Printers

DR_Malibu · Jun 9, 2011

If I am printing my photos at home and I want the best quality what printer would you recommend? I have been looking at the Epson around 299.00. Any feedback helpful.

tirediron · Jun 9, 2011

If you truly want the best quality, you better dig a LOT deeper. The Epson Stylus Pro 3880 is a middle of the road printer (What I would classify as a good home unit) is four times that. A $300 inkjet printer will probably do decent home prints up to about 8x10.

Big Mike · Jun 9, 2011

There are a lot of factors. For example, how large do you want to print? Are you looking for high quality B&W prints as well?

And what is your expectation of 'high quality'? You can can get pretty decent prints on cheap 'photo printers', but if you really want top notch quality, those printers can get expensive. Keep in mind that there are other factors to making your own great prints. Use good quality ink, you probably want archival rated. The paper you use can make a big difference...and for each paper type, you may need the proper profile. You may want/need to do a bunch of calibrating and test printing to get the results you want.

IMO, it's just easier to use a good photo lab. It's their job to make high quality prints and you don't have to worry about any of the hardware issues. Prices these days are really competitive, so if you compare the costs of printing at a good lab vs buying a printer, buying high quality paper & ink etc, then it's really not much more expensive to use the lab. It may even be cheaper.

Keep in mind that whether you print at home or at the lab, the first step to getting the prints to look how you expect them (besides taking the photo) is to calibrate your monitor. If your monitor isn't properly calibrated, you really have no idea if what you are seeing, is actually how the image file looks.

DR_Malibu · Jun 14, 2011

I only need one for home with the best quality I can get and only want as big as 8x10. I was looking at epsons and found a really good one for 300 but now I can't remember what it was ;(

DR_Malibu · Jun 14, 2011

And about the calibrating I always do my edits and view my pics on my LCD 47" tv so I assume it's exact to my color.

Big Mike · Jun 14, 2011

And about the calibrating I always do my edits and view my pics on my LCD 47" tv so I assume it's exact to my color.

I would guess that that will be even less accurate than a computer monitor...and you are still missing the calibration.

CCericola · Jun 14, 2011

I'm partial to Epson. I like their lustre paper. I know an LCD TV can be calibrated with a Spyder so I'm thinking most other brands will work as well.

Opher · Jun 14, 2011

I personally find TV's awful to edit on lol but to each there own. I print on an epson R1900. works well for me... anything over 11" i send out for. if you are doing a lot of BW printing you may want to go one up

DR_Malibu · Jun 14, 2011

Crap but my laptop quality sucks!! How can I calibrate for my tv?? I normally pay to have them printed but I don't want to do it anymore. Hmmm any suggestions on the tv screen and stuff or what and how do I do it??

table1349 · Jun 14, 2011

tirediron said:
If you truly want the best quality, you better dig a LOT deeper. The Epson Stylus Pro 3880 is a middle of the road printer (What I would classify as a good home unit) is four times that. A $300 inkjet printer will probably do decent home prints up to about 8x10.

While it is a good printer the Stylus Pro 2880 will provide the same printing quality, with the same ink for around $500.00. Only does 13" wide instead of 17" wide and the ink cartridges are smaller, but for a home printer that may not be so bad unless they are doing a lot of printing.