I assume it's not easy to make a poor choice anymore but...
I am thinking of selecting between:
1. Epson R2880 (£584)
2. HP B9180 (£459)
3. Canon Pro 9500 MkII (£559)
Paper selection:
Happy to print on "glossy" media - will probably use Ilford GFS as it's Michael's favourite and I am happy to take advice. I don't anticipate switching to matte papers very often, if at all.
I print maybe 80% BW, 20% colour.
I will be printing from Lightroom (and have the various LL tutorials).
Running Snow Leopard on a 2007 MacPro system.
Currently I print by printing to JPG in Lightroom with a downloaded profile from Photobox. The results are very good in most cases, but I have been thinking it might be worth having my own printer for quicker turnaround.
I usually print at 8x12, but the extra size of the A3 printer will be very useful for margins and the occasional A3 print.
Concerns:
1. I tend to go through patches where I will print quite a lot, and then it goes quiet for 4-8 weeks. Are any of the printers better at coping with quiet periods without it causing any calibration problems? Head problems? Ink problems?
2. Is there a consensus which printer is best for colour or BW? I would err on the side of best BW printer. I presume this is mostly a concern of days past.
3. Are any of these printers particularly good or bad in terms of ink costs, both with respect to the underlying inks and also cartriges for these particular printers? For example the Epson 3800 is available for £869 - would it actually be cheaper over the lifetime of the printer to get one of those because of ink cartrige costs?
4. Driver issues with Snow Leopard?
5. Are any of these printers going to match or exceed the quality of the prints from Photobox's big Polieletronica Laserlab (Lightjet?) style printers? It's a bit of hassle using them, but the quality dramatically exceeds most of the inkjet prints I have been able to produce with my now old-ish Epson R800, or from highstreet print shops with their big Epson/HP printers. I have no confidence that I have seen the best that can be achieved from inkjet prints however. Also of course the price of prints from Photobox is probably no more or possibly less than the consumables I would use printing at home. An A4 print costs £2 from Photobox.
Thanks for any advice.
Regards,
Craig