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Which digital printer ?
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I am considering buying an inkjet printer to print A3 size (mainly black and white) on Fine Art paper. In my film days I printed on Record Rapid fibre based paper, and I want similar quality paper. From reading reviews, Epson and Canon seem to be the most popular printers and ink (especially) and paper seem quite costly.
I would like to know :
1) What printer you recommend
2) Where (in Ireland preferably) can you buy it
3) what paper you recommend
4) On average, how many A3 prints you get from your cartridges
5) what is the average cost (paper+ink) of producing an A3 printAnd any other suggestions/recommendations that you may think helpful
Thanks,
Ger.An important question for those giving any advice will be how much printing will you plan on doing ?
I won’t be doing it on a professional basis (unless someone wants to buy !) so probably a half dozen a month (cost depending)
Ger, another option is to get someone to do the printing for you …
It might cost 500 euro for a decent A3 printer for B&W that uses K3 inks… Might it be cheaper if your only going to print around 6 pictures a month to get someone else to do it… A proper place would have all the profiles, proper K3 inks and proper papers… Thats the path I am going down for my digital stuff as I don’t do enough to justify the 500 euro and the price for inks etc
Hi Ger,
Epson printers are great for photographic prints and there’s a good network of suppliers and fairly decent service in Ireland.
As a rule of thumb the larger and more expensive you go in the range of printers, the cheaper the ink cost will be per ml. The smaller printers are usually a bit expensive to run as the ink costs are higher. This is especially the case if you only do occasional printing due to occasional nozzle clogs and cleaning cycles which mean ink wastage.There are some beautiful papers available on the market currently. The Baryta papers form the various companies are very similar to a superior-quality fibre-based darkroom material. Have a look at Canson Baryta Photographique and Hahnemuehle Photo Rag Baryta and Hahnemuehle Fine Art Baryta to start with. They are all excellent for B&W. There’s a fair amount of information on the iophotoworks website if you want to read up on some of them. Might be an idea to order a few smaller prints from either myself (iophotoworks.com) or Steve Crozier at 360 dpi to see which paper you like the most before going off and buying a box.
Hope this helps somewhat…
Ger,
In terms of a printer, I’d wholly recommend the Epson R2800 (I have the previous version R2400) and its excellent.
Paddy Barker and Sheldon here on the site sell them.We have €50 off the 2880 printer THIS WEEK ONLY (Special offer for Photovision), so it’s now €749 Inc VAT.
One thing to consider if you are seriously considering the 2880 (and it is a fine printer capable of outstanding output)….
The drawback ( and this applies to all the A3+ printers, not just Epson) is the size of the ink catridges at 13ml they are relatively expensive (‘m sure that Braker and Sheldon can supply comparitive pricing here!). If you do a lot of printing, it might be worth considering the Epson 3880 – its an A2 printer thats usually round 1100 or 1200 euro but the ink catridges are 80ml each and you get 9 of them with the printer – probably worth €450 to €500, The printer itself is surprisingly small ( not much bigger than the 2880).
Maybe someone from Sheldon of Barker can post the cost of the 2 printers plus the cost o fthe inks for the 2 printers
Gerry
I Agree with everything Gerry has said, if you will be doing a lot of printing the 3880 will more than pay for itself. Inks for the 2880 are €13.99 (€1.07 / ml) for about 13ml, Inks for the 3880 are €54.78 for 80ml (69c / ml) – a saving of about 35%. These are the full prices, we do discounts when buying multiple inks. We have one 3880 printer we can offer €1,195 – All Prices inc. VAT.
Have you tried looking at Canon photo printers also Epson do some really good printers and the ink can be pretty cheap.
I pretty much agree with everything said about the Epson printers. I have the 2880 and it is a wonderful piece of equipment. The ability to switch between matte black and photo black is nice, but a bit cumbersome, though necessary when using fine art style matte surfaces. If you are printing in large volumes, definitely go to the 3880 as the ink savings alone will pay for the added investment.
my recommendation would be to contact sheldon photo in swords as he will give you the best advice going and the back up service is the best iever seen i wouldn’t be buying a 2880 printer as the cost of the inks are to much but there is a 3000 one out great printer it is , i was in the same position last year but met with sheldon and bought a 3880 of him which i don’t regret i have picked up enough printing to cover the ink and paper to run the printer if you want to pm me i will exchange numbers with u if you would like to contact me :D
I’d forgotten about this post. I took the earlier advice and bought a 3880 from Sheldon,and yep, it’s a great printer.
Ger
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