What printer for me.

[Oldbones]

I still have not purchased a printer, recently missed out on a Canon pixma iP8750 from a club member.
Perhaps I should have been quicker with my offer to buy in this instance.
Some one has given me bits of kit, a couple of film scanners, which is great, but I still need to print.
A4 is too small for club activities, so it needs to capable of A3.
I use NX Studio and I can if I have a printer, print directly from there.
Should have done this ages ago but never felt like the quality of photographs I have were worth printing.
That view for me is starting to change as I have learned over the last couple of years.
Most of my photographs are black and white, so I don't know if that matters !
Just wondering what would you buy if you were me.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Glenn]

I asked the same question here a little while ago:

Suggestions for a printer suitable for printing monochrome at a reasonable cost please?

I am working with a friend who has a good but old printer (Canon Pixma iX4000). It still performs well but BW images have a greenish cast. I think the issue is that it is a four ink printer (Y,C,M and black). More modern printers add at least photo-blue or grey into the mix to neutralise any...

www.digitalmonochromeforum.co.uk

My friend still hasn't decided which way to go but I had a rush of blood to the head and went with the Epson ET-8550 for myself.

I know the consensus was that Canon printers were more reliable but I went against that advice, mostly for cost reasons of both machine and replacement inks. What gave me the confidence to do so was Keith Cooper's series on YouTube, he and his wife have been using the same model for five years without problems. Keith is a professional photographer who both uses and reviews a wide array of printers including some high-end professional models. He seems very knowledgeable on the subject.

I have had mine for a couple of months and so far I have been pleased with it. I printed four images for the last competition at my own camera club and was shortlisted for both monochrome and colour prints. Clearly, I can't vouch for its longevity but other than that I can't fault it.

The ET-8550 costs £650 on Amazon at the moment and replacement inks just over £71. Worth shopping around though.

The inks come in 75mL bottles which is quite a lot larger than the ink cartridges used by other printers.

With regards software, I save my images to hi-res JPEGs from my editor (Affinity Photo) and then print using using the standalone Epson Print Layout application which is free to download and very user friendly. Also a Keith Cooper recommendation.