Mobile Printer

bustersdelight

bustersdelight

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Name
Neil
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Hi

I have recently Bought a Canon 450d. My m8 is a DJ and I go along to many of his gigs and take photo's, he then displays them on a big screen for everyone to see.
Now most people ask for a print. Is there a decent printer I could buy to take along, and what sort of size print would you use? and what price per pic would you charge?

Thanks Neil
 
I attend a lot of formal dinners ususlly with a tog doing portraits on th way in.

These are sold at £15-£20 for a 9x6 in a cardboard mount.

I know the tog personally and sales at these events are always worth a couple of grand at least.
 
bustersdelight said:
Does he print them out there and then? What printer does he use?
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Can't remember the make but it's specialist for event printers.

IIRC was about 2 grand. As it's very quick.
 
OK it is about a year old so expect it is still made

Mitsubishi CP9600DW/DW-S

have a look at www.systeminsight.co.uk
 
The pros use dye-sublimation printers, however I've got a Canon IP100, with a battery pack which produces excellent quality prints up to A4 for just under £200 and fits nicely into a laptop case

canon-pixma-ip100-mobile-printer-2.jpg
 
we've got an olmec op1000 which is a worthy printer, the mitsubishi's come with an add on touch screen thing that makes life a bit easier but not worth the extra 1000+ and lesser image quality

decent investment but reasonably pricey to run.
 
Before I spend big money, I could go down my m8's local disco every week and just print to go sort of thing. so would that be a good Idea to use a Canon IP100 and buy Ink cartridges and paper ?
 
Keep in mind that your reputation will be based on the images you produce and if you have a lot of customers keen on buying one the prints need to come quickly to avoid you missing sales. Ink Jets fail on both counts - they take at least a minute to print a single decent image (6x4 or 7x5) and the prints need time to dry before moving them (if you do you risk smudging them), plus ink jets cost more per print.

Dye Subs are dry the second they leave the printer and my Olmec OP1000 prints a 9x6 print in about 15 seconds and 6x4 in under 10 IIRC (I only print 9x6s as the profits are substancially more). You can get the Mitsubishisi without the touch screen at a fraction more than the cost as a Olmec but image quality is the same (at least as far as the customers are concerned I've used both).

so to answer your question "would that be a good Idea to use a Canon IP100 and buy Ink cartridges and paper ?" IMO a clear and resolute NO.
 
Dye-subs are definitely the way to go once you have established there is a market.

To suggest that the best idea is to throw £1-2k at a printer and hope that the business is there to pay for it is laughable.
 
Flash In The Pan said:
Dye-subs are definitely the way to go once you have established there is a market.

To suggest that the best idea is to throw £1-2k at a printer and hope that the business is there to pay for it is laughable.
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Totally agree that you need to establish there is a market before investing in kit (that's just business sense). I can't find anyone in the thread suggesting he goes out and buys a £1-2K dye sub.

BTW there is a dye sub printer capable of upto 7x5 for under £250 - can't think of the name right now :shrug: that may be worth a punt (worth a punt as just a few sales will mean you're unlikely to loose on the deal if you sell it S/H in a couple of weeks)
 
If you want to start of without too much outlay, can the canon selphy range is ok. I picked up the cp510 for £25, although my local pcworld had an unboxed snazzier one without a box or instructions for the same. you can get a battery pack, or just plug it in, and print take about 1 minute each, but only for small snap size photos.

Cartridges are £25 from PC world, and less online. One bug advantage of these is that the final laminating layer on the print is virtually waterproof. Means that a nutcase clubber can spill a drink on it and not hassle you for a "freebie" replacement, cos it will wipe clean. You could be set up for less than £100, and make that back easily in a night I reckon. And, if they wanted bigger pics, then take the payment and address up front and get it done somewhere else and post it out.

Rather than splashing a couple of grand, I would trial it with this, and see how it runs. Even at £5 a pic your making god money.

HTH, Lawrie
 
Thanks fpr the feedback Everybody. I think I will save for a dye sub printer.
I think the size of the prints from the cp510 are too small for the punters.
 
Consider the Fuji Dye-Sub printers.
Check here: www.photomart.co.uk

The ASK-2000 will print (on one role) 8x6 or 9x6

The ASK-4000 will print 10x8 or 10x12 - all very quick with superb results :)

We use them here - and they run like clockwork at our events.
 
Went to hong kong a few months ago.

I saw lot of budding photographers on the waterfront with their DSLR's offering to take your picture overlooking the harbour. They would print your picture and sell it to you on the spot.

They all seemed to be using the Epson Stylus Photo RX685 hooked up to a 12v battery, about half the size of a car battery.
 
Sorry!! I meant my response to Buster to go as a private mail , not to go on hthe thread- I do aplogise to the administrators and users.
 
i've dealt with mark before and he's a spot on upfront guy btw

(didn't send me any free tickets to his exhibition day though :p )
 
Hi

I can fully recommend Photomart as suppliers. We have used them for a few years and orders always arrive without any fuss. They have a great unit and regularly hold seminars, very worthwhile attending.
 
Thank you for the kind comments guys:)- as I said i meant to do the response as a private message ,but I messed up- HONEST!!:bonk:
 
Another BIG plus for dyesubs - you can carry them around in the car and not worry about the inks leaking onto everything! I take my little Selphy on holiday and even trust it to the baggage handlers - not had a problem in 4 years (6 trips/12 flights). Probablt not big enough prints to offer for sale but I use the prints I do as postcards to send home. Ink/paper packs come from 7day (£25 for 108 prints) so, not cheap for a 6x4 print but reasonable for a personalised postcard!
 
To test the water IMHO you would be best off looking to hire a printer before committing to the full on expense of buying one, I normally shoot on the day and pop an online gallery for people to order from, I tried my first on site printing only a week or so ago and did not get a great deal of take up on the day, which was disappointing but not as disappointing as owning a new printer which still owed me a lot of money.

I used Photomart who were very good, the hire for the printer was just over £100 for the week + printing costs, the deposit was quite big, but it was refunded within a few days of the printer being returned to them. I printed 6 x 9's which took about 20- 30 seconds from pressing the print button on my lap top to holding the picture in my hand, which was ready to hand to the customer there and then, no drying time etc.

This is the printer I had, very easy to set up etc : http://www.photomart.co.uk/ProductDetail.asp?ProductCatalogue=CP9800DW

The cost per print was £0.50 a time at 6 x 9 without any folder to take the image away in, the folders are different prices so should you choose one or the other this would have to be factored in to the cost.

As a side note, if you are on a night out a 6 x 9 print is quite big to tuck into a handbag / pocket, it may be worth seeing if you could take the orders and print them and hand out a raffle ticket (or something similar) and offer the option to hold onto the photo till the end of the night when they can collect the photo from you or the cloak room, as I say just a thought...............

I hope this helps!
 
martint said:
As a side note, if you are on a night out a 6 x 9 print is quite big to tuck into a handbag / pocket, it may be worth seeing if you could take the orders and print them and hand out a raffle ticket (or something similar) and offer the option to hold onto the photo till the end of the night when they can collect the photo from you or the cloak room, as I say just a thought...............
Click to expand...

Sounds like a great idea. I went to a water-park a couple of years ago. They gave you a waterproof wrist-band with a code on it. You put this code into their website, and any photos registered to that code could be ordered and shipped directly to you (even though it was a different country).
It shouldn't be too difficult to set something like that up (I am sure that there are some online sites that already provide a third party way of doing this).
A 9x6 is going to be very difficult to get around with, even getting a kebab afterwards would be a risk, whereas a wristband ain't so damageable.
 
The prints from the canon are waterproof, and you could be set up for around £75 for over 100 prints.

Luke woodford has a thread on the very same dilemma
 
6x4 prints are not very good for eventin. 7x5 is just about adequate but they really need to be 8x6 or bigger.

Why would people pay £10+ for a 6x4 print? They can get a print that size from Asda's for about 40p

If the O/P want's to try out a mitsi dye sub then send me a PM. I like a good party so for expenses only I'll come along to one of his parties, show him the ropes and he can decide for himself.
 
I use the Mitzi Click system based on the CP9550DW, over a weekend we printer over 1000 6x8" prints with not one fault.. Fantastic bit of kit...

I'm now saving up my pennies to buy a CP9600DW of my own.. I'll need about £1500 !! with case and consumables..
 
I have a Canon CP330 which I bought with my Ixus 500. It produces pictures as good as the developers on postcards. It would go nicely with your camera :) Have a look on the internet for it, its surplus now so if you are interested PM me ;)
 
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