What printer for me.

Oldbones

Oldbones

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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.
 
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.
 
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I used to always swear by Epson printers but after the debacle about 4 years ago with their top of the range A3 printer. The P600 where it was withdrawn from sale world wide I jumped ship and moved over to Canon and bought a Prograph 300 and never looked back It worked and is still working perfectly the only downside is the cost of the dyes (The same with any good printer) The build quality of the Canon is streets ahead from the Epson version and have yet to have a poor print emerge from the machine. My Canon has been superseded by the Prograph 310 and I don;t know what has changed but the price is not all that different - nearer to £700 than £600, I cannot remember at this stage.
 
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The cost of ink is what killed home printing for me. I used a Canon photo printer when I did and I have to admit it produce the goods. In the end, when my printer gave up, for competition prints, I used a local professional print house that is used by wedding photographers. I was able send the computer files via their WEB site and even go in and discuss what I wanted. They they then printed and mounted. The cost was reasonable and given that a set of six Canon inks was approaching about £100, for what I needed, the economics weren't too far adrift either.
 
I agree with John, particularly if you are still getting to grips with camera technique and your camera. Printing and mounting a competition quality print is a whole topic of its own which takes skill, practice and experience. I know because I am climbing that learning curve myself at the moment. For my first two years I used a web based commercial printing company (SIMLAB), printed A4 prints and used commercially produced mounts for competition entries. I didn't win but, if my subject matter appealed to the judges and my in-camera work was competent, I was getting good marks. Really good A4s can always be reprinted at A3s in time for a competition if you organise yourself ahead of time.
 
John2 said:
The cost of ink is what killed home printing for me. I used a Canon photo printer when I did and I have to admit it produce the goods. In the end, when my printer gave up, for competition prints, I used a local professional print house that is used by wedding photographers. I was able send the computer files via their WEB site and even go in and discuss what I wanted. They they then printed and mounted. The cost was reasonable and given that a set of six Canon inks was approaching about £100, for what I needed, the economics weren't too far adrift either.
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How much do they charge for an A 4 print and an A3? I still need my Printer for letters etc and don't have the room for an A4 printer as well.

I have just returned from a week away and when away I had an hour or two to kill when I was in Caernafon and walking about I came across a Commercial studio with some very nice prints on disa play. I went inside an got talking to the owner and the cost of cartridges cropped up He took me behind the scenes ans in the workshop he had 2 printers both HP. One was an A1 and the big one was an A0 both of which only took 4 colours of ink/dye but each one cost over £200 each! for 200cc of ink! You could buy a damn good bottle of whiskey or brandy for £200! Honestly the printers were massive, I doubt if I could get one in my work room never mind 2!

Why is it Pro printers like that can get away with 4 colours when the likes of the Canon/Epson have 10? It would make printing an awful lot cheaper.
 
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