Print quality - Printing smaller size on A2 printers

ChrisHeathcote

ChrisHeathcote

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Chris
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I have recently rediscovered my love of physical images. For years I’ve taken thousands of photos and displayed the best on the screen. Recently I decided to print one my holiday favourites and decided to dust off my MG6250. I brought it out of the loft, replaced the cartridges and carried out a deep clean and to my surprise the prints looked great. I found it so much more rewarding than simply leaving it in LR or exporting to Flickr.

I have now decided that I want to print more and print larger. This got me looking at a3+ printers and also A2 asI would like to be able to print large for wall-art (I now I could send off for these, but I like the idea of having the finished, mounted print ready for on the wall instantly. However on comparing specs, the Pro 100/10/1 printers all have a higher resolution than the larger Pro1000. I get the Pro 1000 is designed to print large images antherefore will have bigger dots, my question though is how well does it produce smaller a4/a3 images compared to the smaller printers?
 
I'm sure it'll be fine.

I have an Epson Stylus Pro 4800 and regularly print A4 at the finest settings (2880x1440dpi) which is probably complete overkill. It still knocks DSCL prints out of the park IMO.
 
Harlequin565 said:
I'm sure it'll be fine.

I have an Epson Stylus Pro 4800 and regularly print A4 at the finest settings (2880x1440dpi) which is probably complete overkill. It still knocks DSCL prints out of the park IMO.
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Thanks Ian, the resolution seems a little misleading the 1000 shows a res of 2400x1200, the 1/10/100 are 4800x2400 and mt old MG6150 is 9600x2400, my assumption was the more dots there were, the more detail/sharper the image would be
 
That's right. But the eye can't resolve better than about 760dpi (20/20 vision at 4"). You're more likely to be limited by ppi in your DSLR sensor than dpi from the printer.

My A4s look fab anyway :)
 
Harlequin565 said:
That's right. But the eye can't resolve better than about 760dpi (20/20 vision at 4"). You're more likely to be limited by ppi in your DSLR sensor than dpi from the printer.

My A4s look fab anyway :)
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Thanks for that, it’s set my mind at rest, as to the camera sensor, I use an A7Rii, so 42mp full size :)
 
Agree with Ian, you will have no worries with the printers resolution.... it takes many dots to fill a pixel :)
 
I have an Epson pro 3800 A2 printer, I only occasionally print A2 more usually A3 & A4 the prints look good whatever the size, I don't think you will have any issues :D
 
Chris, I had the same dilemma a while back and I came to the conclusion that, for anything bigger than A3+, it's a trip to the printing house! Why? Simply it just didn't make any economic sense and I was pandering a little to my ego (not suggesting anything here - just how I felt :) )

Also, I vacillated for ages between Epson and Canon - after a lot of research I discovered Canon believe all papers are being printed in the desert and deliver ink at a rate that Epson couldn't even begin to match!

In the end I bowed to (my) common sense and purchased an Epson SCP600 (the SCP800 is identical except it handles A2). I've not regretted it and just love having another session with it.

Guess I really haven't answered your question in terms of dot size per image - but, home printing A2 just wasn't worth it for me.
 
chuckles said:
Chris, I had the same dilemma a while back and I came to the conclusion that, for anything bigger than A3+, it's a trip to the printing house! Why? Simply it just didn't make any economic sense and I was pandering a little to my ego (not suggesting anything here - just how I felt :) )

Also, I vacillated for ages between Epson and Canon - after a lot of research I discovered Canon believe all papers are being printed in the desert and deliver ink at a rate that Epson couldn't even begin to match!

In the end I bowed to (my) common sense and purchased an Epson SCP600 (the SCP800 is identical except it handles A2). I've not regretted it and just love having another session with it.

Guess I really haven't answered your question in terms of dot size per image - but, home printing A2 just wasn't worth it for me.
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Yup, but... despite the (sometimes) hassle and frustration and the cost with home printing you are in control of the quality and the timescale and there's the satisfaction too.

I don't print a lot these days but over a year I seem to average a print a week.
 
chuckles said:
Chris, I had the same dilemma a while back and I came to the conclusion that, for anything bigger than A3+, it's a trip to the printing house! Why? Simply it just didn't make any economic sense and I was pandering a little to my ego (not suggesting anything here - just how I felt :) )

Also, I vacillated for ages between Epson and Canon - after a lot of research I discovered Canon believe all papers are being printed in the desert and deliver ink at a rate that Epson couldn't even begin to match!

In the end I bowed to (my) common sense and purchased an Epson SCP600 (the SCP800 is identical except it handles A2). I've not regretted it and just love having another session with it.

Guess I really haven't answered your question in terms of dot size per image - but, home printing A2 just wasn't worth it for me.
Click to expand...

My common sense tells me that most of the time I will print A3 and store in a Springback folder, however I know I will want to print some large for the wall. My issue is that I am inpatient and indecisive (not a great combination). I have about 6 a dozen pictures that I have said "I want this big", however due to having to find a printers, send it off, wait etc, I am still to do something about it.

With my own printer, I would just click print.

Interesting to hear your views on Epson/Canon I have been back and forward between the SCP800 and the Pro10000. I like the fact that the Epson will take rolls (I have a few panoramas too), but I have read that it has issues with the feed when printing 17". I am used to Canon and doesn't have the issue of swapping blacks. Decisions, decisions.

woof woof said:
Yup, but... despite the (sometimes) hassle and frustration and the cost with home printing you are in control of the quality and the timescale and there's the satisfaction too.

I don't print a lot these days but over a year I seem to average a print a week.
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This pretty much sums up me, in particular the timescale. As to the hassle, the first couple I printed on the MG6150 were a bit off with the borders, but now I just click and go :)
 
I don't think home printing makes economic sense with the likes of DSCL out there. However like mentioned in the OP, I find home printing to be an extension of taking the photograph. Personal control from capture to print. Most of my camera gear doesn't make economic sense either :)

Re the P800 vs the Prograf - I read that the Canon has a limit to the size (length) of print you can do, whereas the Epson doesn't. That would be the killer decision for me. Although when (if) my 4800 packs up I'll probably plumb for the P-5000 for those juicy sweet 200ml tanks.
 
ChrisHeathcote said:
Interesting to hear your views on Epson/Canon I have been back and forward between the SCP800 and the Pro10000. I like the fact that the Epson will take rolls (I have a few panoramas too), but I have read that it has issues with the feed when printing 17".
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That's one of the things that swung it for me, add in the difficulties I've read about borderless printing with Canon. I have done a couple of panoramas without issue - I can't believe the mechanics will be that different.

Harlequin565 said:
Re the P800 vs the Prograf - I read that the Canon has a limit to the size (length) of print you can do, whereas the Epson doesn't. That would be the killer decision for me. Although when (if) my 4800 packs up I'll probably plumb for the P-5000 for those juicy sweet 200ml tanks.
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Yep - another deciding factor for me (the Canon size limits).
 
I’ve had the sc-p800 for a couple of years now and have had no issues of any kind printing every size up to the max.
 
As you will probably be sending 300 dpi images to the printer, you'll be fine at 'only' 2400 x 1200!

We have a 24" Canon at that resolution and the output is fantastic. Don't forget if you feed it poor files you will get poorer prints.

As for the economics, for us it is a little different as we do provide a local printing service from our framing gallery but I worked out some figures for my own work which simply was A3 or lower on 'normal' papers, don't buy a printer, use DSCL. For larger than A3 or fine art papers it's economically worth doing yourself. The bigger you can go, the cheaper the ink per ml gets!
 
And that sees me swinging back to the Epson for the millionth time. As to the economics, as with many hobby photographers if we looked at the practical costs most wouldn’t own the cameras and lenses we do, other than professionals, how many need to spend large amounts on Canon L, Sony GM, Zeiss lenses, we do it because we want to and can. My same logic extends to other things too, although if you order a single large image on Lustre paper from DSCL, by the time you factor in p&P, it costs over £10. I can’t imagine Home printing costing that much, the paper works out at probably about £1
 
Harlequin565 said:
This.

Oh - and Epson.
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Oh and on the larger machines Epson heads have a reputation for blocking up easily and are not user replaceable, on the Canons you can swap heads in seconds, so Canon.

And you don't have to swap blacks and lose a fiver every time you swap!

'Tis a bit of a minefield the larger you go!
 
Unlocker said:
Oh and on the larger machines Epson heads have a reputation for blocking up easily and are not user replaceable, on the Canons you can swap heads in seconds, so Canon.

And you don't have to swap blacks and lose a fiver every time you swap!

'Tis a bit of a minefield the larger you go!
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The blocked heads seem to be a bit of a historic issue, I haven’t seen many reports of it on the P600/800
 
It was an awful problem on previous models but definately sorted now, haven’t had a single problem and I’ve even sometimes gone weeks without printing, fire it up and not a problem.
 
gerry s said:
It was an awful problem on previous models but definately sorted now, haven’t had a single problem and I’ve even sometimes gone weeks without printing, fire it up and not a problem.
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I had a Epson Stylus R2400 for about 9 years - not printed with it for 2 years, just sat on a desk, Quick head clean and no problem.
 
chuckles said:
And that bit alone always made me wonder why would you need to?
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Because you want to spend £600, and ideally do it every year, according to Canon.

Older big Canons had terrible reliability issues. I can only guess if the new pro series have the electrical issues sorted.
The problem with Pro-1000 is no paper roll support, forcing you onto 2000 or bigger.

If buying new I'd probably look at Epson as well.
 
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