Hi David,

We have had very few issues with the R1800, as compared to the 1280. It is an eight color printer with Sublijet ink, and a seven color for Artainium. With Sublijet, it has a Powerdriver, and a Powerdriver Lite. The regular Powerdriver prints really, really, really slow, and in my opinion not a usable option. The Powerdriver Lite prints really really fast, but it is a stripped down version of the regular Powerdriver. You still have a "Realistic", and "Vivid" settings for a saturation level, and you are able to select the specific substrate setting which is supposed to adjust your color profiles and saturations for the specific substrates, but we just found that this feature currently has a bug and is not applying the profiles for each setting. Sawgrass is working to correct this bug. So as is, it works like the Artainium color profile, with one extra saturation level.

I still prefer the 4000 or the 4800, as they are Professional/Commercial printers, but the 1800 is light years ahead of the 1280 for speed and reliablility.

Hope this helps

Kevin thanks for your imput. It seems that the R1800 might still be a good next step for someone who wants better quality than the "C" series can provide but is not ready to make the $3,000 -$4,000 investment in the 4000 / 4800.
We would still like to hear from anyone who has actully used a R1800 in their store that has day to day real life experience, if there are any out there.
George
Craft Trophy

David,
Thanks for the tip
George

David,
We have not received any responses anout the R1800. We decided to proceed with the purchase any way and are in the process of setting it up. We have been told by a Sawgrass reseller that the PowerDriver Lite is the only way to make this printer work properly.
Thanks for checking in.
George

Thanks, will do.
George

I have an 1800, I bought it from Kevin at JP. It performs exactly as he says and I couldn't be happier with the printer. I am not too happy with the Powerdriver situation but the printer is pretty much flawless. Kevin is working with Sawgrass to get the driver situation resolved and I have absolute confidence that it will happen - I just wish it was working now.
Regarding Kevin and JP - you won't find a better rep to work with you before, during and after the purchase. Kevin spent quite a bit of time on the phone with me before I bought, explaining all the options and giving his opinion as to which is the best way to go. He has experience running a sublimation business so he has real-world advice. I purchased a lot of equipment based on his advice and it is all working as he said it would. My concern was whether or not he would still be there after the sale - this concern came from years of dealing with vendors that have salespeople who are only interested in making the sale and then pass you on to incompetent support reps who don't really care too much. Kevin has spent as much time after the purchase as he did before the purchase helping me through the Powerdriver issue as well as just generally providing info on various sublimation processes. If you want honest answers and real-world experience you won't go wrong with Kevin.

Gary

Kevin - you know my address, I expect the check to be in the mail by the time you finish reading this ;-)