Proper printer. which one, what would you buy.

[Oldbones]

I still have not purchased a printer, recently missed out on a Canon pixma iP8750 from a club member.
Perhaps I should have been quicker with my offer to buy in this instance.
Some one has given me bits of kit, a couple of film scanners, which is great, but I still need to print.
A4 is too small for club activities, so it needs to capable of A3.
I use NX Studio and I can if I have a printer, print directly from there.
Should have done this ages ago but never felt like the quality of photographs I have were worth printing.
That view for me is starting to change as I have learned over the last couple of years.
Most of my photographs are black and white, so I don't know if that matters !
Just wondering what would you buy if you were me.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Gav.]

I've a Canon Pro 300 and love it.

Canon pixma iP8750 are good budget options but lack fine control of the Canon print software which works with the Pro range.

Good step up is the Canon Pro 200S or Pro 310 (Pro 200S is cheaper to run - uses dye rather than pigment ink)

The Epson ET-8550 gets good reviews, but I've not used one.

Printing at home is a mine field and not the cheapest side hobby to have.

 

[Barney]

Someone on here was selling an Epson 1500 a couple of days ago, A3 I have found mine to be superb for colour, and still is, but there is a bit of a learning curve for B&W, i think most of the older printers were not invented with B&W printing in mind.

 

[tijuana taxi]

I have had a multitude of printers and now happily use an IP8750.
Previous one was a Canon Pro 10, very nice, but wickedly expensive for an enthusiast like me.
Full set of inks was about £120 and they soon depleted with the unstoppable maintenance cycles.

The Canon Studio software was good, but i invariably print via Lightroom so not an issue.
Prints from the IP8750 once set up properly are easily good enough to display.
I use a custom ICC profile from Permajet and set up the printer preference options as follows.
Colour/intensity is set to manual and under matching none is selected, also set the paper type for your chosen medium
So easy to "double profile" which can really give some poor results.

 

[Stephen L]

I use the Epson 8550. Excellent results, especially using EPL, and dirt cheap to run.

PS equally good for mono, as long as you use the appropriate paper. Permajet Matt Plus 240 is what I use, and I understand that Epson's equivalent is also excellent. Look for Keith Cooper's review and setup tips on YouTube.

 

[stevewestern]

I've a Canon Pro 300 and love it.

Canon pixma iP8750 are good budget options but lack fine control of the Canon print software which works with the Pro range.

Good step up is the Canon Pro 200S or Pro 310 (Pro 200S is cheaper to run - uses dye rather than pigment ink)

The Epson ET-8550 gets good reviews, but I've not used one.

Printing at home is a mine field and not the cheapest side hobby to have.

I'm one of the happy Epson 8550 owners.
Yes, it is expensive to buy but man it's cheap to run and actually comes with a FULL set of inks that lasted me many many months (I can't remember but think it was close to a year, with me printing A3's almost all the time.
I think mine is now about 2.5 years old, I've just started my third set of inks (around £80 a set) and I've won several competitions, which implies that print quality is pretty good. I've yet to bed to do any sort of maintenance or head cleaning despite it being left unused for 3 to 4 weeks at a time while I was away.
If you can manage the purchase price it comes highly recommend by me. They do a cheaper A4 version..

Edit - just seen Stephen L's reply and I too use Permajet paper of various types, including their titanium gloss and lustre as well as the matt plus.

 

[taxboy]

I've a Canon Pro 300 and love it.

Canon pixma iP8750 are good budget options but lack fine control of the Canon print software which works with the Pro range.

Good step up is the Canon Pro 200S or Pro 310 (Pro 200S is cheaper to run - uses dye rather than pigment ink)

The Epson ET-8550 gets good reviews, but I've not used one.

Printing at home is a mine field and not the cheapest side hobby to have.

Another happy Canon Pro 300 user here. I'm not a big b&w printer but do like the Canon software to print. It seems more intuitive than using LR

 

[Ian Grant]

Someone on here was selling an Epson 1500 a couple of days ago, A3 I have found mine to be superb for colour, and still is, but there is a bit of a learning curve for B&W, i think most of the older printers were not invented with B&W printing in mind.

For B&W with supported Epson printers Quad Tone RIP is the way to go, it's a few years since I last used it, but the results were superb, and it was easy to use, My Epson R2400 printer has sat unused since about 2010. I did flush out the printer heads, very thoroughly, as I knew it might get little or no use while I was living abroad.

Unfortunately it appears the 1500 is not supported.

Ian

 

[Barney]

For B&W with supported Epson printers Quad Tone RIP is the way to go, it's a few years since I last used it, but the results were superb, and it was easy to use, My Epson R2400 printer has sat unused since about 2010. I did flush out the printer heads, very thoroughly, as I knew it might get little or no use while I was living abroad.

Unfortunately it appears the 1500 is not supported.

Ian

i have been looking at those and the 3000are they any good ?

 

[nandbytes]

I am also a ip8750 user.
If I had the space and budget I'd definitely consider one of the Pro options from canon.

But like @tijuana taxi says the prints are still off great display quality, so I also haven’t felt the desperate need to upgrade.

 

[Ian Grant]

i have been looking at those and the 3000are they any good ?

The R2400 is an excellent printer but old, the cartridges are quite low capacity which I found a bit frustrating. I bought mine secondhand to most make enlarged digital negatives for Platinum printing. I may fire it up again this summer mostly to make digital negatives again.

QTR is really useful for making digital negatives, you can achieve greater ink density that the Epson printer drives. It's also great for B&W as you can emulate different print tones.

If I replaced the R2400 I'd look at something that is QTR compatible but with greater ink economy. Maybe the R3000 or the updated version the SC-P600 or P700, or perhaps an A2 printer.

Ian

 

[whyone]

I recently bought a Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-310 A3+ printer and have been very impressed with it...B&W and colour.

 

[trevjm]

I recently bought a Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-310 A3+ printer and have been very impressed with it...B&W and colour.

I bought the Canon Pro 310 myself a few months ago. It is a great printer and just works for me. More so than the older Canon Pro 10S that it replaced. I bought my 310 from John Lewis with a double discount for £400. Worth every penny.

 

[realspeed]

I am happy with the Epson XP-970 Expression Photo printer. Up tp A3 size on the size of an A4 printer base

 

[gerry s]

Ive had the Epson SC P800 for quite a few years now and not had a single problem. Ive had Epson printers fpr about 25 years now and admittedly they did have blocked head issues on the previous versions but that certainly doesnt happen any more. The B&W printing is simply brilliant. Im sure the A3 model SC P600 is the same.

 

[Dryce]

I have had a multitude of printers and now happily use an IP8750.
Previous one was a Canon Pro 10, very nice, but wickedly expensive for an enthusiast like me.
Full set of inks was about £120 and they soon depleted with the unstoppable maintenance cycles.

The 8750 and also Epsons XP970 are sort of unsung heroes. I've looked at both in the past.

My Pro-10S was written off a few weeks ago.

While I didn't dislike it -- the whack-a-mole of cartridge changes and cleaning cycles was irking me a lot. The user interface is non-existent and horrible. I always had to keep a stock of ink cartridges as it would always need a new cartridge on printing even a small batch of stuff.

I've switched to an ET8550. I did some research into the print longevity and the ET8550 ink on prints 'under glass' in principle look as good as the Pro-10 generation inks. So if that was good enough then so is the ET-8550. It just makes so much more sense for me at least. It can be used as an office printer on a daily basis -- it has duplexing - it takes up less space. So yes more expensive to buy (I did look at a Pro-310) but now I only have one printer for everything. And it feels like freedom to experiment and print more given the more sensible running costs.

I have been using mainly PermaJet. I can get almost all the generic profiles I would need for my purposes - apart from Brilliant papers (Wex own brand). And I had a hankering for Hahnemuhl William Turner but that's one profile they don't seem to have. I've switched to PermaJet Oyster 271 as a replacement for the Briliant Supreme Lustre that I use to use.