650 is really the top of what I'm willing to spend. My question boils down to is the R3000 really worth 2x what the R2880 is? I've read several reports of the R2880 having feeding issues with "art" media. I really want the option of running any media through the printer that I can. My whole reasoning for trying to get into printing is to deliver a product you can't normally get from the lab. Speed isn't really an issue, nor is the size of the ink tanks. I assume that since both of these printers are using the same ink set that image quality is fairly on-par with each other?

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Big Mike]

I think I've heard that the R3000 is capable of a better/higher resolution than the previous models.

Michael Reichmann, of The Luminous Landscape, has an R3000 that he really seams to love.

 

[KmH]

If you turn the printer off when it's not in use, the ink cartridges should close so they don't dry out.

Image quality will be determined by the DPI value you set the printer too.
Don't confuse DPI with PPI, because they are not the same.

Inkjet printers render pixles by spraying out dots. It takes at least 3 dots to print 1 pixel, and often takes many more because of the print head design.

A good inkjet printer will deliver print resolution of up to 3000 DPI. Printing at 360 DPI is a low quality setting, while printing at 2400 DPI is a high quality setting.