Regret Going (or not) A2 vs A3+ ?

Printer Owned ?

  • A3+

    Votes: 5 45.5%

  • A2

    Votes: 6 54.5%
  • Total voters
    11
monkeyleader

monkeyleader

Messages
500
Name
Nigel
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Morning all,

I had my mind set on the Epson SP-600 as my first foray into printing at home ... The thought being that A3+ would certainly be large enough and if for whatever reason I wanted to get something larger printed I would go via a professional printing service ..

Over this past week I've been starting to question that decision and while I can't see too many A2 prints rolling from the printer I'm concerned that I'll regret not having that capability after a while ..

Interested in others thoughts who have considered A2 vs A3 and made the decision one way or another ..

thanks,

Nigel
 
Hi.
I hade an Epson 2400 (A3) which gave me very good service for many years, when I replaced it I went with the Epson 3800 (A2) what drew me to it was the cost of the inks as the cartridges were so much bigger the cost per print was a lot less
depending on how many prints you do it can take a while to recover the extra initial outlay but in my case I did so a long time ago, and of course you get the benefit of being able to do A2's, my output is approx 75% A3 20% A4 and 5% A2.
I am not familiar with the printers on the market at the moment but I think it will be worth your while doing a bit of research on ink costs cartridge size etc.
Good luck.
 
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Some years ago at Focus we bought an Epson 3800 to replace a (still working) Epson 2400. The costings were interesting. Given the cost of the ink cartridges, and that a full set were supplied with both printers when bought new, the actual real cost difference between A3 and A2 was £100; the rest of the difference was just in the amount of ink supplied.

On size, although the larger Epson A2 printer is, well, larger, and requires (so a review said) two people to lift from its box and place on a bench, the 3800 and 3880 are both liftable single handed and the size difference is only the 4" which is down to the paper width.
 
I considered, briefly, an A2 printer, and while of course it will print A3 and smaller, the cost of A2 paper and the subsequent greater costs of mounting and framing made me decide to go for an A3 printer. Plus, A2 output from a 12mp camera is touch and go quality wise. I may reconsider when the time comes to replace the printer as I now have a 36mp camera and I may decide to invest in some bigger frames for future exhibitions.
 
purchased a canon pro 100s (a3) and wish i got the a2 pro1000, but no doubt if i got the a2 id want the a1 and so forth!
 
A3 printers I'm are rediculously priced for that extra 90mm.
I went A2 then cried when it broke
 
I mainly considered the cost of the inks over a couple of years and decided that I'd get the SC-P800. It is certainly liftable by 1 person.

I've not printed A2 yet but Epson were kind enough to send me 25 sheets of A2 Premium Gloss free of charge for completing a 60 second survey on what I thought of the printer. i.e Am I happy with it, where did I buy it from and did I consider any other printers before choosing the P800.

When I bought (from WEX) the roller attachment was on special offer (about 20% off) and you also got a free 25 pack of A3 Permajet paper and a free roll of 17" Epson Premium Lustre. They didn't actually list the roll of paper as free anywhere on their site but I'd heard that if you added it to your basket it would come in at £0.00 when bought with the roller attachment - it was an Epson promo rather than a WEX one.

So 'all in all' I am far better off with the A2 rather than the A3.

I'm still waiting for Permajet to crack the chip on the P800 so I can get their CIS system. They did it pretty quick on the P600 but seem to be struggling to get the P800 one cracked.
 
I have the Epson P800, I love printing large and have printed many A2 photos, they look great!!! I've also got the roll feed and have printed a few pano's...excellent. I have no regrets at all buying the P800, it's versatile and allows me to print whatever I want.
I look at it like this, I've spent a fortune on bodies and lenses to get good photos, the cost of the P800 is much the same cost as a good quality lens but it is my primary output device so it makes sense to spend money on that. Sure there are paper and ink costs, but excluding the initial printer cost I think it costs about £3-4 for an A2 print (ink and paper), hell I go out to the pub and buy pints all night at that price and never complain or look back lol.
I love printing and I love printing large, it's very satisfying to look at an A2 print straight out of the printer.
I also do lots of A3 and A3+ prints.
Fotospeed do a refillable ink kit for the P800, it costs about £250 for the kit which includes all the 9 inks in 125ml bottles and refillable cartridges, the bottles are £25 each to buy (125ml) compared to £38 for 80ml Epson ink so there are ways of reducing ink costs.
 
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