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.
 
John King said:
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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Now there's a question. I'm guessing that it has to do with the formulation of inks but even a fancy four ink printer should have a limited range of colours it can print (restricted colour gamut). Perhaps they are working on the principal of "What the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over."
 
John, I've now got an Epson printer for every day printing. Photo prints are not up to much by comparison with Canon photo printers but it handles normal office printing well enough. The main attraction though is that it uses 4 very large ink bottle that so far have lasted me for nearly 18 months since I bought it. Its very economical for every day use. The print house I used to use is Paul Graham - https://www.paulgrahamltd.com. Their WEB site has a problem at the moment but they usually display all of their pricing.
 
Still looking at printers, looked on E bay but most have to be picked up by the buyer.
Then I found Printerland, which appears to be good deals and have good reviews and plenty of choices.
I feel like I want to go with Cannon simply because a few here have said that is what they are using and are happy with them.
So now that I have moved house and have been working trying to create my home studio, a printer will be the next thing I source.
 
Possibly the weight of the newer printers, especially the A3 one, most be approaching the 20 - 25 kilo mark which make the post/courier cost quite significant. I have never heard of 'Printerland'. They may be OK but you really need to deal with a company that has knowledge of the printer and can identify a problem by way of a description. Companies such as WEX (based in East Anglia, Park cameras based in Sussex and my personal preference, the Imaging Warehouse. WEX is possibly the cheapest of the three but get in contact with them all and ask the same questions
 
I am going to have to, went to the local town today.
The print shop has gone, I thought I was early, but its now closed down.
Which has driven me to just forget about getting prints done outside my house.
I don't know about printing or printers, guess I am going to learn.
Watched a video about Canons Pro 10S, looked good and as the guy is a pro photographer I was interested in it.
 
Just a quick note on printers. I gave up on Epson printers a few years ago, mainly due to the ease with which their jets clog up, etc.

I now use the Canon Pro 1000 A2 printer and find it far more reliable. The last time I printed with it was in mid-March and we have just survived the latest heat wave with temperatures up to 35°.

I am happy to report that I just started it and, apart from taking time to run an ink jet check, Apart from having to change the Chroma Optimiser cartridge because it was empty, the latest prints are all perfect.
 
Yes I agree about the jets clogging I don't know if your printer has the same technology used in the cartridges for my Pro300, but if the printer is not used for a couple of days it sets the printer up in a 'agitate' mode where it shakes the printer to stir the dye. Also the cartridges seem to have what sounds like a small ball bearing that if you shake it you can hear it rattling about which will also help in the 'Agitate' stage.

The Imaging Warehouse where I bought my printer from, also advised me to leave the printer switched on because if you turn it off even for 30 mins it will go through the 'agitate' sequence again and this also uses a small amount of dye. I leave mine on, and every other day I print test sheet and this uses a miniscule amount of dye and avoids the 'agitate' sequence. I only use a sheet of A4 every 4 days so hardly likely to break the bank.

I was on holiday in Wales recently and visited a professional digital print outlet where there were A1 and A0 printers working. Both made by Hewlett-Packard and the quality produced was superb but the thing that struck ne was they only used 4 VERY large cartridges with Yellow, Magenta and Cyan plus a black (£200 each) but the colours were amazing considering only 4 colours were used.

I didn't see a large print completed but apparently for the A0 size it would take up to 30-40 minutes for each print.
 
When looking at which printer to buy, it pays to look at the cost of the ink. Ink cartridge sellers helpfully show this as the cost per ml. I noticed that the inks for the canon prograf 300 which John mentioned that he has, earlier, cost 50% more than what I pay for my epson printer inks. (SC P900)
 
Alan Clark said:
When looking at which printer to buy, it pays to look at the cost of the ink. Ink cartridge sellers helpfully show this as the cost per ml. I noticed that the inks for the canon prograf 300 which John mentioned that he has, earlier, cost 50% more than what I pay for my epson printer inks. (SC P900)
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But like Joanna with the Canon there will be no blockages. Also, never mind the disastrous P600, even the replacement model is no where near as good a design or has the same build quality.

If you were to buy your genuine dyes from the likes of the Cartridge people they are about £40 a full set cheaper than from Canon or actually anywhere else.
 
Not sure what you are saying here John. I do get my inks from Cartridge Save, where yours are about 50% more per ml. than mine. I have had my epson P900 printer for quite a while now, and had no problems with it. It is not a replacement for the P600 and has excellent build quality, and turns out excellent prints.
What more can I say? If you are happy with your Canon printer, then that's good. I am more than happy with my Epson. I know you have had problems with Epson printers. And I know people who have had problems with Canon printers. There is no substitute for the darkroom! I still have mine, but having a printer allows me to produce a lot more prints.
 
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