Eric Brody

Eric Brody

Lake Oswego, OR

Photographing since age 9 when my uncle showed me a print coming up in developer!

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  • #91087
    Eric Brody
    Eric Brody
    Participant
    Posts: 69
    Epson P900 mystery sound
    on: June 13, 2024 at 6:33 pm

    Hi Neil,

    I agree, no idea what the “thick paper” setting does or why it behaves as it does. I was just going over all the things that most people don’t tell you about this printer. The only good discussion of the Epson Media Installer is by my hero Mark Segal on this website.

    Here’s the story of my three p900’s. My first P900 worked well for about 8 months and then would not feed any paper thicker than Epson Premium Luster through the top (rear) feed. One of my favorites, Canson Platine was a huge problem. Epson replaced it with a refurbished one which worked well for about 6 months and then began smearing ink and also developed a problem with the front feed slider. Epson told me the one year warranty was from the date of the ORIGINAL purchase and would not replace the second one. I had, for a bunch of reasons, accumulated a significant quantity of P900 ink so decided to just get another, treat it with kid gloves (though I’m quite careful with my toys) and when the ink is gone, replace it with the new 5370 which as best I can tell, has the paper handling of the legendarily sturdy P5000 with the print head and ink switching of the P900. Assuming the P900 is working well at that point, I’d feel comfortable selling it.

    Best to you,

    Eric

    #91069
    Eric Brody
    Eric Brody
    Participant
    Posts: 69
    Re: Epson P900 mystery sound
    Reply #1 on: June 13, 2024 at 12:11 pm

    Printers certainly do make some strange noises. I am on my third P900 (long story) but this one seems to be working well, albeit it’s relatively new.

    I wish Epson would make the “thick paper” setting sticky. I actually placed a small label on my printer to remind me to set it each time I turn it on since it disappears when the printer is turned off.

    I’d also look at paper thickness, not just weight. On the B&H website one can pretty easily check the thickness of various papers. The P900 wants papers over 0.5 mil to be fed through the front feed. Most of the papers I use are able to use the rear (top) feed on the P900. I’ll attach a spreadsheet I made for the papers I use and the P900 media settings for them as well as their thickness.

    If you use non-Epson papers, in addition to the “thick paper” setting, (As Kevin suggested) I’d go into the Epson Media Installer and look at the platen gap setting and make sure it’s adequate. Printers really hate head strikes.

    Best of luck. I agree, when it works well, the prints are lovely.

     

    • This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by Eric Brody.
    #90983
    Eric Brody
    Eric Brody
    Participant
    Posts: 69
    Re: travelling with camera gear
    Reply #2 on: June 6, 2024 at 2:27 pm

    Hi Connie,

    You’ll likely get more advice here than you may want, but I’ll make a couple of suggestions.

    I do not know where you live but if you possibly can, visit a store and try different packs on, with your gear. There is no shortage of available packs and even more opinions. Five packs, ten opinions, some of which might actually be useful.

    I’ve been at this a while and have owned many, many, too many packs from Lowepro, Tamrac, Thinktank and a few others.

    I’m a smallish male, about 5’4″ and currently pack my A7RV and three zooms plus a macro in a Thinktank Mindshift Backlight 26L. It’s capacious and has a critical feature shared with the other sizes in the line as well as some other manufacturers; it opens from the back. When a pack is taken off and placed on dirty, dusty, or wet ground, the front of the pack takes the dirt, the pack opening is clean. Opening from the back also provides security; no one can unzip it and take your gear. It also can be swung around taking off the shoulder straps and using the waist band to access the pack without even fully taking it off. I own the 15L and 36L versions as well. The 15L is great for short trips with less gear, the 36L holds everything I own. They also have space for clothes and snacks.

    Best of luck on your Greenland and Iceland adventures. Enjoy!

    #90679
    Eric Brody
    Eric Brody
    Participant
    Posts: 69
    Re: Epson P900… here we go again
    Reply #3 on: May 16, 2024 at 2:13 pm

    Hi all, and especially Mark,

    Well, I’m unable to get a 5370 for the foreseeable future, so despite my reservations, I bought another P900 because I really like to print and have a workshop coming up.

    My question is whether it is really satisfactory to use the top/rear feed for the 0.48mm papers Arches 88, HFA Rag 308, (pretty close to 0.50mm).

    With my previous printer I was conservative and chose to feed any paper thicker than 0.40mm through the front feed. For me that was Entrada 300 @ 0.50mm, Bamboo @ 0.50mm, Arches 88 @ 0.48mm, and HFA Rag 308 @ 0.48mm.

    In setting up the new printer, I carefully reviewed Mark’s excellent review and setup instructions. In there, he says that the rear/top feed is fine for any paper less than 0.50mm. That means I can use all my papers except Bamboo and Entrada 300  through the rear/top feed.

    I also went into the Epson Media Installer and added the third party papers I use, Entrada 300, Bamboo, Arches 88, Canson Platine, and Canson Rag. I looked at the paper thickness and changed it where appropriate, increased the platen gap by one step, and added the icc profiles for each.

    For a bunch of reasons I have a lot of P900 ink so plan to keep going with the new P900 until I use up a much of this ink and/or am able to source a 5370, or the new p900 misbehaves significantly. My hope is to use up the ink (as best I can tell identical to the 5370) and when a 5370 is available, sell the P900 in good conscience and move on.

    Thanks for all the ongoing support and advice.

    Eric

    #90619
    Eric Brody
    Eric Brody
    Participant
    Posts: 69
    Re: Epson P900… here we go again
    Reply #4 on: May 9, 2024 at 3:12 pm

    Hi Mark,

    It seems like it never ends! Have you tried printing on the 5370 with Photoshop rather than Lightroom and Ventura/Sonoma?

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