Finally ready to get a private photo printer

[Bob W]

Most it seems in the USA or Canada seem to swear by Red River papers (which sadly we can't get here in UK afaik) Printer wise I would suggest looking at the Canon Pro-graf 1000

Shelton.

Red River has sample packs of their photo papers at a ver reasonable price so you can try out their papers. Use an old Canon Pro 10 printer ant it produces wonderful images from my Fuji FGX 100S 100 mb camera. I am certain that the newer versions are very good. I used to print directly from Capture One Pro, but I recently started using Canon'd Digital Pro Professional, and Canons print studio Professional plug in. They are very easy to use.

 

[Smaug]

I have to ask you this: How often are you going to print that big, that you will justify the purchase price and ongoing maintenance costs of such a printer? ...or even a smaller printer?
What's wrong with outsourcing the printing?

It will be perfect every time, with no stress or effort on your behalf and very little expense, unless you have a LOT of walls on which to display your work.

 

[mdlucero]

I have to ask you this: How often are you going to print that big, that you will justify the purchase price and ongoing maintenance costs of such a printer? ...or even a smaller printer?
What's wrong with outsourcing the printing?

It will be perfect every time, with no stress or effort on your behalf and very little expense, unless you have a LOT of walls on which to display your work.

For me, nobody else will get it right...I do too much "tweaking" of my images. It is just part of my process.

 

[Mujana1]

I have to ask you this: How often are you going to print that big, that you will justify the purchase price and ongoing maintenance costs of such a printer? ...or even a smaller printer?
What's wrong with outsourcing the printing?

It will be perfect every time, with no stress or effort on your behalf and very little expense, unless you have a LOT of walls on which to display your work.

(not sure you' re asking me as well)
In general I think that very few (amateur) photographers can justify their photography expenses from a pure cost-benefit perspective. Buying cameras/lenses/bags/etc. etc. At least for posting online, one doesn't need expensive equipment at all. So, all is part of hobby/personal satisfaction/looking at nice self made images, and whatever one may call it.
Now for that printing part, that's partly also the case. It' s really nice to be "in control" of that printing part, trying different papers, get immediate results, etc. Beside that, to me "perfection" doesn't exist (always worth striving ofcourse), and I want those prints to be as close to what I envision. Sometimes I make more than one A4 test image of the same image (sometimes 3 or 4)...sometimes on different papers/sometimes minimal different editing/etc. Always on Fine Art papers. Expensive? Maybe, but I would not want to have that done by any print lab.
I think pure cost wise, outsourcing printing will be more expensive when printing more than around 5/6 prints a month (estimate). Ofcourse all things being "the same" (like special Fine Art papers of my choice). But even with something like 2 prints a month, I' m happy to be less economical by doing my own printing.
To each his own I guess

 

[tprevatt]

We don't have a very good printer for photos...it is just a home all in one office thing by Epson and it fails on all levels to do things well for photography.

So, have decided to get a printer. For BIG stuff I'll go third party but my goal is 13x19 or 16x20 for myself and to be able to use bottle if possible (costs of cartridges are really not ok...and the chip games with OEM cartridges are also not ideal...). I have a 100mp sensor camera, so I want a printer that can really show off the images well on photo paper.

As a corollary question, is there an affordable good paper out there - or if not, what is the best paper (matte and glossy versions) that are in 8x10 and larger sizes?

Super thank you all. I want ot keep the printer at say 900 or fewer dollars....and I am ok buying used if such an option exists....without too many issues....we have space for a stand if need be too. We don't need a ferrari but we do want something reliable and that will make us happy to look at things on the wall. The plan is to do this for say 4 to 10 images a month and if one sticks up on the way for a long time to consider taking it to a BIG size....

I don't know where you are. But if you can get it Red River is a very nice paper and an incredible value. My preference is the two Baryta papers because they remind me of the classic Oriental Seagull of my wet darkroom days. Big Ben Baryta is a glossy finish and Pola Dura Baryta is a more diffused surface that reminds me of the Oriental G surface paper. Each has their place. This paper is a bright neutral paper with a deep DMax that does a wonderful job for Black and White and color both.

 

[jcb-memphis]

First, thank you all for your thoughts.

DId a lot of reviews and thinking.

For now, I decided to go with a Canon ip8720 after checking out the epson 900 and canon 1000 IN PERSON...the ip8720 print was equal to those to my eye and operationally a LOT cheaper.

The big issue is the ip8720 has an option for aftermarket ink ---one can go full pigment, etc. This makes it super cheap and at 240 for the printer total...a no brainer.

If I find I need more (mostly more size), will go for either the espon 900 or canon 1000. Have been burned by epson in the past so made the move to Canon. Got a tank family printer too and it is quite good (gx6021). What I really want is a tank 17" printer that does 6 colors or more (canon 100 with tanks would be perfect). One can only hope. I'll likely go that route (canon 1000 with the sensor solution if it comes to that...just not sure I need that complexiity just yet).

Got red river paper and downloaded all the ICC's for the paper for the ip8720. Thank you for the advice - it is super nice and very affordable.

Input is over 50mb in general images of high quality. Got some frames for 13x19 off amazon and plan to rotate images with the five frames as I see fit...if I "love" an image can go BIG via print house of course too. The local UPS store has a giant printer but it is expensive....this ip8720 is likely to be fine for a bit....if I fall in love with printing can always upgrade.

Got the software that lets you print a nozzel check ever 3 or 4 days too (qimage one). Am doing that to 4x6 cheap paper.... At 250 dollars, this is just silly good value in a printer.. It comes with ink but I the aftermarket ink is on the way...and it reviews as equal. If I hate it, the cartridges are not nuts expensive anyway even OEM.

 

[Mujana1]

First, thank you all for your thoughts.

DId a lot of reviews and thinking.

For now, I decided to go with a Canon ip8720 after checking out the epson 900 and canon 1000 IN PERSON...the ip8720 print was equal to those to my eye and operationally a LOT cheaper.

The big issue is the ip8720 has an option for aftermarket ink ---one can go full pigment, etc. This makes it super cheap and at 240 for the printer total...a no brainer.

If I find I need more (mostly more size), will go for either the espon 900 or canon 1000. Have been burned by epson in the past so made the move to Canon. Got a tank family printer too and it is quite good (gx6021). What I really want is a tank 17" printer that does 6 colors or more (canon 100 with tanks would be perfect). One can only hope. I'll likely go that route (canon 1000 with the sensor solution if it comes to that...just not sure I need that complexiity just yet).

Got red river paper and downloaded all the ICC's for the paper for the ip8720. Thank you for the advice - it is super nice and very affordable.

Input is over 50mb in general images of high quality. Got some frames for 13x19 off amazon and plan to rotate images with the five frames as I see fit...if I "love" an image can go BIG via print house of course too. The local UPS store has a giant printer but it is expensive....this ip8720 is likely to be fine for a bit....if I fall in love with printing can always upgrade.

Got the software that lets you print a nozzel check ever 3 or 4 days too (qimage one). Am doing that to 4x6 cheap paper.... At 250 dollars, this is just silly good value in a printer.. It comes with ink but I the aftermarket ink is on the way...and it reviews as equal. If I hate it, the cartridges are not nuts expensive anyway even OEM.

Congratulations! I hope you' ll love your prints. The nicer the prints, the more likely you' ll fall in love with printing.
Don' t know much about the printer you bought (probably a different name anyway where I live). I always use original (Canon) ink, nothing else. Ink costs are high, but the larger the printer, the smaller the relative costs. The ip8720 has 7 ml. cartridges I think?
Happy printing!

 

[coldcoffee]

Congratulations! I hope you' ll love your prints. The nicer the prints, the more likely you' ll fall in love with printing.
Don' t know much about the printer you bought (probably a different name anyway where I live). I always use original (Canon) ink, nothing else. Ink costs are high, but the larger the printer, the smaller the relative costs. The ip8720 has 7 ml. cartridges I think?
Happy printing!

I agree, 3rd party inks fade alot quicker than OEM, yes you can most likely "reprint" it a few times before the costs equalise - but /personally/ I'd rather not bugger about anymore

Shelton.

 

[Mujana1]

Agree Shelton!
For costs, the larger the ink cartridge, the cheaper the ink per ml.
I would need 9 ink cartridges for my all-in-one printer to get the same amount of ink with one (1) of my Prograf1000 cartridges. 9 of those cartridges would cost me around € 112,- (cheapest price online where I live). One of my pro1000 cartridges is considerably less than half that price.
Other than OEM is not an option at all for me. It' s either print...and print properly (with certified and approved materials), or don' t print at all.

 

[jcb-memphis]

Understood...just got all the inks in 150ml bottle of made in USA ink for about 70 dolalrs with 11ml refillable cartridges. I suspect the colors will look the same to a normal eye....durability might be the same too....from what I have read.