"Naturally, we next went to the HP booth where they had some pre-production Pro B9180 printers and samples to look at. Output looked great (you'd expect it to look lousy?) but since these are pre-production models, we'll have to see what the real thing performs like. Price point is $699 which undercuts the 2400. Since Epson has years of experience with pigment inks, Canon and HP have some catching up to do but if they can, it will be a major advantage to the industry. And you can bet that Epson will do cartwheels to keep their position atop this category."

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Hey Jim,

Thanks for compiling all of this. Curiously, did you see any addition of new Canon papers? My biggest gripe with Canon printers has not been the machine itself, but the lack of decent papers to go with it. Epson has always had a much better line of papers to produce a much more professional looking product (at least, in my opinion).

-James