I am interested in getting an Epson photoprinter for A4 or maybe A3+. Has any of you experience with them. What would you recommend for A4 and A3+? I want to use them with a Nikon D300s and Capture NX2! Thanks in advace for your help!! <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='  ' /> Kindly Vieux Loup
no experience with these,
however be aware, that home-printing,
is not only expesive,
but also does not have the same IQ
furthermore be aware that if you do not print regularly,
your cardridges/printheads will guett dirty....
IMHO, no way behind prof-printing...
kr
couplos
[quote name='couplos' timestamp='1288533513' post='3851']
furthermore be aware that if you do not print regularly,
your cardridges/printheads will guett dirty....
[/quote]
True for all printer based on "wet ink" ... not so for the
little dye-subs. I have a small Canon Selphy since many
years, and I never had a misprint due to a failure
in the cardridge or the paperfeed. All you have to do
is to protect the device from dust. However, this is a
small 4x6 (10x15cm) printer. There are a small number of
A4 dye-subs, but the devices and the material (dye and paper)
are more costly for these. (For the Selphy, I pay about 25cts
per print ... which is ok for the occasional give-away).
Just my 2cts .. Rainer
[quote name='couplos' timestamp='1288533513' post='3851']
no experience with these,
however be aware, that home-printing,
is not only expesive,
but also does not have the same IQ
furthermore be aware that if you do not print regularly,
your cardridges/printheads will guett dirty....
IMHO, no way behind prof-printing...
kr
couplos
[/quote]
Well, if you get any of the printers with 8-plus print cartridges, with any of the pigment inks, you will get at least the same quality provided you do create some printer profiles.
Also, all modern semi-pro and pro photoprinters do have automated head alignment and head clearing functions, provided you keep them on standby.
Of course, these semi-pro and pro printers do come with a price tag, from about 600 euros and upwards, when starting at A3+. The real good ones start at around 1500 euro and up, but the they can generally print a 24" / 60 cm wide print at almost any length if so required.
The competition currently is really between Epson and Canon when it comes to good photoprinters. Somehow HP has stayed behind since they launched some clever ideas a few years ago (built-in spectrometer; automated profiling) - they seem to have forgotten to update their actual print and ink technology since then.
Kind regards, Wim
Gear: Canon EOS R with 3 primes and 2 zooms, 4 EF-R adapters, Canon EOS 5 (analog), 9 Canon EF primes, a lone Canon EF zoom, 2 extenders, 2 converters, tubes; Olympus OM-D 1 Mk II & Pen F with 12 primes, 6 zooms, and 3 Metabones EF-MFT adapters ....
[quote name='couplos' timestamp='1288533513' post='3851']
no experience with these,
however be aware, that home-printing,
is not only expesive,
but also does not have the same IQ
furthermore be aware that if you do not print regularly,
your cardridges/printheads will guett dirty....
IMHO, no way behind prof-printing...
kr
couplos
[/quote]
Sorry to be frank, but that is plain wrong. Inkjet printers are a professional method for printing your work. They offer new creative avenues and allow you to print on papers, you could never print on wet. Think of all the fine art papers like "cotton rag" and "canvas" types.
Image quality is a matter of profiling. Typically printers ship with profiles for the manufacturers inkset and papers. If you stick to these, image quality is very high. For A4 and larger sized prints, in my view prices are competitive. Get a lab to print you an A4 sized print. That is also not cheap.
I am using Canon printers and had Epson in the past. Canon printers do not clogg easily, even when not being used for month.
enjoy
[quote name='Vieux loup' timestamp='1288524059' post='3850']
I am interested in getting an Epson photoprinter for A4 or maybe A3+. Has any of you experience with them. What would you recommend for A4 and A3+? I want to use them with a Nikon D300s and Capture NX2! Thanks in advace for your help!! <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=' ' /> Kindly Vieux Loup
[/quote]
To be frank, in my view inkjet photo printers are a god sent. I used to have a dark room when I was younger and couldn't have one since (space constraints). When I got my first photo quality inkjet printer and got the first decent prints out, I was close to tears.
What do you want to do with the prints? How do you want to store/display them? One of the first things you need to answer: dye or pigment inks. Both have their pros and cons. Dye prints typically are more vibrant but they fade more easily when displayed in the open. With modern dye inks glass mounting is fine.
Pigment inks are typically less vibrant but the prints are less prone to fading on open display. Pigment printers have a reputation of being more prone to clogging, but I never had one of these so can't speak of experience. As noted by others, some modern pigment printers circulate the inks all the time to avoid clogging.
In A4 there is only 1 pigment printer, the Epson R800. In A3+ you have a choice of Epson, HP and Canon when looking for pigment printers. A3 printers are huge.
When considering dye printers, A4 printers come for almost nothing. You pay roughly as much for the printer as you would pay for the consumables included in the box. Unless you go and profile it yourself, with these you have to stick to the manufacturers inks and papers. 3rd party inks and papers are a waste of time (unless they give you a profile for your printer). You could just buy an A4 dye printer, since they are free, and see whether or not you like inkjet printing. Results from simple inkjets are very good when it comes to colour. For B&W you need something serious (including 1 or more grey inks).
A3 dye printer cost real money, but are typically slightly cheaper than A3 pigment printers.
For printer reviews go to [url="http://www.photo-i.co.uk/"]http://www.photo-i.co.uk/[/url] and visit their old side.
I prefer Canon printers to Epson (got badly burned with an Epson clogging up in the past). Since I normally do not consider Canon gear, that should tell you something.
Hope that helps.
Joachim
enjoy
HM <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=' ' /> I am not sure what the message really is in general, but thanks for your input. There really seems to be no consensus regarding printing. Let me ask the question differently; DO MOST OF YOU USE A PRO PRINTER FOR YOUR PRINTS? I have never used one, but I am tempted to try them out. 50ç for an A4 print in top quality is not expensive. Kindly Vieux Loup PS I cannot imagine that you do not print yourself Wim <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=' ' /> DS.
[quote name='Vieux loup' timestamp='1288617264' post='3870']
HM <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='  ' /> I am not sure what the message really is in general, but thanks for your input. There really seems to be no consensus regarding printing. Let me ask the question differently; DO MOST OF YOU USE A PRO PRINTER FOR YOUR PRINTS? I have never used one, but I am tempted to try them out. 50ç for an A4 print in top quality is not expensive. Kindly Vieux Loup PS I cannot imagine that you do not print yourself Wim <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=' ' /> DS.
[/quote]
<ROFL>
I actually rely on others (well, 3 people to be exact) to provide me with access to printers, Wolf, except for smaller sizes (A4 and less - but that is really too small for me anyway) <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='B)' />. However, I always print null-copies, i.e, exactly as I prepared them, with my own printer profiles, as prepared for that printer and paper <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='  ' />.
Occasionally I do make us of professional printlabs too, but again, I always get them to print null-copies. No interpretation on their side of how it should be printed <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=' ' />.
I will only get permission to get a large format printer (which is what I really want) if I would sell enough prints to make it worth my while <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=' ' />. Since it is only a hobby, currently I do most printing only for myself, and I only print those that I think are really worthwhile to be displayed on a wall <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=' ' />.
BTW, I wouldn't consider using anything less than a pro-printer. And although I have some printhead clogging experience with Epson (I owned two Epson photoprinters before), I would still recommend either Epson or Canon in the category of pro printers with use of pigment inks. In order to optimize results, I would recommend you do get a monitor and printer set of calibration tools, however. I think the Spyder Pro 3 version runs at about 400 euros these days, but does work very well indeed (the aluminum case set with monitor and printer calibration spectrometers). I got mine a few years ago and am quite pleased with it.
Kind regards, Wim
Gear: Canon EOS R with 3 primes and 2 zooms, 4 EF-R adapters, Canon EOS 5 (analog), 9 Canon EF primes, a lone Canon EF zoom, 2 extenders, 2 converters, tubes; Olympus OM-D 1 Mk II & Pen F with 12 primes, 6 zooms, and 3 Metabones EF-MFT adapters ....
On the cheap side, a dye-based Epson P50 might just be enough for a start, I guess it all depends on the purpose of the printer - for the occasional give-away and self-usage it works, as long as you are after colour-prints, for B&W there's indeed a need for a pro printer with 2-3 black/grey inks, where apparently HP, Canon and Epson have excellent printers.. After trying out the supplied profiles (for the makers own paper) you will know if you need profiling for the printer or not.. Since my own printing is not critical I found out that the Epson paper profiles are OK for me <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='B)' /> and the quality of the prints is really good (A4 size on the Epson P50).
On the downside - with cheap printers there's a limit as to which paper you can use - becouse of compatibility with the ink type and also becouse some "artistic" papers will be too thick to go through the feeding mechanism.. What's even more important - they take small ink cartridges so the cost of consumables will be higher compared to the bigger PRO printers (see Epson R800 vs. Epson R3880). Then of course if you don't intend to print a lot, a heavy duty pro printer might be an overkill.
[quote name='Vieux loup' timestamp='1288617264' post='3870']
HM <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=' ' /> I am not sure what the message really is in general, but thanks for your input. There really seems to be no consensus regarding printing. Let me ask the question differently; DO MOST OF YOU USE A PRO PRINTER FOR YOUR PRINTS? I have never used one, but I am tempted to try them out. 50ç for an A4 print in top quality is not expensive. Kindly Vieux Loup PS I cannot imagine that you do not print yourself Wim <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=' ' /> DS.
[/quote]
Hi,
Just my 2 cents worth: I used to do a lot of printing at home, but I found there was too much wastage and the ink quality did not ensure long life of the images. But since then, printer/ink technology had improved drastically, so I'm sure there are some good options if you are prepared to invest a good amount of money on materials.
Nowadays I can get excellent A3 prints on very good paper for around 5 euros apiece, and when I sell them the profit margin is quite high. If I print larger, I'll go to a truly fabulous local printer who will do an archive quality print on Tetenal, Hahnemühle, Schoeller paper (among many others) within 3 days - the results are guaranteed, and I don't have to worry about any technical stuff or wastage/maintenance etc. For professional customers and for display/portfolio prints, this is the only way to go for me.
Economically, this is probably not the best solution if you want prints for family and friends, but if you want to exhibit/sell your work it's worth seeking out a really good professional printer's and giving them a try.
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