A3 Printer

stokecity_m

stokecity_m

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Chris
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I've never really printed any pictures that I've taken - they've just been left on a disk.

However now i'm starting to take pictures more seriously, i though it would be nice to be able to print any good ones out.

So as A3 seems a very good size, i was hoping you guys could recommend me a good printer- as i currently know nothing about them.


Price wise - i guess i'll have to decide after i get a few examples of what people recommend.

Cheers
 
You have to remember that buying a printer to print your photos is not a way to save money as the paper and ink are not cheap and neither is the actual printer itself. If you want to get images of a similar quality to a shop then you have to pay for it. You can get a 12x8" image for just over a pound at a lot of places and to be honest that is what it cost to print. You are actually paying for the convenience of doing prints when you want and how you want.

eg my daughter came home and needed a passport photo TODAY.... No problem.

Anyway the printer I have is an Epson R2400 which is the predecessor of the R2880 and in my opinion a rather nice printer. You don't get flash features and such but rather a good quality device.

You can buy a CIS for about £50-100 plus the ink cost making it about £250 in total which makes it a lot more convenient and drops the price to about 20-25p per A4 sheet which is rather good but then you have spent about £650-700 in total.

If you go to Lyson's web site and ask for a sample you will see the quality available. Epson's own inks are about the same quality (some would say slightly better but I think about the same).
 
What to watch out for is the cost of ink cartridges when choosing a colour printer, that is depending if you go for a colour laser or inkjet printer. There are so many different makes its a mindfield, if possible check out the colour management of the printer as well. I have seen some canon that the colour management is all their own code so you don't have a chance of knowing the setting you want.

Strange you should bring the subject up as I am trying to adjust my HP Photosmart 8150 printer to match the monitor picture in Adobe Elements7, without much luck at the moment. I have just purchased the Color Munkie photo to help with calibration between computer-screen-printer. My photo printer is about 5 years old and only does up to A4 size and no doubt the improvements on printers in the last 5 years makes mine look stone age ( I must get a more modern one)

Your best bet is when in the shop take a disk/card with pictures on it, get it displayed in a shop and get them to do a printout and compare the difference between screen and hard copy, bearing in mind that a screen is backlight so there is bound to be some difference.

Like anything set a price limit- find one you think may suit - do the shop thing -then find the cheapest retail outlet.

No doubt members will give their own opinions and in actual fact I would be interested as well as to which printers they prefer.

Realspeed
 
realspeed said:
What to watch out for is the cost of ink cartridges when choosing a colour printer, that is depending if you go for a colour laser or inkjet printer.
Click to expand...

I would steer well clear of colour lasers. You can get stiffer paper through most inkjets, the colours are more vibrant, the consumables do not cost so much individually and they are just less hassle.

I have a Samsung CLP500. If I had to change the 4 toners, transfer roller, developer and waste holder at the same time it would cost far more than the actual printer which wasn't all that cheap! At least ink jets cost far less at one time and the output is vastly superior.
 
This is a thread I am watching with interest as I am considering an A3 printer. I am wondering about a dye sub printer - So far no one has mentioned it. Any thoughts?

Hope you don't mind OP, just throwing in another possibility.
 
Well they are certainly not cheap, that's for sure!

I use an HP, I think it's a 9180. It's a cracking piece of kit, produces top quality prints but is certainly not cheap to run. Cartridges are £25 each and there are 8 of them! gulp! They do run at different rates though so I don't ever have to shell out £200 on ink. I've had it for 3 months and just changed the third. I do print up to A3+ on it and the results are very good. I use it for printing album proofs at A3+ and I also print some portfolio images at A4 and A3. Really useful to do a bigish print to check quality before I send anything to be printed really large. Just about to send a 3ft x 2ft to the printer's so an A3 to check it is well worth it.

The Epson's are also very good :)
 
I've been thinking about this too. I don't want to print at home, but I can't find anywhere that offers matt prints - only gloss and lustre - without paying an expensive pro lab. Bizarre. I could these done at anything up to A3+ in an hour or two at most shopping centres in South Africa when I lived there.
 
I have the Epson R2400 but I also have a HP printer, the HP C6280 photosmart all in one which is an A4 printer. It is a seriously good day to day printer and I bought a set of refillable cartridges for £20 inc ink and have refilled them about 4 times already. The quality on normal photocopier paper is excellent and having now calibrated it and tried it with photo paper I can say that the print is very good. I was looking around since buying my Epson and there is a HP A3 printer with a self calibration mechanism. I am not sure of the model but if I were looking for another printer and a CIS or refillable cartridge option existed for this printer it would be top of my list to check out.
 
You need to ask yourself if you expect to print much B&W, if you do then you should look at the Epson R2400 or newer as these have multiple black cartridges.

If you will only print colour then you could start off with an older R2100.

If you think that you will be printing a lot then it is worth a look at the Permajet site to see what printers they cover with their bottle feed systems.

It is also worth considering a printer that can take roll paper as this will also save you money, again Permajet do a good range of papers and to top it all they supply all the relevant profiles to go with their papers for use with the OEM inks or their own inks.

Another thing worth considering before you get into printing is a monitor calibration tool, there is no point printing if your screen isnt set correctly as what you get out of the printer could be vastly different to what you see on the screen
 
Lyson are the best CIS I have seen and I have messed with a few. They have the R2400 CIS on special offer at £149+vat which is half price. Get one whilst you can :)

http://www.marrutt.co.uk/r2400-cis.php

The R2400/R2880 both include roll feeders.
 
I cant say which myself but if you get this months Digital Camera Mag ( I think it is, will double check as it is upstairs ), They have reviews of printers from £50 I think upto £800.
 
it does not profile the ink rather it makes sure it is coming out as it should. you can't buy non brand paper and get the printer to make an ICC profile. only the larger more expensive Z3100 etc can do that. The calibration means that using HP ink and HP paper you should get the same print if you where to use two different 9180's


cowasaki said:
It looks really good and with automated calibration should be rather special once hooked up to a CIS !
Click to expand...
 
I've got an R2400 with a fotospeed CIS. yes it costs mroe than getting it printed from the likes of DSCL but there is not the same satifaction from sending it away
 
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