Cheap but ok A3+ printer?

[ChrisS]

Hi all - I've not been on here for years, gave up the day job lecturing fine art/ photography a couple of years back and sold my nice printer and some other gear but now want to do some A3+ prints.
Can anyone recommend a cheap printer to get the job done? Doesn't need to be great quality - the plan's to draw and paint over the prints, so hopefully you can see why I don't want to pay too much. I'm in the UK in case that makes any difference to what's available.
Thank you!
Chris

[stockjock]

In the US most people would recommend getting either the Canon Pro-100 or Pro-10 during one of the many sales which can bring the price after rebate down to as little as $99 or $149 respectively.  But I have seen posts saying those kind of deals are unavailable in the UK/Europe for some reason.  Both printers are excellent values if bought on sale. 

I'm not as familiar with Epson's A3+, i.e. 13x19", printers but generally an 8 ink printer will give better results than a 6 ink printer.  For your application I think the paper path and how waterproof the inks are might be important.  Some Epson printers have the option for a straight through printer path which would permit you to use very heavy paper or very thin panels.  And I'm going to guess that pigment printers will be more water resistant than dye printers but I've never tested that myself.

[NAwlins_Contrarian]

Can anyone recommend a cheap printer to get the job done? Doesn't need to be great quality - the plan's to draw and paint over the prints ....

Planning to paint and draw over the prints suggests to me a strong desire to print on media types appropriate for painting and drawing. As much as I generally like the current Canon lineup (in the U.K., called the iP8750, Pro-100S, and Pro-10S), the ability to handle well canvas and similar media and to print on the large majority of it suggests to me an Epson P600. I see Wex currently has it for £419, probably due to the P700 being in the process of replacing it (albeit at £679).

To those questioning that recommendation, at least judging by Wex, the P400 is actually more expensive (£549). The Canon Pro-10S is not only more expensive (£499), but its minumum 30mm each top and bottom margins with thicker / heavier / 'art' papers might be a substantial limitation for the intended use. The Canon Pro-100S not only has the same margin issue, but its dye inks are less suitable for some such media, and it's not that much cheaper in the U.K. (£359). The Canon iP8750 is the really lower-cost option (£199), but it may well have the same minimum-margin issue, and it also uses dye inks.

[ChrisS]

Thanks fellas. I hadn't thought of the dye/ pigment distinction and it looks like ones using pigments are a fair bit more expensive. I need to think about this a bit, if i can get away with dye. Meanwhile, I'm doing some tests using old test prints I've had laying around the place for years. In fact, I've found so may I wonder if I'll ever need to buy a new printer!
Cheers
Chris

[NAwlins_Contrarian]

From what I think I understand about what you want to do, it sounds like mostly you would want to print on canvas and/or heavy watercolor paper, not something more like regular photo paper, is that correct? That is what is driving my thinking. If that's correct, then the quality of the underlying print may not be too important, and then the issue would be not mainly dye ink versus pigment ink, but how well dye-ink printers would feed and print on the types of media that you want to then draw and paint over. I am not sure of the P600, but some of the Epson models have an extra, straighter media feed path that works better with thicker / stiffer art papers and canvases. Even the second, straighter feed path on the Canon models involves significant bending, which affects feeding, and probably for that reason many of the Canon models have large minimum margins, 30mm each top and bottom, when you set the media type to something appropriate for a thick art paper or canvas (these large margins do not apply to regular photo papers). Maybe check out the Epson XP-15000, a dye-ink printer that Wex shows at £249, and see whether it might meet your needs. I don't know whether it has an extra, straighter feed path, but that would be a significant question.

[ChrisS]

Thanks for the reply NAwlins_Contrarian - and apologies! I should have written in response to your earlier post that I plan really to work on regular thickness papers rather than thicker media such as canvas. I'm working onto old prints with pencil, ink and a little gouache at the moment and hopefully can avoid the need for a printer handling heavier material. That said, the Epson you refer to appeals, my last photo printer was an A2 Epson that was a real workhorse, never faltered however long I left it sat idle, it just kept going til I eventually sold it for about half the price I'd paid new. And I remember Wex being a good company to deal with. I'm off to look further into that one. And again - apologies for not picking the medium point up before you'd written such a thorough response.
Cheers
Chris