Canadians: Where are you printing

(hope this is in the right forum)

I've been searching for a good quality printer in Canada. I'd love to use WHCC, but the fact that they ship via UPS ruins it for me. I've tried a few other US printers (mpix, scrapbookpictures.com)​, but I'd prefer to print in Canada. Most of the professional printing places in Canada (like Custom Colour in Toronto)seem to only deal with professional photographers, and the non-professional printing places adjust my photos (like Lozeau in Montreal).

Where do you print? Or do you print at home?

Thanks

Hi Sarah,

With the cost of good printers having fallen dramatically, printing at home is very effective.

I bought a Canon S9000 three years ago and haven't looked back.

Absolute control over all steps. When I was in high school, I had my own B&W darkroom, even dabbled in developing colour slide film (with a neat Ansco kit).

After college, I worked for a weekly paper and had access to an even better darkroom.

I always hated having to send stuff out for colour printing; I wanted to oversee each stage.

Photoshop and inkjet technology came to my rescue.

So for me, the whole digital revolution reached maturity when I could make good quality prints at home, I sold off all of my film bodies and jumped in the DSLR pool.

Look around for a good Canon or Epson printer, it will be your best long term solution, except for huge or specialty paper prints.

Thanks Bruce.

Have to say that I've had horrible experience with my own printers. The last one kept on jamming up (ink issues). It was an Epson and I heard that it is not uncommon with Epson printers.

Are you still using the Canon? Have you ever had to sent it in for repair?

3 years service, no repairs, knocking on wood as I type. I did have to contact Canon tech support once to ask for a solution to some banding (lines across print) problems, involved resetting the cartridge head, they were quick to get back to me.

I a not a professional, so the demand on the unit isn't high, although I have done a couple of wedding albums, along with assisting my daughter in law with her scap-booking habit, so there has been at least a few thousand prints made on this machine.

Epson have a good rep, so you may have had a lemon, or you could try Canon or even a dye sub from Kodak or Olympus if you are willing to spend the $.

I also have a portable Canon 300, the dye sub 4X6's are excellent give aways when I go visiting or on vacation, but pricey per print.

I usually just goto Costco to have my stuff printed. 18 cents a photo and I can print some 3 dozen in an hour. I cannot do it anywhere this fast or cheap with my own printer. Saves me at Least $300 on a printer/inks/paper as well.

I used this company to do some 20X30's for me. They were downright awesome.

http://www.imagespin.c​om/

I bought a Epson R1800 about two month ago and love the pictures it prints. If I compared the cost per print to a lab my cost may be higher but I like the idea of printing when and how I want. If I ever needed a lot of copies of a picture I would look into using a lab to keep the cost down.

Thanks. Imagespin looks interesting.

I think I'm worried that I wont use my printer often enough if I buy one.

Sarah,
I've been using a Canon Pixma i8500 with excellent results for everything up to full bleed 8.5 x 11. My paper of choice is Ilford Classic Pearl. I've seen the results of the company that ssim mentioned and if I need larger than what my 8500 is capable of I will definately use them too.