![]() The print off the Mars 3 is excellent, the print off the Mars 4 is better. The results pretty much speak for themselves. As I wanted to see exactly what the printer does I kept anti-aliasing turned off for both prints. I used the same settings on both printers with the exception of exposure time – on the Mars 4 Ultra 9k I used the Cones of Calibration to dial in exposure time as there weren’t any pre-made profiles, and some other reviews had mentioned that it exposes a little faster, which matches my experience. I used my favorite resin, Siraya Tech Fast Navy Grey, which I’ve gone through quite a bit of and am familiar with. ![]() I picked this as it’s got a number of different textures including smooth surfaces with complex curves, somewhere that I’d found the Mars 3 is most likely to show layer lines. ![]() To test this, I’ve printed the exact same bust from Loot Studios on both printers. It could be the nicest printer ever to use, but if it’s not producing better prints it’s hard to recommend over the Mars 3. While those feature changes to the printer are all nice, we’re really here to see how the actual prints come out. I have wifi printing on my filament printer and it’s a huge win, and I believe Lychee is supposed to get it in a future update. The Ultra also introduces wifi printing, though at the time of me writing this review it’s only available in Elegoo’s new Voxeldance Tango slicer, which I haven’t used as I’m used to Lychee. The software the printer is running is also slightly different, the Ultra is smoother and nicer to use, but I don’t think this’ll make a difference to most people. It also uses a 4-screw leveling method instead of the ball joint of the Mars 3 or non-Ultra version, in my opinion the biggest difference between the two and worth the price difference alone, as it’s much more secure and I doubt I’m ever going to need to re-level it. While the metal base is nicer, I’m not sure it matters. This is the Ultra version of the printer, which has a metal base instead of previous plastic bases, and has switched from a red UV cover to a grey one. Mainly I’ve just had to reorganize some saved lychee files to fit in the new shape. This hasn’t made a difference to me, but is worth noting if you regularly print tall things. Default profiles are usually at 50 micron, though with my Mars 3 I was printing at 35 micron, and will be doing the same while testing on the Mars 4 9k.Īs compared to the Mars 3 it does lose 10mm of build height, and the build plate has become a little longer and narrower at 156x77mm instead of 143x90mm, though they’re nearly identical in total surface area. Both printers have the same Z resolution at 10-200 micron. The Mars 3 was at 35 micron, and the Mars 4 9k is at 18 micron, printing details roughly half the size. This is the first printer I’ve seen with what I consider to be a significant XY resolution change. ![]() My assumption is that we’re seeing the same thing here in printers, as I’ve seen a number of printers that either marginally increase resolution (going from 4k to 6k at about the same screen size) or increase resolution and screen size at the same time for about the same pixel density. As a photographer I’m a veteran of the megapixel wars, and am mostly jaded to resolution continually increasing – in a camera anything past about 20mp doesn’t matter for 99% of uses, but it makes a great marketing number. I’ve been using a Mars 3 Pro to print for a while now, and felt like it was pretty much as good as a consumer printer was likely to get. I’d like to thank Elegoo for providing me with the printer for review, as always they’ve had no influence over what I’m writing here. The Max 6k and DLP are more of side-grades, with either a larger build plate or different light technology. I’m taking a look at the Ultra 9k here, which is the most direct progression from the Mars 3 Pro we previously reviewed here. The Elegoo Mars 4 is the newest generation of the very popular Elegoo Mars series of resin printers, and there are several distinct models – the Max 6k, the DLP, and the 9k/Ultra 9k.
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