The CURSE of ACF - Elegoo Mars 4 Ultra Review

so if you're looking for new printers and you're considering the Mars 4 Series it's already quite confusing considering we've got the Mars 4 the Mars 4 ultra the DLP and the max but I'm convinced those latitude were originally intended to be Mars threes and they just changed the name to keep in line with the current releases and the real Mars 4 lineup is really just between this and the normal Mars 4. and of course being called the Mars 4 ultra and with a similar spec to the normal Mars 4 you'd of course expect that this one is better than that well it isn't but it it also is Maybe Kinda look this isn't a bad printer but the point is you really need to know what you're buying here because the already complicated lineup is even more crazy when the higher price printer doesn't deliver better results than its direct counterpart stick with me as I explain what I'm talking about I'm Ross and this is foe Hammer videos so yeah as mentioned the Mars 4 ultra is elegu's latest entry-level printer and it's marketed as a premium step up from the Mars 4 featuring a black lid and fully metal housing and honestly the material it's made from adds no tangible value to you as a printer but I suppose it's at least nice to know you're getting something more premium for your money but the real wow factor the draw here is the printer's resolution and yeah a lot of people will watch and think 9k isn't as good as 12K but consider the screen size with a 7-inch 9k screen the 8520 by 4 320 resolution means the square pixels on this unit are only 18 microns wide making the Mars 4 the new Top Dog in terms of LCD resolution but it's not like I could expect anyone to genuinely see the four Micron difference between this and the 22 microns on the Sonic Mini 8 kr8ks it won't show at all in print detail but in the surface smoothness well it should anyway but we'll get to that but it's important to know for people new to resin printing I want to advise that so many people struggle to see the difference between the same 22 microns and 28.5 microns of 10 inch printers from last year and even more people myself included would choose the convenience of a larger plate over that resolution difference anyway but this is still technically the sharpest LCD printer out there so it's Such a Pity though all of that has been ruined by this Ultra package but again we'll we'll get to that build volumes are a bit weird but only because the XY area is roughly 153 by 78 centimeters which is slightly larger than the old Mars 3 but the height is only 165 centimeters which is 10 centimeters shorter than the Mars 3 and even the normal Mars 4. and despite it now going up to a seven inch screen this is still classed as a small printer in terms of build area aimed more at the beginner Enthusiast and whilst you can typically print a whole Squad of Miniatures on a single build plate these multi-part dredge models by mezgike took three separate prints to complete but that's splitting hairs I guess it's not like I could have painted them any faster than they printed but I have since reprinted all of these models on an older 29 Micron printer because it gave me better detail and they fit on one build plate all three prints one build plate again look I'll get to that but there's some necessary review things that I need to include in this video first I do like their elegue printers now easily just slide horizontally out of the box and that's about as much as I care to say about the unboxing and I'm sure that's about as much as you care about too and to save more time I'm just going to say the printer is built fairly well which is all standard elegu at this point this Ultra unit has moved slightly away from elegoo's a bit cheap approach this is more well refined cheap thanks to elugu's years of making printers without significant changes and I have got plenty to talk about on this printer with out spending forever going on about it having dual linear rails a solid C frame or talking about all the individual accessories you get with it you can read all that on the website but I will say as always the USB drive is rubbish and if you decide to use this I recommend replacing it with a decent one from the likes of SanDisk for less than antenna and whilst it looks like there's a screen protector this is just a protective film for shipping I can't see any sign of plastic or glass protector on this screen so make sure you get one or risk resin spills curing directly on the polarizer and you having to replace the whole LCD one thing to note that I noticed in terms of build quality there is some UV light leak from around the rim of the edge because it's not a sealed fit hardly a big deal but it's one of those seems a tad cheap things you tend to get from elugu and the print bed surface is really nice it's just like the one from the Saturn 3 it grips really well but models can be easily removed by just sliding the included putty scraper underneath them but here's a change elegoo printers normally come with a large ball screw and two big bolts to secure the bed in place and despite me saying many times that I do not like this mechanism because it loosens more often I still get comments telling me I'm wrong and this is a better mechanism well with elegu now putting this four screw mechanism on their premium printers both this and the Saturn III Ultra that kind of proves the point for me leveling is a simple case of loosened the screws send the bed back to zero tighten the screws in alternating corners and then make sure you back out of this menu and select Z equals zero why this final button still isn't in the leveling menu or automated after you send the bed to home is beyond me but it's nice that they have added the ability to raise and lower the bed in 50 millimeter increments and this isn't the only Improvement to the UI the whole thing is massively overhauled and not just from the Mars 3 and even the Mars 4 but from every elegue printer I've used before this new interface is Sleek and modern and exactly what elegu should have been doing for a while even if just to keep up with the competition and it's mostly well translated with the exception of the function to delete files being labeled as deleted not delete the UI during a print is pretty nice too with its constantly moving progress bar but this isn't in sync with anything like one sequence per layer it's just pretty though I still prefer printers that show a preview of each layer as it prints and this animation is just a screensaver but tapping it will show a ton of extra progress information and you can even edit a print's exposure and movement settings directly from here too this new UI is certainly a welcome change for malagu and it keeps delivering the more you delve further into the menus and just a couple of final details here before I go on to printing this unit also comes with an internal USB powered carbon filter to handle resin smells but there's no vent on the back of the housing to connect this up to the larger Mars mate filter only the Mars 4 DLP and Mars 4 Max have those along with all the Saturns so I suppose this upcoming device is more of a Saturn mate yet again eligue's wonderful product naming conventions at work and I'd like to celebrate that the printer's USB port is on the front sure yeah you could accidentally drip resin on this but it's still so much more convenient than on the side and at the back as elegoo have consistently done in the past but what's funny here is that whilst the USB reports finally moved to an arguably better location you don't even need to use that USB port on this printer it comes with Wi-Fi that you can easily connect to your home network using the UI and the main function of Wi-Fi here is to remotely send your prints to the printer whilst there is an ability to remotely update the firmware this didn't work for me and probably requires a USB update to enable this function in the first place or elegus servers are down until this device is actually released to the public and as far as I can see there's no elegoo phone app which is essentially just another messy STL storefront like the other brands are doing so I'm happy to see eligu aren't wasting development time on a feature that nobody wants anyway and whilst this printer comes with a license to use a limited elegoo version of voxeldance Tango this is a slicer I'm just not warming to despite me now having the pro version I just couldn't find any Wi-Fi send option and the basic function of just moving models around the build plate is so cumbersome I just can't stand it so it's good that you also get the latest chitty box release which has the Mars 4 ultra profile on it and this has a very obvious Network send function once you slice your model clicking this immediately found the printer on my network so I could send my slice prints to its internal memory and even start the print remotely as I was sure the bed and that were already clear and despite the transfer being much slower than via USB I quickly found this to be my preferred method of using the Mars 4. right then printing so elegu didn't send me any resin with this printer so it's my call what to use I've previously used Frozen's 8K resin because it's really sharp but the drawback is for Miniatures which I print it's far too brittle and the models will easily break and I'll be honest I'm fed up with printing things for reviews that I'll never be able to actually use because that resin is just not practical so I've partnered with yes that's 3D printed to release our own resin wargamer and this is still a sharp and detailed resin but it's also very flexible it's low viscosity and it's water washable I know I know before you turn your nose up at that I had the same reaction before I used it because I also hate water washable resins until I tested this the resulting cured models are so similar to plastic Miniatures that you can even cut and scrape down imperfections like support marks with a hobby knife just like you can with mold lines and we've had some fantastic feedback on this already so check the description for links where you can buy it but anyway if you've watched my videos for a while you'll want a point of reference to compare the results of this printer to other printers which I get is harder now because I'm using a different resin to before so here's the result of the photonster's exposure test that I usually print dialed in on a 29 Micron printer that I absolutely love and you know what printer I mean and this test result is pretty much on par with the Frozen 8K resin so for the Mars 4 ultra I initially did this test print at one second layers and saw it was comparably underexposed and if you want to know how to dial in a printer perfectly check out my video which clearly shows the main steps on dialing in any printer quickly but the quick version is I print this and count the holes and posts more posts than holes is Overexposed and more holes than posts is underexposed when you have equal that's Perfect Exposure but I always like to over expose just a little to ensure that the ports under my model are strong I found a nice balanced exposure on this printer at 1.4 seconds and that's for 20 Micron layers and the reason I chose that layer high is in order to get a similar Z resolution to the printer's XY resolution which remember is 18 microns so the Z high is 20 microns but even with a balanced exposure when I compare the test results from this 18 Micron printer to the test print from a 29 Micron printer the results from the Mars 4 ultra are clearly not as sharp and this detail loss shows in actual model prints too where the edges are noticeably softer than they are from the same 29 Micron printer and why is this well just like I've said in other reviews once again it's because elugu have jumped on the same bandwagon as everyone else by moving from PFA release film to ACF and this makes their printer's lift speeds faster and if this term is new to you ACF is basically the new frosted style of release film which is designed to allow resins to release 30 easier and this coupled with really low viscosity fast resins is what allows this new generation of printers to reach blazingly fast print speeds but next to nobody actually wants this in a resin printer at least not at the cost of quality anyway from what I've seen questioning my own audience only four percent of people would want speed more than print quality and when you interrogate the comments it's clear that even amongst those who want speed nobody wants this if there's any quality loss and there is quality loss when using ACF I honestly think ACF is the worst thing to happen into resin printing in recent memory for more detail on this check out this excellent comparison video by j3d Tech I'll drop a link in the description so you can watch it after this video ends but the thing is the people out there who are after fast resin printers are a niche of a niche of a niche yet manufacturers are touting this metric on their Flagship products as the next big thing and it seems to have been this way since bamboo Labs came out with the X1 Carbon every manufacturer seems to think that the key to its success was speed what I'd argue as I have since my first resin printer review it's not speed we want it's not even better detail really it's convenience that's what that unit gave us and now you've got all the brands chasing this speed metric like they've chased the resolution metric in the past when one does it the other one has to follow and vice versa yet there's little to no tangible benefit for us the end user and this next comment is one aimed at all the printer manufacturers though it should be unsaid it should be on obvious people who use resin printers typically do so because they want Micron level accuracy even in the engineering sectors after all detail accuracy is the main benefit of resin over the more cost-effective fdm so when it comes to the Mars 4 ultra if you want quality more than speed which I bet you do if you're buying a resin printer by elevator putting an ACF film on an 18 Micron printer all they've achieved is a distortion of this incredible resolution it's one step forward two steps back it's genuinely like designing a race car that can go three times faster on straights but loses the ability to actually grip the road sure you've got a performance boost but when you lose the ability to actually achieve the result that the product was meant to deliver who even benefits from this nobody but the manufacturers and only when they compare their product spec sheet to another on paper now I have seen the argument that this ACF isn't entirely a bad thing because the film softens edges it also softens layer and voxel lines which people hate to see on 3D printed models now yeah but nah because sure yeah this should result in a smoother surface but it doesn't because of the micrograin from the frosting in the ACF film every printed surface has this weird texture to it showing us crosshatch lines so we've just replaced layer unboxer lines with ACF markings whilst at the same time reducing print sharpness and this is where I find this ACF Edition to be a bit stupid especially in an 18 Micron printer for at least the last couple of years we already had a way of dealing with voxel and layer lines it's called anti-aliasing ever since printers went below 35 microns just applying two times anti-aliasing and two times image blur would handle all of those voxen and landlines for us creating sharp Miniatures and models that you can dry brush and apply washers to without even seeing them and the sole value for getting printers with these ultra fine resolutions is because the difference in pixels is so small on a print surface you don't need anti-aliasing to smooth them out but by using ACF the printer is now forcibly removing any and all of that added resolution value to the point where having a 9k screen in this printer is essentially pointless do you see what I mean that is a bit stupid right like what is the benefit to anyone here honestly what am I missing and it's going to be the same with the Saturn 3 Ultra there's no point having a 12K screen when using an ACF film as I've shown in my Photon M5 videos 12K prints with ACF for worse than 8K printers but I suppose here's the problem if eligue didn't make a 12K screen in their fast printers whilst their competitors did no one would buy them because most people will just see the bigger number and expect bigger means better when in fact the ultra on both of these units doesn't mean better the print quality is actually worse they're just faster and they've got a few extra benefits too which are worth the money so log the point is this printer is probably great and whilst the included ACF film will allow the printer to print fast I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that 96 of those people watching want print quality from these units far more than they want speed if that's you let me know by hitting the like button but from what you get in this Ultra package I simply can't tell how good the printer is because the ACF masks everything that it may be doing well and that's what I'm here to review what you get in this box and yeah I could replace the ACF with PFA and test it again myself but I could also attach a vat heater and an external resin pump and various other upgrades but then I'm not reviewing this product and I will be doing that PFA test later on but only when I get a Mars 4 and unlike this printer which elegue sent to me my basic Mars 4 is an order I place myself which isn't due to be dispatched until September but look if you've ordered this already and you want quality over speed or maybe you're just happy with the quality that's shown here that's absolutely fine I'm quite confident after having tested this myself on other printers that by simply swapping the ACF with the PFA release film you'll get the quality that this printer is able to deliver I just don't know what that is right now so make sure you subscribe and watch my future video and if you are ordering this printer then please click our affiliate links in the description below so we can make a commission and that's at no cost to you it just helps the channel out would I recommend this printer well yeah as an entry level printer despite the ACF quality reduction it's still a better printer than the base Mars 4 and the price is more than worth it for the Wi-Fi metal housing improved UI and leveling mechanism alone but I would buy it with the intent to swiftly change that ACF for PFA before you even begin printing and as soon as I get my Mars 4 normal I'll be doing these tests and comparing both printers in much more depth so make sure you subscribe and don't miss out on that comparison video I'd like to say thanks for watching and a massive thanks to our patrons and channel members So speaking of yeah you can now join us as a member on YouTube where this video was available much earlier for members as is all of our other content along with exclusive member only videos Discord benefits your name in the credits why not consider joining there's a button right below this video thanks again until next time be excellent to each other faux hammer out foreign [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: FauxHammer

Views: 14,402

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Id: dKpfQ17RCLI

Length: 19min 26sec (1166 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 01 2023