Printers

Alright photogs lets sound off on printers we use. I know a lot of us use print labs, but I am considering investing in a printer to do my own images for better color control (the other option is calibrating my display - which probably needs done too).

I've seen a few people using the Canon Pro-100's, but what about more wallet friendly options? I will be using the prints for client portraits as well as personal prints of landscapes for my walls.

NickWell24 wrote in post #17832047
Alright photogs lets sound off on printers we use. I know a lot of us use print labs, but I am considering investing in a printer to do my own images for better color control (the other option is calibrating my display - which probably needs done too).

I've seen a few people using the Canon Pro-100's, but what about more wallet friendly options? I will be using the prints for client portraits as well as personal prints of landscapes for my walls.

If you print a lot your most wallet friendly printers are typically more expensive printers since they usually have larger ink tanks and the lowest cost per print. Also keep in mind that even the best printer needs to be used frequently to keep the nozzles from plugging up. It's easy to waste $15 work of ink running cleaning functions to unclog nozzles.

Personally I think the Pro-100 is a really reasonably priced high quality printer, and definitely one of the best values out there. Redriver Paper provides some good data on the cost of inkjet printing that can helpful: http://www.redrivercat​alog.com/cost-of-inkjet-printing.html

I'd narrow things down to the printers that would give me the quality and reliability I'd need then out of that group pick the one with the lowest cost per print.

If you don't print much it can be more economical to use a good lab.

If you don't have a color calibration kit for your monitor I would invest in one before getting a printer. Otherwise you will spend a lot of money and be disappointed in the results.

-dave-m- wrote in post #17832369
If you don't have a color calibration kit for your monitor I would invest in one before getting a printer. Otherwise you will spend a lot of money and be disappointed in the results.

I couldn't agree more. And it's also important to get the brightness and contrast of your monitor set basing your final tweaks on the results from a reputable lab (instructing them to print with auto-corrections off) first. Lots printing for the first time, even after using a calibration device, get back exceptionally dark prints because they haven't turned their monitor brightness WAY down for editing. For some monitors it can be borderline too bright even when the monitor is turned down to 15% brightness. If contrast is set too high for editing, your prints will come back flat.

It's pretty hard to diagnose printing issues (color, contrast and brightness) if your system isn't properly calibrated/adjusted to start with. Also make sure to do some research regarding printer setup, such as ensuring ICM is turned off in the printer driver and let PS or LR manage colors instead using the profile for the paper you are using.

The overall cost of home printing really depends on your location. In the USA it is possible to get really big discounts on printers, paper, and inksets. If you can afford to wait for the sales, and buy in bulk when they are on you could reduce the cost of home printing to match that of a good pro lab, for print sizes from 10×8 /A4 to 19×13/A3+. For small prints in bulk a lab will usually always be cheapest.

In the rest of the world it seems the potential discounts on home printing supplies, and printers, are much smaller. Usually the per print costa from a good print lab can be substantially less than for printing at home. I only have a relativly basic multifunction A4 Canon Pixma MG5150, I use Canon PT101 Pro Platinum paper and OEM inks. The quality is even so very good. The cost of an A4 print is around £2.50 for paper/ink. This is OK where I only need a single print doing. The pro lab I use though is much cheaper, and the quality is excellent. A 16×12 or A3 print on Fuji Crystal Archive C Type paper is only £1.15 including VAT. P&P is only £4.50 and is usually next day, if I have five prints made they work out cheaper per print than A4 does printed at home.

If my printer could print the larger size the cost would be around £4.50 for the roughly doubled area. That cost doesn't include anything to cover the cost of the printer. At £1 a print it would take around 400 prints to amortize a Pro 100 or 650 to cover the Pro 1, against single prints from the lab at a toatal of £5.65 each. If I did one print a week then it would take between eight and twelve years, depending on the printer, to amortize the cost of the printers. If I needed more than one print a week the lab just looks even better from a cost point of view, ordering once a week shouldn't be a problem.

Home printing is not usually the most cost effective way of printing, and with a good lab the quality will be high too. Really the only thing that home printing offers is the satsifaction of doing everything yourself. Even then there is a big difference in digital printing, where all the skill is in producing a great file to feed to the automated digital printing device, be it on your desk or in a lab, and working in the old, all manual, wet darkroom.

Alan