At what point...

[jowensphoto]

...does it become more economical to purchase a high quality printer rather than outsource to a pro lab?

 

[KmH]

Only when the volume of prints that need to be made allow amortizing the cost of the printer and it's supplies reasonable.

What is your budget? $500? $500,000?

There are 2 main print types:

• chromogenic
• inkjet

Chromogenic prints are made using light sensitive paper that has 3 emulsion layers (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow) and the print is developed chemically.

Inkjet ink/dyes are very expensive. The inexpensive low quality aqueous inks/dyes cost about $10,000 a gallon. The higher quality solvent or UV-cured inks/dyes cost substantially more. The highest quality inkjet prints, giclées, require quite expensive inkjet printers and inks/dyes, which is why they are about the most expensive prints to make.

 

[cgipson1]

Depends on how bad you want a new toy to play with!

Overall.. the lab is probably cheaper! I have a buddy with a nice printer... that will print a shot ten times, everytime... and make small changes every time. Then he will throw them away and start over.

Of course he IS getting better at it. lol!

 

[jowensphoto]

It's something my hubby and I were discussing last night. He was convinced that it would be cheaper but I wasn't too sure. Besides, I've really got no interest in making my own prints, at least not right now. The reason being what Charlie said about his buddy with a printer. I don't have that much time/interest to calibrate the perfect image.

Guess I'll leave it to the pros at WHCC and Miller's.

 

[Ballistics]

It's something my hubby and I were discussing last night. He was convinced that it would be cheaper but I wasn't too sure. Besides, I've really got no interest in making my own prints, at least not right now. The reason being what Charlie said about his buddy with a printer. I don't have that much time/interest to calibrate the perfect image.

Guess I'll leave it to the pros at WHCC and Miller's.

The amount of money you would spend on ink, paper, and the printer itself, you would have to print hundreds, if not thousands of prints for the printer to pay for itself, and by that time I don't know if owning printer as a consumer would ever be worth it. Costco charges 1.50 per 8x10 and their printing service is incredible. In school with have very expensive $10k+ printers and Costcos prints are usually better than what I do in school. Then there are things you have to worry about, like maintenance or accidents etc.

 

[Derrel]

Color printing is a LOT like color film developing at home used to be--not cost-efficient. "The big guys" have economies of scale that individuals and small companies can simply NOT match. The cost of consumables is very high when they are bought in small lots; the "big guys" buy their supplies by the truckload and the rail-car load...and can negotiate ridiculous terms that a mere mortal can never hope to achieve.

Also,as in the case of say Costco and WalMart and other large retail outlets--they are printing on machines that are leased, and which cost $80,000 and up...these machines are state of the art. And the prices charged for prints probably do not reflect a "huge markup" over the total cost of making each print; I think some of the printing out services,at WalMart for a specific example, are priced with the "get-em-here-and-they'll-buy-a-boatload-of-other-stuff-too!" factor kept in mind. Unless your print prices are REALLY HIGH, I cannot imagine that self-prin ting is going to return higher profits than sending the work out and then marking up the prints as needed to make a reasonable profit for you.

 

[jowensphoto]

^Exactly, Derrell.

I could buy a cheapo printer and make crap prints, it would pay for itself quickly. Or I could buy a nice printer and make a poor investment (at this point, at least). I'll stick with the labs. Very happy with my latest orders from WHCC, tried out textures for the first time!

 

[amolitor]

The main reason to buy and use a printer of your own is the same reason you'd set up a darkroom in the olde dayes, it's about control.

Executive Summary: Only get a printer if you think you'll enjoy making prints that are perfect, in degrees that are obvious, to degrees that most people will never notice.

If you just outsource to a good shop or person, you'll get fine results back. If you're me, for instance, that's all you care about. Fiddling with the tiny details isn't something I am interested, working wet or digital. If you're you, you'll probably be MOSTLY happy. If you work closely with a good custom printer, you'll get even better results. A good custom printer will notice and fix (or suggest fixes) to things you would never notice yourself. For which you will pay more money.

If you get a printer and really start working with it, and you're the right sort of person, you will start to notice things that you wish were a little different. You'll tweak things and re-print, and go around and around, and you'll get prints (eventually) that you like much more than any custom printer would produce for you. You will become that detail-oriented hyper-finicky custom printer I alluded to in the previous paragraph. Your prints will, in some sense, be better for it.

What's the difference between "playing around with stuff and finding new stuff to worry about that nobody will ever notice, and fixing it, and loving the whole geeky process" and "actually making objectively better prints"? I don't actually know where the line is. I'm not passionate about print quality, so I am the wrong guy to judge this stuff.

Mike on The Online Photographer put together a great post a while back on "learning to print" which basically is a year-long plan whereby you develop your own taste in prints, from the large scale obvious stuff to the finicky details nobody but you will ever see. Uh, I think this is it: The Online Photographer: A Specific, Detailed Program for Absolutely, Positively Getting Better as a Digital Printmaker

It's not a program I am remotely interested in following, but if it sounds like the kind of thing you're interested in, you should definitely get a printer.