I have had my 44 inch z3100 for 5 months now and I am happy with it. I've made an 8 x 30 foot print on hand made paper with it, printed gloss on matte paper for fun, printed black and white glossies, and it delivers great looking prints. Anyone else happy with their machines?

I like mine - I send it prints and out they come:) and canon fixed it (roll feed) again today:) IPF5000...

Very happy with mine - had it since February - Economical to use and does everything I want it to do

Neal

Yes, I like my printer very much. Never misses a beat after working out some of the early kinks.

--John

With three subject titles,


I like my printer

9880 Romance Over

Z3100 prints for wedding albums,


among the first five I thought I was at the wrong place.



My Z3100 gets Xmas lighting this weekend, part of the family now.


Ernst Dinkla

try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

I've been using my Z3100ps 24" since November 1, 2007. While I still feel it has an awkward, redundant driver with arbitrary complications (such as having to call the width the length when using a paper size such as 16x24), Qimage has come to my rescue, and I am beginning to feel that I have some control over the printer.

I love the ease of profiling and calibrating anything I throw at the printer, and I am very pleased with the results. I have printed up to 24x36, as well as a 60x12 panorama. I am really surprised at how neutral the grays are, compared to what I have seen on other printers. I also have not experienced problems with banding, roller marks, pizza-wheel tracks, etc. I am happy with my choice.

A few thoughts for improvement on future models, I guess, although I would buy a redesigned sheet-paper loader if HP came out with one:

1) Why on earth, other than cosmetics and ease of storage, is there no elevated ridge along the right side of the sheet loader, which would simplify the alignment of paper to avoid skew?

2) How about a clear explanation of how to use the APS profile editor? I'm not clear on what HP means by the "direction" in using the editor. Also, the split-image preview is not as easy to use and accurate as a two-window preview to judge the results on the whole image. In addition, inclusion of something more objective, such as some swatches, or even a GreytagMacbeth Color Checker, as well as an info pallet, would be more useful than just a photographic image.

3) How about making the technical papers on the HP website easier to find, and update them faster so as to reflect the current version of the driver and software? This is particularly important in terms of working with non-HP papers. It seems to me there could be less trial-and-error in choosing a paper type.

4) It seems somewhat tacky to throw in half-full cartridges in a $4500-plus printer.

All of these issues aside, this printer certainly gives the competition a real run for their money, and I am impressed with the results.

8 x 30 foot print!

What was the photo of

- It was a landscape of a wintery Ontario farm field, where my girlfriend grew up. Printed on multiple 2 x 2 foot sheets of hand made paper, coated with Ink Aid. Actually she put the Ink Aid on the drying surface first, then laid the paper pulp down on it, so that it wouldn't cause the paper to wrinkle. Worked out very well. It will be on exhibition March 6 at the Outremont Art Gallery in Montreal in March. Haven't had the chance to see the image all at once, as I don't have any place big enough to hang it up.

I have the 44" z3100...love it. Good job, HP!

I have a 24" Z3100. Overall, very happy with it!

Dan

Me too!

Fred

24" z3100 : aside from the roller marks using the gloss enhancer which will be fixed soon, i love it.

i agree with the comment about the 1/2 size cartridges, feel that APS should have been included.

the APS is pretty intuitive though a little more "under the hood tweaking" via visual curves (ala photoshop style) without going into the actual profile might be nice. i find that the extra patches in the dark end and the high end to make a good deal of difference in my images. but then i haven't taken the time to poke through any profiles with it.

It might be nice to have an input so the user could tell the color center the length of the roll of paper you started with so one could keep quick track of the length left on the roll as well as the sq. ft used.

best colour i have had in an archival inkjet since i used one of the early iris printers ( btw those early iris prints i made have all faded even on archival paper and protected...)

I've had my Z3100 44" since July '07 and have been through about 5 rolls of Breathing Color Canvas and several other types.

I love it - it's awesome.

Everything can be improved, but yowee zowee - I'm happy .

I had my z3100 44in for 6 months, hated it, because it couldn't produce the things it should.

Bought an 7880 again and would never want to go back. NEVER

I've got a 24" base Z3100 with APS and its been the right tool for me. There was some learning curve for me but I'm now confident with the printer and I'm producing images that I find quite satisfying.

i have a 24" Z3100 for 9 months. Very frustrating initially, required several hours of tech support, still has some minor glitches, none of which affets the prints. Produces beautiful prints and is very economical with regards to ink. I do not however like the fact that the sleep mode is giving me trouble. I created an ICC profile yesterday for hahnemhule Baryta and got great results, but despite creating the profile i got error messages stating that the ICC profile could not be created. when I checked the profiles it was there in the custom file and dead on.
I have had 3 epson printers(4800, 7800 and 3800) and all were fine out of the box, but ink hogs.

I had the same problem. I posted it here in the forum and someone offered a suggestion that worked like a charm. Unfortunately I don't remember the solution right now so I'm off to hunt for that thread.

Found it. Here's the thread.

For me it turned out to be a problem with my firewall. My printer is IP connected. Once I fixed the firewall settings things have been running smoothly.

I've had the z3100 44" for about 11 months, once I got over the first few months of constant upgrades to drivers and firmware the printer has worked great. It's done everything it's supposed to do. This is the only printer I've used where I'm able to print a gloss/satin print without gloss differential. It's the main reason I wouldn't buy an Epson or Canon, all other things being somewhat equal.

Now if I could just find a paper similar to HP Pro Satin that works as well I would be even happier. (44" rolls are still defective).

-Doug

I've had my 24" z3100ps gp for almost three months. It replaced an Epson 4000. The Epson went through tons of ink because of constant clogging. The software was tricky to use if you did not stay current. It did produce very good quality prints though. The z3100 is the best printer I ever owned. I had forgotten how reliable and trouble free printers could be. The software is easy to understand and the support I've gotten has been first rate.

Kodak Lustre may be a good replacement for the HP pro satin. although I don't know if it comes in 44 inch. I love the finish on it and haven't had any roller marks for some time now.

Doug, Sean Puckett recommended the Red River UltraPro Satin but it doesn't come in 44" rolls.

Harry, I'll have to look at the Kodak Lustre if it comes in 44" rolls.

Ron, Would love to try the Red River but no 44" rolls yet.

The Epson Exhibition Fiber sounded promising as well but some have mentioned gloss differential (which is my biggest complaint about most papers).

I have found a satin paper from Mediatech in Montreal, Canada, that has a great surface, slightly finer or flatter than the HP paper in a 44 inch roll. Works great with my Z3100..

It's called Satin Photographic Paper "Instant Dry" 10 mil. # JPX-PDQL comes in 44" x 90 feet also 24" , 36", 42", 50", 54" and 60"

they have lots of other kinds of paper as well, they specialize in paper for large format printing... Mostly commercial applications, it seems. Everything is house brand... but I'm impressed so far. You'll have to call them to get information or a swatch book.

cheers,
Paul

Thanks for the tip Paul. I went to their site but the English version isn't working. I'll have to check back later.
- Doug