The Lamy fountain pen range has consistently been going from strength to strength over the last few years with more and more fountain pen enthusiasts starting to use pens from the Lamy line-up and deciding to stick with them. One of the main reasons behind this is that Lamy has an excellent entry path for fountain pen enthusiasts with their entry-level, budget-friendly pens and then people work their way up to the Lamy 2000 or the Lamy Studio.
With both of the pens being at a very similar price point in the market, it is easy to see why so many people reach out each month to ask for advice on the two very popular pens. Due to this, we have decided to publish out ultimate Lamy 2000 vs studio comparison article in the hope that we will be able to help as many of our readers as possible who are considering either pen.
Although both pens designs are available as a fountain pen, a ballpoint pen, a rollerball, and a few others with the Lamy 2000, we will be focusing on the fountain pen options for each model for this article as it is what we see requested the most from people asking for advice. That said though, our recommendation between these two particular pen models does not change as we feel there is a clear winner between the two for every situation.
We have our comparison table below between the Lamy 2000 and the Lamy Studio going over some of the key features for the pen as well as our key recommendation for any of our readers who are short on time. Below that, we have our more in-depth breakdowns of each of the pens where we will be going over the features for each model in a little more detail to try and provide as much information as possible.
Lamy 2000 vs Studio Head To Head
In our opinion, the Lamy 2000 is the better option when compared to the Lamy Studio every single time. Judging by the recommendations that we often see form other members of the pen collecting community, it would seem that the vast majority of fountain pen enthusiasts also agree with us with the Lamy 2000 being recommended almost every single time.
The only time that the Lamy Studio is even able to compare to the Lamy 2000 is if you upgrade the pen to go with the version that has the gold nib but depending on your retailer of choice, that may end up costing you more than the Lamy 2000 anyway. As the Lamy 2000 is a piston filler fountain pen rather than a cartridge converter like the Lamy Studio, we would recommend that you save your money and just go with the 2000 anyway.
Although the Lamy Studio is slightly cheaper than the Lamy 2000, the difference in the price tag between the two pens is close enough for the vast majority of our readers to be able to stretch their budget and go with the 2000. The Lamy 2000 also has one of the best reputations going amongst the fountain pen enthusiast community with it usually being the default recommendation for most people looking to purchase their first decent fountain pen.
Lamy 2000 Review
We will now be moving on to taking a more in-depth look at the Lamy 2000 and the various features and benefits that it offers you if you do choose to go with it as your pen of choice. Relative to its price tag, we feel that Lamy really have done an outstanding job with the Lamy 2000 and have managed to create an outstanding writing instrument that is often able to compete with some higher price point fountain pens from some competing brands.
As we touched on above, the Lamy 2000 model of pens is available in the following pen types:-
- Lamy 2000 Fountain Pen
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- Lamy 2000 Rollerball Pen
- Lamy 2000 Mechanical Pen
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Although all five variants of the pen are solid options, the fountain pen variant is the most popular by far and is also the one with the better reputation amongst the community. This tends to be used to the excellent nib on the Lamy 2000 fountain pen that sets it apart from its competition whereas the other variants such as the ballpoint pen option have solid competition from other brands.
The Lamy 2000 Nib
The nib on the Lamy 2000 fountain pen is made from 14 carat gold with different editions of the pen having different trims and plating options to help enhance the visual appeal of the nib. This offers an instant advantage over the Lamy Studio with its standard version coming with a stainless steel nib that can be scratchier and have less spring in it.
The Lamy 2000 is available in the standard extra fine, fine, medium, and broad nib sizes. Being a western pen brand hailing from Germany, their nib sizes are more inline with what our readers would expect where as the majority of the competing pen brands from China, Japan, and Korea do tend to be a little thinner than than their western counterparts.
Although the 14 carat gold nib on the pen does help to offer a little bit of additional spring when writing, the Lamy pen nibs are designed to be springy when writing anyway helping to keep your writing as true as possible. The nib is a little wet when writing but this should not be an issue for the majority of people and provided you use a fast drying ink with your pen, the wet nib should not be a problem for any of our left handed readers either unless you write fast.
The nib on the Lamy 2000 has minimal feathering even when used on lower quality, cheaper paper while also having minimal ghosting or bleed but the ink that you use in your pen and your writing speed can come into play for these too. The nib is extremely smooth to write with considering the relatively low price tag of the 2000 compared to other fountain pens that are this smooth.
Although this may not be a disadvantage for the pen depending on your needs, one of the only points of common criticism that the Lamy 2000 has is that its nib is not replaceable. It is permanently mounted to the section that is then in turn permanently mounted to the barrel of the pen but in our opinion, this can be an advantage. As the nib is not replaceable, Lamy have been able to design everything to work flawlessly together to ensure that you are getting the best possible writing experience no matter the paper you are using.
The Barrel Of The Lamy 2000
The barrel of the Lamy 2000 is made from polycarbonate and stainless steel. Although this may not have the best touch to it when compared to something like the Pelikan m600, you have to remember that the Lamy 2000 is also up to a third of the price of the m600 while also being able to offer a similar writing experience to its users.
The polycarbonate used in the barrel of the Lamy 2000 has been engineered to be as light weight as possible while also being tough and robust. This helps to decrease the chances of your pen suffering any serious damage from any potential accidents that may result in the pen breaking. This definitely works to your advantage due to the pen essentially being one solid writing instrument with a fixed nib that can’t be stripped down to keep costs low for replacement parts.
The barrel also contains the piston filler mechanism that is used to provide the nib feed of the Lamy 2000 with ink and the piston filler system has been designed very well. It performs flawlessly and is also very easy to refill when required making it ideal for anyone new to using a fountain pen as some older options from competing brands can have a telescopic piston filler that can be a bit of a pain to fill correctly.
The Lamy 2000 Cap
The cap of the Lamy 2000 is also made from the same tough, lightweight polycarbonate and stainless steel combination as the barrel of the pen to ensure that everything matches up nicely while also keeping the same build quality throughout the pen. The finial of the pen is basic as you would expect from the more minimalist design of the Lamy pen range for if you are looking for a workhorse fountain pen, you will care more about the performance and functionality rather than the aesthetics anyway.
The clip on the cap of the Lamy 2000 does get mixed reviews with some people saying that it is too stiff where others say that it is too springy. With both of these statements being opposites of each other, we simply put it down to personal preference rather than anything else. One thing that we can confirm is that the clip on the pens cap does its job well and that it will hold your pen in place when not in use without issue.
Another advantage that the pen has over options from competing brands at this price point is that it is not back heavy when posted offering a nice and balanced writing experience no matter how you use the pen when writing.
The Ink Reservoir Of The Lamy 2000
The ink reservoir on the Lamy 2000 is able to hold a maximum of 1.35ml of ink when filled to capacity. This is slightly higher than average but depending on your plans, may not really have much effect on your buying decision as most of our readers will be able to refill their fountain pens when required anyway.
A minor point of criticism that we see from some people within the fountain pen enthusiast community is that the ink view window on the Lamy 2000 is hard to understand when you are new to using the pen. Although you will get used to knowing what the ink view window on the Lamy 2000 will look like when close to empty with use, Lamy could definitely have done a much better job of designing it.
Lamy Studio Review
Although the Lamy Studio is between four and five times the price of the Lamy Safari, there are a large number of people within the pen collecting community that feel that the Studio is essentially the same pen as the Safari with a slightly better body but a much higher price tag. Although it is not as simple as that, we do definitely see why so many people feel this way and this is one of the main reasons we would recommend the Lamy 2000 over the Studio any day.
The Lamy Studio Nib
Although the nib on the standard Lamy Studio is made from stainless steel, the nib itself is not actually as bad as most people think. It is available in extra fine, fine, medium, and broad widths but the extra fine nib size is harder to find with it also having a scratchy writing experience on cheaper papers. The fine, medium, and broad width nibs are not scratchy but they are also not the smoothest nibs available at this price point.
This is why you will often see people only recommend the Lamy Studio if you go with the premium version of the pen that comes with the 14 carat gold nib as the premium nib does have a very smooth writing experience. The issue with this is that the Lamy 2000 comes in at a very similar price to the Lamy Studio with the gold nib while being a much better pen all round and having the 14 carat gold nib included as standard. Rather than paying more for a cartridge converter pen, just go with the Lamy 2000 right off the bat for its piston filler system and better all-round build.
The only real advantage that the Lamy Studio has over the Lamy 2000 is that its nib is replaceable with replacement nibs being very cheap and easy to find. That said though, depending on your circumstances and how well you take care of your fountain pens, there may never be a reason to replace the nib on the Lamy 2000 anyway as it has an excellent build quality over the stainless steel standard nib on the Lamy Studio.
The Barrel Of The Lamy Studio
The barrel of the Lamy Studio is made from stainless steel too and although there is nothing wrong with this at this price point in the market, the resin based barrels from the Lamy 2000 as well as other intermediate price point fountain pens are lighter and just as robust. Although the community does tend to be split between the preference between resin and stainless steel when it comes to holding a pen for writing, most people usually do feel that resin is better.
Although the official documentation for both pens suggests that the flare along the body is the same between the two models, it definitely does seem to be rounder for the Lamy Studio. We would guess that this is due to the Lamy 2000 having its unique hooded nib design and drawing the eye away from the flare or something but to the eye, the flare on the Studio definitely looks more obvious. That said though, the vast majority of people couldn’t care less about a rounded or flatter flare on their pens anyway these days but we just wanted to point it out.
As we mentioned earlier, the Lamy Studio barrel does not have a piston filler inside of it but uses a standard cartridge converter system. If you are new to using a fountain pen then you may not care or even be able to notice the difference, especially if you have never used a piston filler pen before but we do feel that a piston filler system offers a better writing experience and the community do tend to share this opinion.
On top of this, you are able to use a wide range of inks with a piston filled fountain pen opening up different ink types and colors too. With a cartridge converter, you are usually restricted to what is available from the pen brand official cartridge range due to the unique shapes and sizes of the cartridges. Due to the Lamy 2000 using a piston filler system as standard, this just scores more and more points for it over the Studio.
The Lamy Studio Cap
The cap on the Lamy Studio is made from stainless steel too just like the barrel and the standard nib. Although the slightly heavier weight of the stainless steel over a resin-based pen doesn’t matter as much for the barrel or nib, we have seen some people report that they feel the Lamy Studio is back weighted and a little heavy when posted.
This is definitely a small minority of people and most reports do have people counter posting saying that they don’t have this issue with their Lamy Studio. This may be due to a small number of defective Lamy Studios being on the market or something like that or perhaps the people reporting that their Lamy Studio feels back weighted are just used to much lighter fountain pens.
Due to the entry-level fountain pens from the Lamy range like the Lamy Safari not having any issues with feeling back weighted when posted, we would lean more towards it being an issue with defective pens or people being used to lighter pens rather than the design. Even though we don’t feel that the Lamy Studio is worth the price with the Lamy 2000 being so close to its price point, it still have the same excellent design and engineering teams behind it as the rest of the Lamy pens that all have excellent reputations.
The Ink Reservoir Of The Lamy Studio
As we have mentioned multiple times now, as the Lamy Studio uses a cartridge filler system rather than a piston filler, you are restricted to using the Lamy T10 ink cartridge with the pen. Thankfully, unlike some of the other pen brands on the market, Lamy have actually gone that extra mile with their T10 system to ensure that you can easily get coloured cartridges for your Lamy Studio if required. Although the range does have some of the most popular ink colors in it, it doesn’t even come close to offering all of the shared available to a piston filler system that can use a huge range of inks without issue.
The Lamy T10 cartridge system holds 1.15ml of ink so it is slightly higher than most fountain pens are able to hold but still less than what the ink reservoir of the Lamy 2000 can offer. If you travel around on a regular basis for work and need a quick and easy way to refill ink in your pen while on the go then you the T10 system may offer you a small advantage but this will be very rare.
Conclusion
That brings our ultimate Lamy 2000 vs Studio comparison article to an end. We hope that you have found it helpful and as we mentioned way back at the top of this article, the vast majority of our readers will be much better off by going with the Lamy 2000 as it is a much better pen and has the reputation amongst the community to match. In our opinion, it offers a smoother writing experience right out the box on more paper types while also being slightly lighter and using a piston filler for its ink.
Although the Lamy Studio does have a great reputation amongst the community, it simply looses out in too many areas to the Lamy 2000 for it to be our recommendation. If you are on a very strict budget and can’t find the additional $20-$30 to go with the Lamy 2000 then the Studio may be worth it. If you do like to be able to use the same pen body and switch your nibs as required for different writing tasks then the Lamy Studio is the better option too as you are unable to switch your nibs on the Lamy 2000 but the 2000 wins in every other aspect as far as we are concerned.
