Printer Choice

Looking for a little advice on the choice of a new A3+ printer. I have been out of touch with things for a while now (too long !! ) & trawled the internet for the "best" printer, there are so many to choose from its mind boggling !! Currently use an Epson Stylus Photo R2400,a good printer but knocking on a bit, no updates for it any more and my iMac just don't like it...I do struggle a bit with it tbh. Any thoughts would be gratefully accepted. I need a colour balancing gadget for my monitor too so again, any thoughts or experiences would be good. Thanks in advance. Janet

Looking for a little advice on the choice of a new A3+ printer.
I have been out of touch with things for a while now (too long !! ) & trawled the internet for the "best" printer, there are so many to choose from its mind boggling !!
Currently use an Epson Stylus Photo R2400,a good printer but knocking on a bit, no updates for it any more and my iMac just don't like it...I do struggle a bit with it tbh.
Any thoughts would be gratefully accepted.
I need a colour balancing gadget for my monitor too so again, any thoughts or experiences would be good.
Thanks in advance.
Janet

No experience or knowledge of Epson printers, though I seem to keep reading of nozzle clogging problems...anyhow, I’ve used Canon printers and loved them...just another make to consider maybe, and personally had no complaints with using HP before either..

No experience or knowledge of Epson printers, though I seem to keep reading of nozzle clogging problems...anyhow, I’ve used Canon printers and loved them...just another make to consider maybe, and personally had no complaints with using HP before either..

Thanks Kevin,yes I read about nozzle clogging issues on Epson printers.

Thanks Kevin,yes I read about nozzle clogging issues on Epson printers.

Clogging issues...strange how diverse experiences people have. I had an Epson R2800 and now have their P600. Never had clogging problems with them. Now, the HP A4 multi-machine (copy, scan, print) is always clogging.

Clogging issues...strange how diverse experiences people have. I had an Epson R2800 and now have their P600. Never had clogging problems with them. Now, the HP A4 multi-machine (copy, scan, print) is always clogging.

Epson p600...Inks are £200 though..They only give you enough ink in the first carts for Initialization of printer with some left to print a few A3s...RIP OFF Britain is alive n Well. p600 is £499 at moment @ WEX..A Good printer if nothing goes wrong with it :)

Epson p600...Inks are £200 though..They only give you enough ink in the first carts for Initialization of printer with some left to print a few A3s...RIP OFF Britain is alive n Well.
p600 is £499 at moment @ WEX..A Good printer if nothing goes wrong with it

Thanks guys, some food for thought. £200 for ink, wow !!! Must admit, my current Epson has not had clogging issues but as I said,I did read they did on more than one site.

Thanks guys, some food for thought.
£200 for ink, wow !!!
Must admit, my current Epson has not had clogging issues but as I said,I did read they did on more than one site.

If you can "lay out the money" of around £950 for an Epson P800 or Canon equivalent A2 printer you will soon be financially better off. The Epson comes with about £400 of extra ink and the Canon about £500 of extra ink in the price, compared to the ink in around 12 ml cartridges in some A3+ printers. With 80ml cartridges changing inks is far less frequent with a lot less wastage charging inks. Any wasted ink, particularly if printing borderless, is collected in a user replaceable maintenance cartridge tray with the Epson. You do not initially need to get any extra ink with these A2 printers. With the Epson I average about 69 A4 prints for all cartridges combined working out at 62p per print. My long gone Epson 2440 was costing £1.09 per print in 2015. If inks clog up there is a "heavy duty cleaning" mode on the Epson and likely on the Canon. Although these A2 printers are heavy and have a large footprint you quickly save money compared to around 12 ml cartridges in £500 aprox A3+ printers.

If you can "lay out the money" of around £950 for an Epson P800 or Canon equivalent A2 printer you will soon be financially better off.

The Epson comes with about £400 of extra ink and the Canon about £500 of extra ink in the price, compared to the ink in around 12 ml cartridges in some A3+ printers.
With 80ml cartridges changing inks is far less frequent with a lot less wastage charging inks.
Any wasted ink, particularly if printing borderless, is collected in a user replaceable maintenance cartridge tray with the Epson.

You do not initially need to get any extra ink with these A2 printers.
With the Epson I average about 69 A4 prints for all cartridges combined working out at 62p per print.
My long gone Epson 2440 was costing £1.09 per print in 2015.

If inks clog up there is a "heavy duty cleaning" mode on the Epson and likely on the Canon.

Although these A2 printers are heavy and have a large footprint you quickly save money compared to around 12 ml cartridges in £500 aprox A3+ printers.

I have been printing A3+ prints for over a decade using a variety of printers, most recently the Epson R3000 and now the SC-P 400. Ink costs over the several thousand prints sold comes in at just 1.0p / sq inch so a 15"x10" print is approximately £1.50 for the ink, (the fine art paper I use is around £2.50 / A3+ sheet so is more costly than the ink) There is an economy setting with the P400 which saves money when switching from gloss to matt black and planned batch printing of paper type also saves money lost by switching. Don't forget to include the write off cost of the printer purchase in your overall costings, the more you print / printer life the less this becomes but it is not insignificant if you don't plan to print large numbers and / or recover costs by selling the output As to clogging, I've read about it and friends have had problems but so far I have not experienced it once (I did break two R3000 printers as the photo black feed lines failed and spewed ink out in erratic blobs. I think the two main causes of blockages are intermittent use and a dry environment

I have been printing A3+ prints for over a decade using a variety of printers, most recently the Epson R3000 and now the SC-P 400.

Ink costs over the several thousand prints sold comes in at just 1.0p / sq inch so a 15"x10" print is approximately £1.50 for the ink, (the fine art paper I use is around £2.50 / A3+ sheet so is more costly than the ink)

There is an economy setting with the P400 which saves money when switching from gloss to matt black and planned batch printing of paper type also saves money lost by switching.

Don't forget to include the write off cost of the printer purchase in your overall costings, the more you print / printer life the less this becomes but it is not insignificant if you don't plan to print large numbers and / or recover costs by selling the output

As to clogging, I've read about it and friends have had problems but so far I have not experienced it once (I did break two R3000 printers as the photo black feed lines failed and spewed ink out in erratic blobs. I think the two main causes of blockages are intermittent use and a dry environment

Hi Janet, How the devil are you? I use a Canon Pixma Pro 10 and have had no trouble with it for the several years I've had it. It's a little expensive on ink, but then again they all are. Personally, I couldn't see a notable difference in IQ from prints on this versus the higher spec model so didn't see point in the extra outlay. The printer has a feature that attempts to seal the print heads when powered down - helping prevent blocked heads (the reason my previous Epson went down the drain). Shame you didn't opt to buy when the photo show was on - there were some cracking deals to be had. Canon often double their cash back offers at the larger shows. Stay good - how about posting some of your lovely images again? Adam

Hi Janet,

How the devil are you?

I use a Canon Pixma Pro 10 and have had no trouble with it for the several years I've had it. It's a little expensive on ink, but then again they all are. Personally, I couldn't see a notable difference in IQ from prints on this versus the higher spec model so didn't see point in the extra outlay. The printer has a feature that attempts to seal the print heads when powered down - helping prevent blocked heads (the reason my previous Epson went down the drain).

Shame you didn't opt to buy when the photo show was on - there were some cracking deals to be had. Canon often double their cash back offers at the larger shows.

Stay good - how about posting some of your lovely images again?

Adam

I had an Epson 2880 for about 9 years with no real problems but retired it about 18 months ago and bought an Epson P600. There are long gaps when I do not use it but neither the R2880 or the P600 have clogged up. I estimates that it costs about £3.50 for each A3 prints including the cost of Epson ink, quality paper and amortising the cost of the printer over say 5 years. So it is cheaper go to a professional print Lab than print yourself. However, I do so because I enjoy it, I get better B&W from the Epson and I can print on my choice of paper. Dave

I had an Epson 2880 for about 9 years with no real problems but retired it about 18 months ago and bought an Epson P600. There are long gaps when I do not use it but neither the R2880 or the P600 have clogged up. I estimates that it costs about £3.50 for each A3 prints including the cost of Epson ink, quality paper and amortising the cost of the printer over say 5 years. So it is cheaper go to a professional print Lab than print yourself. However, I do so because I enjoy it, I get better B&W from the Epson and I can print on my choice of paper.

Dave

Hi Adam,I am ok thank you.....I have posted images recently after a long absence. Good to hear from you. Many thanks for your in depth responses guys,I will digest all in the morning,do some sums and see what comes out in the wash. Your input is appreciated.

Hi Adam,I am ok thank you.....I have posted images recently after a long absence. Good to hear from you.
Many thanks for your in depth responses guys,I will digest all in the morning,do some sums and see what comes out in the wash. Your input is appreciated.

[quote]I estimates that it costs about £3.50 for each A3 prints including the cost of Epson ink, quality paper and amortising the cost of the printer over say 5 years. So it is cheaper go to a professional print Lab than print yourself. However, I do so because I enjoy it, I get better B&W from the Epson and I can print on my choice of paper. [/quote] Some yes, some no on your comments. Good paper (as distinct from specialist) is about 70p each A3 and ink with an A2 printer ink about £1.20 - keeping below £2. Many "so called professional labs" concentrating on low cost prints are sRGB only "bulk producers" with results, while acceptable for many, are well below the quality (your point) that can be achieved at home from a range of papers and 9 or more separate inks. If you can afford silver based paper expect to about £2.50 for an A3 sheet plus ink at home, or £10+ for a print at a seriously pro lab. Here come the dilemmas. Most modern homes do not have space for an A2 size printer. A large segment of the population "need it cheap" because they do not have unlimited access to money. Going 1 step up in printer physical size to around the £1,500 to £2,000 price range with up to 120 ml cartridges reduces ink costs by about another 30%. This is not a solution for many other than professional printing businesses.

Quote:I estimates that it costs about £3.50 for each A3 prints including the cost of Epson ink, quality paper and amortising the cost of the printer over say 5 years. So it is cheaper go to a professional print Lab than print yourself. However, I do so because I enjoy it, I get better B&W from the Epson and I can print on my choice of paper.


Some yes, some no on your comments.
Good paper (as distinct from specialist) is about 70p each A3 and ink with an A2 printer ink about £1.20 - keeping below £2.
Many "so called professional labs" concentrating on low cost prints are sRGB only "bulk producers" with results, while acceptable for many, are well below the quality (your point) that can be achieved at home from a range of papers and 9 or more separate inks.
If you can afford silver based paper expect to about £2.50 for an A3 sheet plus ink at home, or £10+ for a print at a seriously pro lab.
Here come the dilemmas.
Most modern homes do not have space for an A2 size printer.
A large segment of the population "need it cheap" because they do not have unlimited access to money.
Going 1 step up in printer physical size to around the £1,500 to £2,000 price range with up to 120 ml cartridges reduces ink costs by about another 30%. This is not a solution for many other than professional printing businesses.

I would suggest that regardless of the printer, the biggest savings are made by having your printing processes sorted so that you never need to make repeat prints to correct faults in the first (and sometimes subsequent attempts) I get a lot of people in my camera club asking me to print for them as they "can't seem to get it to come out right" even though I have shown them how to set their systems up to prevent such problems

I would suggest that regardless of the printer, the biggest savings are made by having your printing processes sorted so that you never need to make repeat prints to correct faults in the first (and sometimes subsequent attempts)

I get a lot of people in my camera club asking me to print for them as they "can't seem to get it to come out right" even though I have shown them how to set their systems up to prevent such problems

I am sure you are right Brian. I never have to re-print due to problems with the print process. I do occasionally make the mistake of printing an image with a problem which I should have spotted (e.g. a halo round a boundary area, a small unwanted distraction). I try to minimise this by carefully studying the image critically before printing but still occasionally miss an issue. Where I have tried a professional print Lab (was Pro Am now Sim Lab), the colour prints were very good. You are responsible for colour management (i.e. you download their profile and they do not make any changes). This works well and their printer is close to Adobe RGB gamut. I did not find that their B&W matched the quality of the Epson printers. Nevertheless, I would recommend that someone who is just starting to print uses a good Print Lab first before deciding whether to invest in an expensive quality home printer. Dave

I am sure you are right Brian. I never have to re-print due to problems with the print process. I do occasionally make the mistake of printing an image with a problem which I should have spotted (e.g. a halo round a boundary area, a small unwanted distraction). I try to minimise this by carefully studying the image critically before printing but still occasionally miss an issue.

Where I have tried a professional print Lab (was Pro Am now Sim Lab), the colour prints were very good. You are responsible for colour management (i.e. you download their profile and they do not make any changes). This works well and their printer is close to Adobe RGB gamut. I did not find that their B&W matched the quality of the Epson printers. Nevertheless, I would recommend that someone who is just starting to print uses a good Print Lab first before deciding whether to invest in an expensive quality home printer.


Dave

[quote] Nevertheless, I would recommend that someone who is just starting to print uses a good Print Lab first before deciding whether to invest in an expensive quality home printer.[/quote] absolutely agree Dave and its the message I give when asked about printers and printing at our club. I also point out that our two must successful competition "players" (intra and inter club) use DSCL for all their prints :) (as would I if I didn't cover all my costs by my print sales)

Quote: Nevertheless, I would recommend that someone who is just starting to print uses a good Print Lab first before deciding whether to invest in an expensive quality home printer.


absolutely agree Dave and its the message I give when asked about printers and printing at our club.

I also point out that our two must successful competition "players" (intra and inter club) use DSCL for all their prints (as would I if I didn't cover all my costs by my print sales)