A3 Printer recommendations

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moaten

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Mike
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I'm looking to move up from my current A4 printer to one that will give me A3.

There seem to be quite a range on the market between £300 - £600 which is where I'll set my budget ( unless there are compelling arguments to spend more - just don't tell the wife !! )

Main use will be to print for club competitions plus a few to hang on the wall at home & some for family and friends - for me photography is a hobby and I'm not looking to earn any £££'s from it.

Running costs are a consideration - certainly the inks in my A4 printer seem to empty quite quickly. Are the ink reservoirs in A3 units larger, or should I consider purchasing a model that with work with a CISS ?

I'd really appreciate any thoughts and recommendations before purchasing a unit. As an add to, I'd could give consideration to a seconhand unit but are there pitfalls I should watch out for ?

I know that getting prints done commercially is also a consideration, but would require me to plan well ahead - and its rare that I'm that well organised !!!

Thanks :)
 
I have used an Epson R2880 now for several years, and despite it being used irregularly it still works fine. No problems with clogged heads etc.. The 2880 has superseded by the R3000. Epson also produce the R2000, but I've no experience of this. Inks are expensive, but you have to weigh the cost of a CIS system, against the number of prints you produce. For me it made more sense to stick with manufacturers cartridges, but only just.
 
I bought an Epson R3000 and I'm very pleased with it. Produces very nice prints that I use in club comps.
 
Another recommendation for the R3000 here. The monochrome prints off it are fabulous, and completely neutral with no colour cast, something I've always struggled with on previous printers. Only issue has been buying ink as no one stocks it locally, so I've had to resort to mail order, which is slightly inconvenient.
 
I bought a Canon Pixma Pro 9000 a few years ago and it has performed well.
I have only ever used Canon ink in it, although i think there is a CISS available.

Only thing I would say is it doesn't give great results with non Canon paper. Others seem to give a colour cast.
I get the ink from cartridgemonkey as it seems to be one of the cheapest and is fast delivery.
 
I have the Epson 1500W. Prints up to a3+ and does a good job. Ink is expensive but it doesn't use as much as you'd think. I think I saw they're going for around £250 now.
 
Another Epson R3000 owner here. I've had mine for two and a half years now and I'm still happy with the prints from it. I use genuine epson inks and have printed on a decent variety of papers with very good results.
If I was buying today though I'd also be looking at the Canon Pixma Pro 1, as it would resolve my 2 moans about the R3000. Although it has a matte and photo black cart there needs to be a clean/purge cycle every time you swap between them resulting in wasted ink. The other thing is the gloss differential that can be seen on some papers. Neither of these are big issues for me, as I said I'm happy with the R3000 but the Pixma Pro 1 would resolve both.
 
i have just bought the canon pro 100 to print my club entries and i am really pleased with it , canon also as a cash back offer on it at the moment, i thinks its worth checking out
 
I currently use a Canon iX4000 but have a Pro 100 waiting for the other printer to run out of ink. Only upgrading because the iX4000 isn't too good at B&W printing while the Pro 100 has 3 greys to choose from.
 
Thanks for the comment, I think it's between the R3000 and a Pro 1 or 10. Still needing to do some more homework before taking the plunge.
 
It'd be worth checking out the cost of ink cartridges, as well as their capacity. I don't know about the canon ones, but the r3000 ones are pretty big, much bigger than its predecessors, and are around £20 each. If you're doing lots of printing then CISS is the way forward as was suggested in the initial post.
 
We needed to replace our a4 printer. Its mainly for docs etc. On epsons website you can see how much ink the printers use. My 1500w is cheaper per ml than most cheap printers and it does more prints too (tbh the carts are bigger but it I think even allowing this its better) , so we got a more expensive a4 (the p50) cos its better for ink, and will take the 1500w carts.

Epsons site will tell you how much inks are and how much ink is in them. You can also find out how much ink a printer uses as I said here
 
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At a guess, any manufacturer is likely to underestimate their printers' consumption figures so quoted figures should be taken with at least one pinch of salt!

Mike, for mainly docs, I would go for a laser printer rather than inkjet - in fact, I have a little A4 Samsung mono laser for basic printing and use the big inkjet for photos (and the occasional short run of colour A3 for my wife's business - she has her own A4 for smaller stuff.)
 
I use an Epson 3880. Goes up to A2 and is marvellous for both colour and black and white.
 
Get the canon pro 1, fantastic quality, colour and black and white. Bit heavy on the ink though.
 
Considered the Pro-1 but it does not have wireless, so thinking is towards a Pro-10 which has wireless and is around 7kgs lighter, plus there is a cash back offer on so outlay would be around £425
 
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using a friends Canon Pro 10 at the moment.. Works quite well..
 
Still going round in circles trying to make a decision, now leaning towards an Epson R3000, or for £100 more I've the possibility of a 3880. Decisions,decisions ! Any thoughts or advice?
 
The price difference between the R3000 and the 3880 is almost double. Considering your needs, I'd say go for the R3000, or even a lesser model. I have used 'regular' A3+ photo printers (note 'photo' printers, not multi-function devices) with great results for a number of years, although now I use a 3880. If you calibrate the paper with the ink correctly together with a great image, the result can be spectacular.

From your description above, I feel your investment might be wasted on workhorses like the 3880 or even the 3000. Remember also, that pigment printers would benefit from running regularly and not sat idle for days or weeks. Also consider the running cost like time, paper and ink etc.

They are many great commercial printers out there, that provide great paper selections using calibrated professional printers. Anyone printing less than say a dozen a month, would be better off using reputable commercial outfits in my opinion. Good ones like Printspace for example, will deliver within a day or two from order. Something worth thinking about.

But if you really want to spend the bucks, then either of the two you suggested will be fine. If you print lots of B&W, then you might be better off with the 3880 as you'll need to manually switch cartridges for the R3000.

Hope the above helps.

Edit: Forgot to mention that the 3880 does not have wi-fi.
 
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I have the 3880 myself and it's absolutely fabulous when you print an a2 print out!
Anyway you can easily solve the wireless issue using withe power line adaptor or wireless adaptor.
 
I have an Epson 1900. Prints really well right up until you don't use it for a while, then it doesn't.

I don't bother with it now. I recently used DSCL. 53 pence for 10x8 prints and back within 48 hours of ordering.

The cost of ink for the epson was high c.£100 for a full set and you need to use it before the heads clog.

I would certainly suggest you try out some of the online providers before jumping in with your wallet!
 
My R3000 has sat powered off for weeks without any use and I've never encountered an issue with clogging heads in the 2.5+ years I've had it. If I'd had the space I would have got the 3880 just for the ability to be able to print A2 but it wasn't to be.
I know there are good online print companies around and that they suit a lot of peoples requirements but I wouldn't be without the ability to take some photo's come home and print them out that day.
 
t43er said:
I have the 3880 myself and it's absolutely fabulous when you print an a2 print out!
Anyway you can easily solve the wireless issue using withe power line adaptor or wireless adaptor.
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Have the clogging problems been solved that caused issues with the 2880?
 
JennyGW said:
Have the clogging problems been solved that caused issues with the 2880?
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Clogging issue 2880? '
If you are referring to my own thread, I've replied to say that there wasn't an issue in the first place.
It's just that the photo black cartridge chip is faulty and after replacing it. It's working beautifully now. However, I've since purchased some epson signature worthy trial pack to print. Those matte papers are awesome!
 
t43er said:
Clogging issue 2880? '
If you are referring to my own thread, I've replied to say that there wasn't an issue in the first place.
It's just that the photo black cartridge chip is faulty and after replacing it. It's working beautifully now. However, I've since purchased some epson signature worthy trial pack to print. Those matte papers are awesome!
Click to expand...

I had this printer for a while and for me it was a pain. I Googled to find lots of people with the same problem. When it worked it was awesome, but the cost of inks because the heads had to continually be de-clogged was exorbitant.
 
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I went for the Pro 1. It's really rather good. black and whites are awesome. I have only used it with Permajet papers (good quality and value IMO).
I chose this over the Pro 10 on cost per ml of ink, yes it's over £200 for a set but they are 36ml tanks.

Dave.
 
DavePotter said:
I went for the Pro 1. It's really rather good. black and whites are awesome. I have only used it with Permajet papers (good quality and value IMO).
I chose this over the Pro 10 on cost per ml of ink, yes it's over £200 for a set but they are 36ml tanks.

Dave.
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Hi Dave, how fast is it getting through inks, please?
 
JennyGW said:
Hi Dave, how fast is it getting through inks, please?
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I have just replaced the set that came with the printer and it has done about 50 A3 prints. Half the ink was used to charge the print head and tubes. I have seen independent test show that a new set of inks will produce 200 A4 prints. In theory this is the same as 100 A3.

Dave.
 
DavePotter said:
I have just replaced the set that came with the printer and it has done about 50 A3 prints. Half the ink was used to charge the print head and tubes. I have seen independent test show that a new set of inks will produce 200 A4 prints. In theory this is the same as 100 A3.

Dave.
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Top of my head guesstimate, £1.50 per A3 about right? This is pretty good as long as no ink is unnecessarily wasted after that first charging. I was given a demo of the printer at a Canon CPS road last year, it does produce an exceptionally high quality of print.
 
moaten said:
Still going round in circles trying to make a decision, now leaning towards an Epson R3000, or for £100 more I've the possibility of a 3880. Decisions,decisions ! Any thoughts or advice?
Click to expand...

When you factor in the value of the included ink, the R3000 and R3880 cost the same for the actual printer, about £400. Given the lower running costs, increased capability and higher resale value of the R3880 it seems a fait accompli in its favour.
 
In the end I went for the S/H 3880 - it just made good sense to me + the capability to print A2 when needed and I got a load of A2 paper included :)
 
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