Printer/Scanner Advice Please

[Glen]

I've just ordered a high(ish) spec Dell system for my F-in-law (9150). I'm also going to get him a scanner (he wants to scan in slides and tx's too) looking at Epson 4490. Printer side of things, I looked at the Epson R1800 A3, but ink comes in at £80-90 a pop for full set of genuines. So I thought something along the lines of my R300 (now R340) ink is £40 and if he needs any sizes beyond A4 I told him to get them done at a processing shop/online. What are your thoughts on my suggestions, as I know most of you are Pro's and have a great deal of experience with these things. Thanks.

PS forgot to say, he's looking at getting a 30d once I can convince him that no matter when you buy it, it will always get cheaper and then be replaced by a better model, so you can't win, just got to take the plunge, can't keep waiting for the best deal.

 

[ppp]

Printer choice sounds good, as for scanner if he has a lot of slides to do and wants a half decent job i would recommend getting a dedicated slide scanenr and only use the flatbed for pints and normal scan work.

 

[ppp]

remember as well with the A3 printer, how often would he realistically print that big? you don't need to buy a full set all in one go cos they take seperate ink tanks and you are paying for the ink/print quality at the end of the day couple with decent paper its all about getting the best print possible.

 

[Gandhi]

as I know most of you are Pro's and have a great deal of experience with these things.

We wish, we just know how to talk it up

The costs of ink for A3 printers seems abit on the extreme side, but you have to remember that you get considerably more ink in them. Printing at home is fun, but always proves more costly than sending the files to somewhere like photobox. It can also bring a raft of problems with colour management. I.E. getting the output to match what you get on the screen.

If you're going to get him an a4 one, then I'd get the r220, I've got one and it's brilliant for £60. It's basically the same printer as the 340 but without the lcd screen and memory card slots which he won't need if he has a PC.

As for scanning negs and trannies it may be worth having a look around the companies that advertise second hand gear in the back of amateur photographer and the like. If he's not planning on using it professionaly then he'll be able to get away with a lower spec, slightly older model and it'll still be much faster than using a flat bed with an adaptor.

 

[Glen]

Thanks for the pointers, I could scan the pics at work as we've got a £40,000 drum scanner which is spot on quality, but I've got no time spare at the moment and I think he likes the idea of getting into scanning them himself, as he's not that computer savy at the moment just at email - browsing internet level.

 

[ppp]

all got to start somewhere...