Printers

[Edd]

Okay, once I have enough money (again) I need to invest in a decent printer.

What make and models do you guys use, any pro's or con's ????

I want to be able to go up to A3 in size and budget will be well about £500.00 (that's probably irrelevant here)

I understand that Epson is perhaps the better make.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Ed

[peter nap]

I have 3 printers Ed, two in the 300.00 range and one about 100.00.

None are worth a hoot IMHO.

The Epsons are the best from what I understand, but the models that are useful to me are in the 900.00 and up range. My recommendation for what it's worth, is get an inexpensive Epson for letters and proofing and use an online service for serious work. I use White House but have heard good things about Costco (of all places)

[Edd]

Thanks Peter.

I did meet a guy who is selling his images at at fairs and fetes etc and he was using a canon printer, I don't recall which one though.

I was a little surprised at how cheap his printer was, he paid about £75.00 for it but it did have 50% off at the time. I didn't think anything that cheap would produce good quality prints.

Thanks

Ed

[peter nap]

Thanks Peter.

I did meet a guy who is selling his images at at fairs and fetes etc and he was using a canon printer, I don't recall which one though.

I was a little surprised at how cheap his printer was, he paid about £75.00 for it but it did have 50% off at the time. I didn't think anything that cheap would produce good quality prints.

Thanks

Ed

The real issue doesn't seem to be the printer Ed. but the archival ink. For most cheap printers, it's just not available. Even when it is, it is expensive. I can get a 16x20 print from White House for about 14.50 which includes 2end day shipping. Printer and ink, plus quality paper. costs for the same size print would be about 10.00 assuming I got it right the first pass.

The White House print would also have machine texturing at a few cents extra.
I know photographers taht do it both ways. It's a personal choice.

[gldiana]

I own a Canon Pro9500, it's an amazing printer, especially on Black & White, the major limitation is printing on semi-glossy (it won't take glossy), but I hear things are better on the Pro9500 Mark II (yeah, they started setting Marks on printers, too). This printer has 10 different inks, which makes color very vibrant and truthful. Many of my prints hanging at the gallery were printed with this on Museum Quality RAG paper and people are always wowed at the tonality of grays and richness of the blacks.

[Edd]

Luca are you printing mainly B&W images ???

Peter thanks for the info.

I did have a quick dig around on the net yesterday and found a lot of people talking very positively about the Epson R2880. The main draw back seems to be if you want to print on "normal paper" then you need to change the black cartridge to matt. That's not so much of a problem as we have a laser printer for everyday stuff.

It does tend to push my budget a little but if it's worth the extra then I'd be happy to go for it.

I have the opportunity in Sept to try to sell some images in a summer fete in the village where I live. The money raised goes towards the upkeep of the local church.

My thoughts were that it would be cheaper to print a couple of each image I feel is good enough to sell and reprint as required on the day, rather than getting a load printed by a local store then be stuck with a load of unwanted images.

Sure there is a capital out lay for the printer but I need to take that at some point anyway.

Some other quick questions if I may:

1. Are there any drying times for the ink after its been printed ??

2. I get the impression the more ink cartridges a printer has the wider the colour range (gamut????) the printer has ???

3. Do you have any problems with the nozzles clogging if not used for a couple of weeks ??

Again thanks in advance.

Ed

[gldiana]

Ed,

I print a combination of B&W and Color. Although this past winter I found myself printing more B&W because I came to the realization that winter mountain scenes look better in B&W.
I am very happy of the color results though, I have a photo of the Oxbow bend in the fall (same I used for the header in my website) framed in the kitchen and all those who come to visit say how much they like the colors.
To answer your questions:

1. Are there any drying times for the ink after its been printed ??

Yes, it's usually recommended to air dry the sheets 24 hours for inkjet prints. Time also varies by the time of paper used as some are more porous than other.

2. I get the impression the more ink cartridges a printer has the wider the colour range (gamut????) the printer has ???

That's absolutely true, having more colors allows for more mixtures as well as obtain truer colors.

3. Do you have any problems with the nozzles clogging if not used for a couple of weeks ??

I personally haven't with my printer. I travel a lot and get out of the house for months at a time but never had color clogging problems. As soon as I return home I do a nozzle clean (which in the Canon Pro9500 entails pressing the paper feed button once without paper in it) and then do it again once a week. So far I never had to do a deep nozzle clean (which is a software option).

[peter nap]

Ed, I owe you an apology.

I forget that the internet is international and I was talking USD. Also my suggestion about White House wouldn't be viable for you. Please accept my apology.

[Edd]

Thanks guys for your answers.

Luca - someone I meet the once told of how she bought an expensive printer only to have problems with nozzles clogging all the time because of lack of use. Like yourself I thought regular maintenance/use should over come the problem.

Also thanks for confirming about the inks and drying times.

Peter - No need to apologise I appreciate your input, sure costing over here in the UK differs from that of the US and I think of moaned on about that in the past !!!!!

Just trying to get an idea of what others do and is it worth investing in a quality printer.

Personally I prefer the idea of the printer at home route because of the convience I suppose.

Ed

[Professional]

Epson R2880
Epson R1900
Epson Stylus Pro 3800 [i have this one, amazing amazing amazing up to A2]
Epson Stylus 1400

[Edd]

Thanks Professional.

Recently I have seen a number of people saying how good there printers are with photos, and when you look at the image I was horrified to see how poor quality the final results were.

These people aren't into photography so I suppose they're not so hung up on image quality as I seem to be.

It just underlines for me the need to invest to get a good quality printer to do the images justice.

I'll have a look at the specs for your printer, thanks again.

Ed

[Professional]

Thanks Professional.

Recently I have seen a number of people saying how good there printers are with photos, and when you look at the image I was horrified to see how poor quality the final results were.

These people aren't into photography so I suppose they're not so hung up on image quality as I seem to be.

It just underlines for me the need to invest to get a good quality printer to do the images justice.

I'll have a look at the specs for your printer, thanks again.

Ed

No problem, Ed!

Be sure of what i recommended you, i don't look at just good printer, i chose the high quality and then it is an issue of budget if you can afford or not, also choose the right papers, and do calibration, with that i will guarantee you that you will have amazing prints.

Good luck!

Tareq

[Edd]

Thanks all for the info.

Tareq - Calibration there's another issue. I believe its the path to take but hear loads from people saying its not worth it, too many variables and the slightest change (even a cartridge change) will upset the profile.

I guess I need to suck it and see !!!!

Ed

[gldiana]

I believe its the path to take but hear loads from people saying its not worth it

Those people are not professional photographers. Yes, color profiling is probably the most time consuming and difficult thing to understand in digital photography, but it's far far far from being not worth it. Sure, if one prints snapshots for friends or to hang around the house it might not be worth the trouble and cost.

[Professional]

I bought a calibration device for myself, and i got a bad printer result once because i turned off the calibration and also i chose the wrong ICC profile, but when turned back the calibration and didn't choose any ICC profile, all the prints either at home or labs are accurate and fantastic results and prints on all papers and different sizes [my home printer going up to A2], i will never let down the calibration, and i never worry now about my prints at all.