Thread: HP Designjet Z3100 review

Luminous Landscape has a nice review of a 24" HP Z3100: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/re...0-review.shtml

At $4000 for the 24" model and $6200 for hte 44" model, it's not cheap. But no need to swap gloss and matte black is a major advantage for those like myself who have a budget for only one large format machine and want the versitility to print both. And the GLOP (Gloss Enhancer) could be a major step forward in terms of even finish quality with pigment inks on gloss - I'm not sure why Epson has yet to get GLOP from their 1800 into their professional models... hopefully soon they'll be able to add additional chanels to their current 8 chanel head.

The only drawbacks I've seen listed for the HP Z3100 so far have been problems with heavy media where the curl isn't held down resulting in 'zebra' gouges / strikes... no small problem, but hopefully one that will be solved. And some say it's difficult to load sheets into the HP Z series compared to epsons or canons.

Anyone here have an HP Z3100 yet? Is it as good as it looks on paper? Any regrets?

Not from your files, but free generic HP Z3100 print samples from http://h30267.www3.hp.com/country/us...pageseq=533807

We have one for printing meetings posters and have had it for about 4 months, nice machine, I have not noticed the zebra stripes you mentioned but after trial and error it is best to stick with HP papers. The only other issue why doesn't HP make 44" wide paper if they sell a 44" wide printer? odd!

I have been using the HP Z3100 44" printer now for about 1.5 years now professionally . It is the best I have ever used . The quality is top and the auto profiling has made my life so easy . With it doing auto calabrate it gives me the same result on prints made months apart .
Great machine .

Jim Heric
www.artisangiclee.com

Has anyone tried CISS on their large format HP? I try avoiding cartridges altogether. If you have an inkjet printer and you’re brainstorming how to save on the monstrous cartridge expenses, it is worth considering CISS (continuous ink supply). You do not need to buy cartridges every time the ink ends up, your printer will print 15 times longer before you need to refill. Tried it on glossy & matte photo paper

Hi Printbuzz, I have a z2100 and use refillable cartridges on it. Basically the same idea as a CISS you just keep refilling the empty tanks when they go empty. I have had tremendous success with those as well. I picked my set at Macro Enter ( http://www.***************/IA_70_SET_...-set-z2100.htm ). Well worth it.

As far as the design of the printer itself it definitely could use some improvement on how the paper comes out of the printer. That little dip is the worst thing i've ever seen, you gotta be careful with the paper curling back into itself or else you will jam the printer.