Epson surecolour S70 vs S30

[nezer10]

Hi everyone. I'm stuck choosing between the S70 & S30 as our 1st and only printer for a new sign shop in Africa. We want to be able to print fine-art on uncoated vinyl and also print other outdoor durable Signs too.

Gs6000 is good for fine art but according EPSON, S30 was made to take over from the gs6000, however I don't see how a 4 colour printer can do that in terms of print quality. The problem is I can't find a print shop within my country that has S70 or even gs6000, so its harder to judge from here.

Apart from wider colour gamut from S70, is the print quality far better than S30?

I don't care about the white or metallic inks in S70 and I might even have them removed, but I care most about getting the best print quality under close inspection for both indoor & outdoor fine art/photographic signs and applications.

S70 uses GSX inks while S30 uses GS2 inks, what is the difference and how does this affect print quality?

I've seen the samples from different S30's available amongst local sign shops and although my media wasn't custom profiled, the results were still good and I think i can achieve better results by custom profiling the media, so Is the S70 really worth the extra $10,000?

Also, S30 will also be cheaper to run, that's why I am seriously considering it.
How frequent is the ink replacement in S70 on average use for the lighter inks. Any difference in general maintenance cost btw S70 and S30?

Thanks.

 

[rafavalles]

What did you buy?

Im interested in buying an S30 can you share your experience?

I cannot decide if a Epson S30 or an HP L26500

thanks

 

[tgrinds]

If you don't care about white or metallic, then why don't you consider the S50? Same 2 head machine without the metallic and you can decide prior to install if you want the white or not.

 

[JonWolf]

S30 or S50

In the same boat... not sure whether the added features of the S50 are worth the added cost over the S30.
Has anyone found the white ink option to be especially useful? I only see it being used for backlit graphics or printing on specialty vinyls...
Anyone out there love their S50 or wish their S30 could do more?

 

[nezer10]

I have finally decided to go for the S70 because the print quality once properly profiled and calibrated is 2nd to none from what i've heard.

I am trying to build a sign shop for the quality conscious consumers which will make me stand out here in Africa because it is quite rare but i am positive that demand is growing for higher quality outdoor prints.

I'll be buying it sometime this year but for now i'm using a second hand BN 20 roland.

S50 is too similar to S30 so i don't think its the solution.

 

[nezer10]

Im interested in buying an S30 can you share your experience?

I cannot decide if a Epson S30 or an HP L26500

thanks

I have no experience with HP L26500. The print quality from the S30 is very good though if not the best for a 4 colour outdoor printer. For better quality i would buy a gs6000 with 8 colours, but you must be careful as there are few badly manufactured machines going around for the gs6000 model. Also be sure to find a very reliable nearby supplier for inks and technical maintenace for whichever machine you buy as this is key and the gs6000 has been kinda fazed out of production.