Need help to chose a printer

[jovince3000]

Hey all, I want to start printing my own work (from digital) but I have difficulties choosing a printer.

The lynda.com course that I saw had the ancestor of the Epson Stylus R3000 and praised it for it's b&w capacities. But I was also wondering if any of you had personal experience with this model concerning colour printing.

Is there some sort of trade-off? Do I have to pick between a printer that has good B&W or Colour and if I want both I will have to go to an higher price range?

I'd like your inputs on that, and if you have any recommendation for a printer that has pigment ink with high archivability of 100year + that is within my 1000$ budget. Please go ahead. Also knowing that if the answer to my previous question is "yes", I have to chose between high colour or B&W quality at this price range, I will chose B&W.

Here's a link to the R3000

Thank you all in advance

 

[Gary A.]

I used to use Epson. Now I use Canon. I found Canon to be slightly better on the output and easier to dial in the image, (much much less waste). Check out the Canon Pro 1 printer. It costs about the same with more ink (12 inks).

 

[soufiej]

All open ended, "tell me which is the best", questions are impossible to answer. With no qualifications placed on the purchase, buy one of the most expensive units and then the chance you can blame the equipment will be minimized.

Epson and Canon seem to come up most frequently when doing a "best printers for photos" search. I went with Canon since I have a Canon camera and IMO Canon works best with Canon. That's negligible though as any modern printer simply receives data from your computer. It is rather difficult to buy a bad DSLR or a printer though if you simply pay attention. Make your priorities list and then begin to narrow the field by way of elimination until you can no longer exclude a printer. Eventually, you should have four or five or so printers to choose from. I was interested in the cost per print and Canon kept that number down. Canon also has a good selection of photographic papers to select from, another plus in my priorities. Once more, not a deal breaker but, IMO, Canon works best with Canon.

Decide how large you want to print. Dye sublimation printers are slightly "better" than inkjets but not that affordable IMO if you want to print larger than, say, 4X6 or 5X7. Realize when selecting inkjet printers there is a limit to the dot per inch resolution of the human eye and more than stated specs greater than 300 dpi will cost more, sometimes much more, and not necessarily give back any real returns. As with your camera, larger prints will require greater resolution but will also be subject to the average distance from which you will view the image. Eventually, the number of ink tanks the printer uses will, IMO become more of a hassle than a benefit as you'll be running to the store to replace a single ink tank when you could have had a high quality image with fewer individual tanks.

I'd say narrow your list to Epson and Canon and you won't go wrong if you stay with an inkjet printer. Decide just how much quality you will actually need, not how much is advertised on paper. Decide how large you will print anything and begin to narrow your list. Of course, your budget will be the most significant limitation. I bought my most recent printer through Canon direct sales where I shopped for new, clearance and refurbished products. Canon often has good deals on their refurbished products which still come with a full factory warranty.

 

[pgriz]

I've printed lots of stuff, buy it gets expensive. You may want to try this outfit (www.provisia.ca - Labo Professionnel Montreal Pro Lab), located on Decarie Circle - amazing quality, very good pricing, and very knowledgeable service. The only negatives are the access (difficult) and parking (poor). But if you can get there, you may be quite positively surprised.

 

[KenC]

I don't print anymore, basically for the reasons Paul stated above. I use a local photo printer who does an amazing job for a good price. However, when I did print I had two different Epson photo printers and was very happy with them. The big thing is the K3 ink set, which is archival and also has gray and light gray inks for very good B&W printing. The Epson 2880 uses these inks and costs much less than the 3000, so I would look into that. The last printer I had was a 2400, with the K3 inks, and I was amazed at the print quality.

 

[jovince3000]

Thank you all for your inputs, that's a lot of information and pro and cons to process, pgriz, I will most definitely look that place up, as their pricing is very good indeed compare to the place I'm currently using (lozeau, on St-hubert street).

I narrowed my choice down to epson and canon printers since you all seems to agree on sticking with canon branding. Both of them have features that are interesting to me so the next part is to work on myself and try to figure out what I'm ready to sacrifice. Would be a lot more easier if I could actually try them both though ...