Photo Printer Quality an Durability?

[dewey]

So I have been looking at the Epson R1800 and the Cannon I9000 for printing my own prints. I'm thinking of making the investment to ease my workflow a bit. I'm not thinking it will save me money... after crunching the numbers more than I should have it looks like it'll cost about the same to print my own as the labs that I use.

I've always strayed away from printing my own prints because of the time involved... but now I'm thinking about it.

The question I have is the durability of prints. For the prints I frame and sell at shows I can see using a photo printer. For weddings there is just too many prints so I won't even think of doing those myself.

For portrait shoots however I can see good and bad. Speedy turnaround and happy customers is the good, but my worry is durability. If I run my nail over the print the ink doesn't budge, but it does scratch the finish on the print. They just don't seem as durable or robust as lab prints. Obviously keeping fingernails off of the prints solves the issue but I'm thinking of customers here.

Just seeking input - has anyone seen duability issues with printing your own? I guess I could always get a Mini Lab. :mrgreen:

 

[JIP]

I do not have any experience printing myself but I recently attended anseminar with David Ziser and he uses the printers you mentioned and he said if you are selling prints from those printers and do not seal or coat them in some way you are doing your clients a large disservice. The only problem with this theory is the coater he mentioned cost almost as much or than the printer.

 

[markc]

I avoid the problem by selling my prints framed, but I tend towards the art market and not people who want to buy "3 of #5 and 2 of #7". If you are selling just the prints and are worried about durability, you are probably better off going through someplace like Mpix or whoever you use for weddings.

 

[dewey]

Yeah I figured as much... I'll wait for a printer sale... too many other places to invest my money

 

[Flash Harry]

I have the R1800, the print quality is really good but the cost of replacement cartridges in the UK stops me printing anything but one-offs and the odd proof.

 

[markc]

This is more about fading than scratching, but still, it's pretty amazing for an inkjet print. Thought you might find it interesting. It's the third article down.
http://www.inkjetmall.com/news/01-23-06.html

 

[Alpha]

I know a place in Raleigh that's selling an Epson2200 for $250 bucks, in basically new condition, with inks.

But you don't know what you're getting yourself into. Getting good prints requires some serious work or some serious money. A stock printer WILL NOT, i repeat, WILL NOT make good prints. It needs to be calibrated. You're talking around $100 an hour to pay a print tech to calibrate it. You can see that the costs add up rather quickly, especially when it comes to inks. If all that is worth it to you, then by all means buy an inkjet. But the quality of the prints out of a new printer are not good. You'll likely experience a good degree of metamerism and bronzing, even with an epson, and no amount of spray fixer of whatever expensive coating will correct that. Take it from me, I've printed on the best of the best and the worst of the worst.