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A3 Printer for Photo Prints
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What is your advice on these printers to print your own A3s for the purpose of selling prints.
Is it not worth the expense and carry on using your local print shop?
Is the paper and ink too expensive??
Is it best to have complete control of your print sales and an A3 an absolute must??
Is it just one of those tools of the business you gotta have??
What printer…..paper …and ink do you recommend??
I have noticed that a few of you who print your own A3 pics sell your prints at what i would say is a fairly low price, i also note that very successfull photographers selling their prints DONOT sell cheaply at all infact sell at the high end…………Is it because that doing the whole hog is a waste of time and not cost effective???? What are your views???
Sorry for all the questions but i am toying with buying an A3.
I would suggest one of the newer Epson printers using their new(ish) K3 Ultrachrome inks. They are very good. Something like the Epson Stylus Photo R2400 or better still, if your budget can stretch that far, the brand new Stylus Pro 3800, which is really an A2+ printer, so may be a little on the large side – but it does produce very impressive prints.
Whether or not you really should go down this route, is an entirely different question. Printing your own does give you a tremendous amount of control over the final print quality and it’s the only way to go if you want the best quality (although some will argue this isn’t the case). But in order to get that quality, you need to be prepared to spend some time and money to get there. For starters you really do need to create your own printer profiles.
Is it worth it? It depends on the volume you are producing. I’d say if your volumes are low, then there is little point in going down this route, nice as it might seem. On the other hand, I think if you need to print very high volumes, this is not the way to go either, as there is probably just too much work involved. However, I doubt that’s a problem most people would encounter.
Inkjet printing really isn’t as cheap as you might at first believe, but it is very rewarding and is capable of producing stunning results.
I use a Canon i9950… which was Canon’s flagship A3 inkjet for a few years… recently it has been replaced by the Pro 9000 and 9500. If these are as good as the i9950 I couldnt reccommend them any higher… I have the i9950 about 7 months now and am still amazed by the quailty of some of the prints I get from it…very very rich colours and deep blacks… then there is the speed… I can get a maximum quality A3 in about 3 mins or so… If ye can get your hands on an i9950 dont think twice… The only thing is that it can be difficult to get B+W prints correct straight out of the box… ye need to learn how to use it for black and whites…. The control is amazing over your own prints and in time you will get better prints than ye did from any lab…. (at least i do…!)
Richie
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