crabshell wrote:
Opionions please. I’m not a pro photographer but require output better than my 1280. What do I get for the extra $300 vs. the cost of an 1800? Do the 1800’s hi-glass inks work on matter art paper or is the printer limited to photo paper stocks?
TIA
I don’t have either printer, but do have the R800. It is the 8.5" version of the R1800.
It certainly prints very beautifully on matte paper. It should, it has a black ink designed just for matte paper. It also has a black ink for glossy paper. I’m not sure how, but it will actually use both black inks on semi-gloss paper. It doesn’t use the Gloss Optimizer on matte paper.
In the MANY reviews I’ve read between these two printers, the general result is: use the R1800 if you are primarily a color printer. Use the 2400 if you are primarily a B&W printer.
This makes sense when you look at the inks. The 2400 has those extra shades of black/gray to give you a smoother B&W picture. It also has a deeper DMAX, so your blacks will be even blacker on those premium matte papers. These are all key to the best B&W prints that you can make.
While the R1800 will print absolutely lovely B&W prints, it is aimed more for the color printer. There are no gray inks here. OK, at the highest resolution setting, you certainly can’t see that without magnification. The DMAX on matte paper will satisfy 99.9% of photographers.
One of the keys to the R1800 are the red and blue inks. These fill in color ranges that can’t easily be printed with CMYK or even CcMmYK. CMYK is particularly bad with blues. So, you can get rich, beautiful colors across an amazingly wide gamut with this ink set.
I don’t print much B&W, so my R800 is the perfect printer for me. If I needed a bigger one, I would buy a R1800. If I did a lot of B&W, the 2400 would be ideal. I’m happy with the B&W I get now and thrilled with the color I get.
Clyde
