...If you are that guy, it's a waste of $$ invest in wfp 1-2x prints / month. Sorry. They are simply not designed to do that as it is not the target market for wide format printing of any series or manufacturer. Keep ink flowing through the system, and keep the machines maintained.
Will I get slammed for this post? Half will agree and the other half will not, meh.
No slamming necessary, your's is a widely held assessment that folks with relatively low volume printing requirements should not bother trying to bring their printing projects in house. Yet for myself and I suspect others here on this LULA forum it doesn't take many large prints each month to fully address the in house expenses of capital depreciation, maintenance, and supplies. How much would it cost me to have a portfolio of fine art prints produced by another capable lab or printmaking studio? Sure, if you are happy with RC poster prints from Costco, then maybe the money doesn't go out the door so fast. But I figure my Canon ipF8300 printer costs me less than $200 per month to be sitting here in my studio doing low volume work. Every so often, Canon practically gives them away for little more than the price of the ink cartridges here in the US. I couldn't even get one 24x36 print a month on a high end paper like Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Pearl for this kind of monthly expense at any good lab even if I do all the prep work. So, as long as I run a nice portfolio or two of prints each year then having a pro inkjet printer in house at least breaks even for me in terms of costs. As for maintenance, I keep the printer on, run a nozzle check every few days which has never shown any missing lines yet prevents those automatic cleaning cycles which otherwise would waste a lot of ink. Also, I accept that I will lose a head with much lower total ink consumption than production facilities, but it's just factored into the monthly operating expense. I have replaced two heads over a three year span of time on my 8300, one was under warranty.
All that said, the real reward for me is in the total convenience and control I've got when making my own prints in house. Of course, the expertise required to be doing high end printmaking was hard fought and hard won, and not many photographers have that skill, but if you have it, then owning a wide format inkjet printer for low volume personal use is a no-brainer. Maybe not an Epson
, but one with user replaceable heads and no MK/PK switching penalty, for sure!
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