The Epson 7900 and 9900 printers were announced some time ago, and began shipping late last year. These printers represent the most significant change to Epson printers in some time, incorporating most of the technologies of the tremendous 11880, along with a new industrial design, new paper loading mechanism, and a new HDR inkset which includes orange and green.  The feature set of this printer is pretty extensive  ... if you are interested I recommend checking it out from Epson’s site.

I’ve had my 7900 for a little over a month now.  It’s located at my office, and so I don’t get to use it as much as the 11880, but am pretty comfortable with what it can do, and what things readers may be interested in.  As normal, this really isn’t a “review”, but more of a “this is what I like” type of article.

The most obvious thing about the printer is it’s big.  While the legacy of the Epson printer design is there, the printer itself is far larger and sturdier than it’s predecessors.  It sports a much more boxy look, and seems very solid.  The new size makes it more challenging to get into various locations, and I would assume someone with very cramped quarters that can barely fit a 7880 printer may not have room for this printer.

Most of the really good stuff about the printer  you can’t see however.  This includes the amazing printhead,  the new auto nozzle detect system, as well as several new improvements to prevent clogging.  The new HDR inks now deliver orange and green inks as well, and the resulting expanded color gamut is pretty spectacular (more on that later.)  Matt and Photo black inks are both delivered to the head, requiring only a clearing of the head nozzles when switching ... similar to the 3800 design.  The printer can accommodate either 350ml or 700ml ink cartridges, which lowers the ink cost per ml (it also handles 150ml cartridges, but I’m not sure if they will be available for purchase.  I know they are available because Epson sent me a full set of them after my printer insisted on cleaning a little too often and cranked through all of the starter inks, a problem which now seems to be fixed).

As usual with Epson printers, setup is pretty straight forward.  Put the stand together, set the printer on top, plug in a few wires, turn it on, shake up some ink and install it, wait a few minutes, install the driver on the Mac ... easy as can be.  I was printing the first print about an hour after I opened the box.  (well, I didn’t time it, but it seems it only took that long, quite a bit of which was assembling the stand).

The printer supports a new color LCD screen, and no longer has a manual paper release.  A new rotary cutter cuts the print in a single pass, is very fast and I assume much more resistant to wear and tear.  I’ve heard it even works for some canvases without problem.

The adaptor has a lever that quickly changes it from accommodating 3” cores to 2” cores or vice versa.  Once the adaptors are in place, you position the roll so the right adaptor aligns with a guide on the motorized roll paper assembly, you slide the left guide so it matches the left adaptor, then you roll the paper back into the assembly.  Push to the right to lock the right adaptor in place, slide the left guide into the left adaptor and lock it, and the paper is loaded, ready to feed into the machine.  There is even an “indent” in the surface of the printer for your roll of paper to sit in before and after you attach the adaptors so it won’t roll around while you are loading.  Terrific.  Here’s a quick pictorial walk through ....

Hard to wear gloves over a wrist brace!  I’ve had to resort to cutting off the first few inches of paper when I load a roll.  I cut 3 3” wide strips and save them to use around rolls when I unload them, or around rolled up panorama prints.

While printing two things are very apparent.  First, this printer is fast.  Much faster than the 7880, and it seems it is even faster than the 11880.  I’m not going to get into the entire speed thing again ... I’ve already shown where the 11880 speed is competitive and probably better than the Canon ipf series printers except for low end output.  The 7900 equals, and perhaps even exceeds the 11880.  What surprised me was how quiet the printer is.  The normal big whine and wind sound when it first starts on a job and positions paper, checks the nozzles and begins to print.  Then suddenly everything goes quiet, with just a soft “humming” and a click each time the paper is advanced.  The printer is quiet enough once it starts printing to be quite unobtrusive.

Epson has included the Auto Nozzle Detect feature from the 11880 in this printer. Here’s how Epson describes it ...

“  A miniscule amount of electrically charged ink is emitted from all nozzles, and in the event that the built-in sensors do not detect ink, the nozzle is judged to be malfunctioning. If malfunctioning nozzles are detected, the printer automatically initiates a cleaning to clear the nozzle. “

This allows faulty nozzles to be detected without using any media and virtually no ink. There are three options for this feature.  It will check every print, check occasionally, or not check.  If you prefer to manually take control of this process you can also print the traditional nozzle check manually, or have one printed along with each print.  My unit had a faulty AID board, and was triggering cleaning almost every time it printed ... despite a perfectly printed nozzle check.  Epson responded quickly, replaced the faulty board, and it seems to working normally now.

The expanded gamut of this printer is pretty amazing.  On good papers using photo black inks, gamut volumes of over 900,000  are normal.  Black levels of L*3 to L*5 are typical as well.  Here is a comparison in ColorThink ...

(hint, you can just manually grab the scrubber and view the comparison.  This is Epson Exhibition Fiber, the solid is for an Epson 9880 printer, the wireframe is for an Epson 7900)

The question is how much of this gamut is usable when printing photographs, since even Epson states that part of the expanded gamut is to achieve “man made” colors ... colors that you will never see taking a picture of anything in nature.  I really don’t have a clue how to quantify this - all I can really offer is a subjective opinion.  It does seem that if you can get all the way to man made colors, then you have exceeded the potential “natural”l gamut, so at least you know the printer isn’t limiting you in those colors.

There is a lot more to printing than gamut, and probably more important is the screening and dithering technologies of the manufacturer (their most closely guarded secrets). While I believe HP and Canon have made significant strides in recent years, and their printers produce outstanding results, I believe Epson still has the edge in this technology, and their output even at lower DPI settings is superior. While nozzle clogging is a challenge with piezo electric nozzles, the fact is the Epson is incredibly precise when applying a dot of ink to paper, and that precision allows very tight control when calculating those dots in the screening algorithms.

One of the lasting strengths of Epson’s design is the basic simplicity of the paper path.  It is completely straight, and both sheet and rolls are easy to load and print.  The catch basket for the 7900 is a nice improvement over previous printers - it won’t be falling off or apart -  and has 3 different positions to accommodate various needs.  Currently I’m working with Hahnemuhle Fine Art Baryta on rolls, very thick and stiff, and somewhat sensitive.  I’ve found very few printers handle this type of paper on rolls without some problems, but the 7900 handles it with ease.  I’ve had some problems with some sheet papers ... some of them tend to have a curl on the edge, and this curl catches on the exit guide.  This is something that causes problems with most printers, and currently I’m testing using a D-roller to de-curl the leading edge.

I’ve pretty much moved away from the RC based papers of Premium Luster and Glossy to the new Baryta papers.  Currently I have settled on Epson Exhibition Fiber for anything up to 24x30, and Hahnemuhle Fine Art Baryta for anything larger.  I’ve produced several final prints on both media types now, and the output is spectacular.  Gloss differential is insignificant ... almost non-existent on the EEF and perhaps slightly visible in some output on the Hahnemuhle FAB.  I see no bronzing on either paper.  Detail is terrific, especially subtle tonal gradations.  Is it better than my 11880?  Tough to say ... but it is as good.

Some reading this may be trying to decide between a 7880 and a 7900.  Is it worth the $1,000 extra price?  I would say it is.  Lower ink costs, easier operation, much faster, better output, expanded gamut .. there is a lot to like about this printer.