Recommend me a printer please- Is home printing cost effective?

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Hi all,
I am looking for a printer, I have had an Epson Photo Stylus RX520 for the past number of years. I bought when printers were very expensive. Now its slow and I am in need of a new one.

I want a printer that will hopefully be cost effective, ie the prints wont cost a fortune. My first question is with the cost of ink and standard matte paper can the printer produce a 6x8 print for £1? I live 30mins away from a printing shop so I really need a printer.

Recommend me a printer.
I will use it to print mainly colour photos. Would love it to be A3.
Buget £250. I would also like to add a continuous ink system if possible.

Also do you know of any online suppliers of paper canvas ect?

Thanks in advance!
 
I've costed up my printing from day1 with an Epson R800 and R1800 and home printing isn't that cheap.

Paper and ink is working out at £1.08 for an A4 sheet (using Permajet paper now and Epson inks) If you include the cost of the printer then it is more like £1.50 a sheet.

I would always recommend Permajet for papers. Very pleased with them

Paul
 
Some on line printers are very cheap. Look at ALDI at 34p for a 8"x12" !! If you upload your pictures on Monday they usually arrive Wednesday so pretty good really. I have an R2400 and really like it but it is actually cheaper to get my prints done elsewhere.
 
Thanks to both.
Online take too long. When people ask me for a print they want it there and then not 2 weeks later.
 
A4 for quality vs cost I would recommend Canon, canon...canon...canon and pixma

Not sure how good their A3 printers are but for quality vs cost I think they're pretty good.
For A3 printers Epson actually do very nicely (normally I hate anything epson) however, they are expensive to run for various reasons.

Also I've seen A3 HP printers a few years ago that were decent quality, had swappable ink options (for better greyscale options or brighter blues).
But if any all rounder is what you want, and cost is a factor, I would go with Canon personally

also you can order canon samples last time I looked, or get down to jessops, they normally have canon stuff on demo.
 
I have some A3+ prints from the epson that are up to exhibition quality. This means that they are also as good as that at A4. I apreciate you want prints asap (which is why I have an R2400) but most online printers will have the print with you next day/day after next so I tend to use that when I can get away with it. I also use refillable cartridges which reduces the ink cost by 75%. It costs me under £1 for A4
 
If you want cheap, look online, even if the per page cost is the same, you'll end up printing a lot of pages at first to test papers and profiles etc. Most places are pretty quick too.
 
I'm in Ireland so online takes a bit longer than a day unfortunately.

Printer recommendations anyone?

I was looking at this one:
Epson Stylus Photo SP1400
or Canon PIXMA iX 4000 A3 Inkjet Printer
 
For £250 I don't think you can really get a economical A3 printer. Any A3 printer that is sub £250, the ink catridges will be very expensive, and contain minimal ink.
 
I use a canon ip4600 (A4) with canon ink and ilford/fuji paper and I really rate the quality of the prints. I haven't priced up costs but it aint cheap with a set of cartridges at 50 quid

my printer is handy as it has a front and rear tray so if I print from word/pdf/web it prints onto normal paper, but if I print from lightroom it does a photo print on the right paper
 
misco.co.uk do a canon Ix4000 A3 printer for just over £200. I've ordered loads of stuff from them over the years and found them to be extremely reliable.

Best source of cheap ink cartridges is Amazon.co.uk (who also do really cheap Sandisk SDHC cards, incidentally).
 
Thanks guys. There is no Asda near, as I said I am 30mins away from the nearest printers. I will research those options.

Any good sites for papers?
 
I have any serious amounts of stuff printed at DS colorlabs, but I like to be able to do the odd ones myself. I had an epson R800 but got fed up of paying out for ink all the time. It also used loads of ink when doing a nozzle clean. I went to buy some cartridges for it, but came away with a new Epson stylus PHOTO R285 complete with inks for £60! Cheaper than a set of inks for the R800! When I tried it, I wasn't expecting fantastic results, but on Epson Matte paper, it's very close to the R800 and a full set of ink cartridges costs £38!
 
Whilst you may be able to get a printer/paper/ink combination which works out around £1 per print, you will also need to factor in the number of times you make a print which isn't quite right and you have to do another one.


Steve.
 
I went with a Canon MP620 A4 because it gives me the flexibility to run off prints if I need them in a hurry. Last minute comp entries etc..

I am very pleased with the quality of the prints and whilst I haven't won any camera club comps yet people do keep commenting on how good the quality of my prints are...



.
 
personally I would go with an A4 canon pixma.
how often do you need A3 to justify the costs??
A3's I will order and wait a day or two
6x4s and A4 are nice to be able to print out every now and again

also if you are virgin media you get some free ish prints every month 6x4 on photobox
 
Steve Smith said:
Whilst you may be able to get a printer/paper/ink combination which works out around £1 per print, you will also need to factor in the number of times you make a print which isn't quite right and you have to do another one.


Steve.
Click to expand...

Yup, but that is also the same with "sent off" prints. My home printing needs far fewer reprints as I now have a workflow I understand and have control of.
 
even in the days of home dark rooms the prints we made cost more than the low cost processing houses. But we were able to print them the way we like them, so it was worth it.

Today things are far less clear. all the manipulation is done on the computer as PP, and all the printer does is make the copy.
Provided you use a company that outputs to the quality you want, it is cheaper to use them.
However I would still have a medium quality A4 printer at home for the occasions you want to use it for other purposes.
 
DizMatt: I rarely print A3s but when I do I would love to do it at home. I mainly print 6x8 and I could wait for the A3s.

gingerweasel: Thanks I will keep that one in mind.

Steve Smith: Thanks for pointing that out.

pete.rush: The Epson 1400 is looking very nice! I like it but the 8 expensive inks is putting me off :(

Rocket58: CIS is the ink quality less? Are CIS bad for the printer and do they block the nozzle? Also were can I get a CIS for the 1400 and lyson ink?

Thanks to anyone who has posted so far!
 
z101 said:
Thanks to both.
Online take too long. When people ask me for a print they want it there and then not 2 weeks later.
Click to expand...

Are you a Pro and selling the images or just doing friends favours?

If you are a Pro, then printing at home can mean quick turnarrounds but to get a properly colour managed setup and a quality printer isn't cheap but as the print cost is such a small proportion of the final selling price it should matter too much. Are you only selling 9x6 as you could consider a Dye Sub, they have fixed costs per print which are usually quite cheap although the printers are typically £1K. However, most clients are happy to wait for a print in my experience, they understand it takes time to be printed, checked and posted on.

If you are doing it for friends for free or low cost then ask them to be patient as the Quality is better from online and you want them to have you work at its best (may not be true but it makes them think you are thinking of them :D).
 
Thanks, no I'm not a Pro but I take alot of pictures and sometimes people buy them from me. :D
 
good stuff
well then put your pics in a gallery and let them order them online to be delivered to them directly. keep your costs down!
if you don't care about colour balancing photobox are okay
example http://www.photoboxgallery.com/mattdalton

set your pricing from no profit to oodles of moolah, or just something to pay off the paypal fees etc.

however it does sound like you REALLY want an A3 printer and are trying to talk your way into it.....so I doubt I can change your mind :P
 
Craikeybaby said:
If you want cheap, look online, even if the per page cost is the same, you'll end up printing a lot of pages at first to test papers and profiles etc. Most places are pretty quick too.
Click to expand...

For test prints, just do 6x4 prints - the colour match will be the same as a full A3.

z101 said:
Printer recommendations anyone?

Canon PIXMA iX 4000 A3 Inkjet Printer
Click to expand...

I'm very happy with the prints I get from mine.

Wigster said:
For £250 I don't think you can really get a economical A3 printer. Any A3 printer that is sub £250, the ink catridges will be very expensive, and contain minimal ink.
Click to expand...

The carts for the iX4000 are the same as those for the iX4200 A4 printer (and others). Of course an A3 print will use more ink than an A4 which in turn uses more than an enprint (6x4 inch) but an A4 printer can't do A3 prints (without a join). If you buy inks from 7dayshop (not sure if they ship to Ireland), the costs are reduced a fair amount.

z101 said:
Any good sites for papers?
Click to expand...

As above, 7dayshop (if they'll ship to you).

Steve Smith said:
Whilst you may be able to get a printer/paper/ink combination which works out around £1 per print, you will also need to factor in the number of times you make a print which isn't quite right and you have to do another one.
Steve.
Click to expand...

Once you've got your monitor and printer giving the same colours, reject prints are rare.

Fatboyjarv said:
Its just not cost effective to do it at home
Click to expand...

We'd better all start buying post cards rather than taking our own holiday shots then! Photography isn't cost effective but having as much control as possible over the whole process from visualising the shot to seeing it roll out of the printer makes cost effectiveness a pointless target, just like seeing the ghostly image appear in the dev tray under red light.
 
Thanks DizMatt.
Nod, thanks also. Great post, a mine of information and I think I will strongly consider the IX4000. Thanks for the site recommendation too!
 
z101 said:
DizMatt:

Rocket58: CIS is the ink quality less? Are CIS bad for the printer and do they block the nozzle? Also were can I get a CIS for the 1400 and lyson ink?
Click to expand...

Sorry for the delay in answering.

I got my CIS here. http://www.specialistinks.com/

More info here http://www.specialistinks.com/ms-r1400-bulk-system.php

If printing in black & white, I used to get a colour cast with epson inks but with this, even the colour cast is gone. No problem with nozzles etc; after 10 Months use.

They also do another CIS version that has all black ink for mono printing if thats what you do.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Ron
 
If you have the space, I would also consider a second hand large format printer. Something like the Epson 7600 can be picked up for about £800, and a full set of ink will set you back about £400. Another £100 will get you 30 metres of pearl paper. You will however end up with a system that allows you to print really nice prints up to 24" wide, and the ink will last AGES. It might seems costly, but if you print a lot, then it does drive the price per print right down. Just my 2p. :)
 
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