Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: -Tom- on December 11, 2012, 12:25:22 pm

Title: Color printer options (for personal use)
Post by: -Tom- on December 11, 2012, 12:25:22 pm
I decided to take some of my photos and put them all over the walls in my home. I'm contemplating between going to the shop (people tend to charge a lot in my area) or buy some decent, mid level color printer.

I didn't use a color printer for years, the last one I've owned was HP Deskjet 720 :D

Are there any solid A3 color printers on the market, or are they not viable ($) for home user like me?
Title: Re: Color printer options (for personal use)
Post by: Daedalus256 on December 14, 2012, 12:39:00 pm
Epson has a couple Artisans that are about $150-$250 that may fulfill that need (Artisan 730 and Artisan 1430). I did a job for a company around here on a couple Artisan 730s with some luster paper (Photo shoot) and was surprised as the results.
Title: Re: Color printer options (for personal use)
Post by: bill t. on December 14, 2012, 01:27:33 pm
It's a good day when I can prepare a printing file that can challenge the image quality of most of the $200+ desktop printers now available.  To a guy who spent way too much time in darkrooms, it's just amazing.  You can hardly go wrong.
Title: Re: Color printer options (for personal use)
Post by: Iluvmycam on December 14, 2012, 01:39:28 pm
Artisans produce nice prints...but they have small ink cells that have to be replaced often. Epson R2000 has a nice balance of cell size, cost and IQ. (if the 3880 is too much for you.)
Title: Re: Color printer options (for personal use)
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on December 14, 2012, 02:37:14 pm
I have an Epson 3800. I'm delighted with it. It does A2 prints, it's light enough that I can move it on my own, it's small enough to be reasonably unobtrusive on its little table, it uses reasonably-priced 80ml cartridges, I've had no (yes, no) problems with head clogs and the quality of the output is fantastic. It doesn't do rolls or canvas, but I can live with that. I imagine the 3880 is even better (though, I suspect, not much). When you bear in mind the value of the ink that comes with it, I'm slightly puzzled that anyone would buy a 13" Epson.

Jeremy