Printing at home

[Treff]

Hi to all. I was just wondering if many of the photographers here print their own photographs either to hang on the wall, club comps, sell, etc. Just a general enquiry. My trusty printer died after giving many years of good service. Is it these day better to send away to have printing done by someone else or to again dig into the wallet. Thanks for any comments.

[colin C]

Like you, my Canon i9950 A3+ printer gave up after 16 years faithful service and I replaced it with a Pixma Pro 10S. In hindsight, that wasn't necessarily the wise choice.

On the plus side I have a versatile high quality printer capable of printing all papers including art papers up to A3+ and it will print on printable CD's and DVD's. I have a stock of papers and inks and at the press of a couple of buttons I can have a high quality print within a few minutes.

On the negative side is the cost. First the printer, which was over £600 (now down in the £400's). Second the inks, retailing at £15 each and you need 10 of them, but shop around and you can get a reasonable discount for genuine Canon. Third is the ink consumption: I only print a couple of prints now and again, but the printer goes through a full check before printing and squirts through a fair amount of ink, in order to provide prints of the highest quality. The sensible way forward would be for me to save my printing and do 20 or so at a time and that way, the "wasted" ink from the cleansing process would be ametized over 20, rather than 2. But, I print when I need to and not to some efficient schedule. Finally, when I want to try new papers, I waste time and paper getting the appropriate profile.

I have a friend that uses a Company for all of his printing and he gets a choice in size and quality of print paper and the results are superb, relatively inexpensive and arrive within 24 - 48hrs.

If I had my time over again, I would probably forgo the convenience of having my own printer and get them done commercially.

[Guest]

I used DS Colour Labs Ltd for one of my images,good result and very reasonable costs.

[ColytonJohn]

I compromised when I needed a new printer a couple of years ago and went for a relatively inexpensive (< £200) Canon TS8050. The print quality is good but only at a maximum size of A4 although this didn't trouble me as for larger sizes I prefer to use the excellent DS Colour Labs.

As Colin said, low volume home printing is wasteful of ink therefore, expensive - especially using Canon inks - but it helps having six different tanks that gives the ability to replace only those that need it.

Incidentally, I had to get the TS8050 on special order as one of the PCs I print to it (via WiFi) still uses MS Vista for which drivers aren't available for the more recent TS8150.

Cheers,
John

[Trev B]

Like Colin I used to print my own until the printer had had enough and decided to retired! I'm lucky that I have access to the Graphic's Department of a body I do a lot of photography for, so use the printers which can produce up to A2. If I did not have this facility I would use a commercial printing house. No way would I invest in a printer again for photo printing, although they've dropped in price, the price of ink can soon empty the money box.

[Treff]

Many thanks to all for the replies. Well, after lots of deliberations I decided against buying a new printer but.........................one wet and windy day I got really bored and went on the internet. Service to say I had a rush of blood and against all judgement purchased the Canon pixma pro 10s. I have yet to explain to the Wife when the very large box arrives next week that this was in fact a free gift for filling in a questionnaire about the merits of us old folk surfing the internet.

[colin C]

very large box arrives next week that this was in fact a free gift for filling in a questionnaire about the merits of us old folk surfing the internet.

Good luck with that one, let me know how it works out. If successful I will try a variation of that on Mrs C ................. hopefully involving a 1Dx MKIII.

[Keitht53]

I had an Epson Photo printer for some years (can't remember the model) but the cost of inks became prohibitive. I didn't print much, and as Colin said, the ink waste is high with that type of usage. A full set of genuine inks was costing over £100. Any printing I want now will be done by using online providers. Additional downside is I have loads of unused paper to get rid of.

[Trev B]

Good luck with that one, let me know how it works out. If successful I will try a variation of that on Mrs C ................. hopefully involving a 1Dx MKIII.

Colin if its any help you can always have it sent here -- I'm an honest sort of chap

[colin C]

Colin if its any help you can always have sent here -- I'm an honest sort of chap

I'm most obliged for your very kind offer.

You may have to look after it for a while tho ................. it may take a year or two to convince Mrs C. Hope that won't inconvenience you too much.

[ST-EOS]

Many thanks to all for the replies. Well, after lots of deliberations I decided against buying a new printer but.........................one wet and windy day I got really bored and went on the internet. Service to say I had a rush of blood and against all judgement purchased the Canon pixma pro 10s. I have yet to explain to the Wife when the very large box arrives next week that this was in fact a free gift for filling in a questionnaire about the merits of us old folk surfing the internet.

Sorry I'm late to this party, assuming the big box has been delivered, I was wondering how long you will be hospitalised for Treff

I have a Canon Pixma iX4000 A3+ printer that i recently noticed wasn't printing correctly, I suspected that this was down to lack of "regular" use. It is still useful for printing documents but I don't print any images to it now. After determining what was wrong with the iX4000 I was in a similar position as you Treff.
After a bit of sould searching I decided to purchase another Pixma (iP8750, A3+) for printing test images using 6"x4" paper. I do this prior to printing anything larger that the current Mrs S may allow to be display in the house .
Having said that last week having printed three 6"x4" test images, I used an online printer for three A3 images on 18x12 inch paper.

[Treff]

Thanks ST-EOS for the mail.
Anyway the printer, still as not arrived, it's supposed to be today. I am still undecided to tell you the truth and think I will return it and buy another lens.
I moved away from Canon to using a Sony a7r11 body with my canon glass but I do miss the functionality of the Canon bodies. The wife was quite good about the printer but I do hear the sharpening of something in the kitchen every now and again which is a worry.
SORRY. I completely miss read your mail ST-EOS and went off at a tangent of the story of a poor last year lol. No wonder when things turn up at the door i do not remember ordering them or its the wrong thing completely. Bad eyesight and old age I'm afraid. That and being a little crazy. I have now edited the dreary bits of my life from this mail . lol.
The printer, sent it back. I reasoned we have too many sharp objects in our house lol that and the fact I do not do so may pics anymore. So it's DS labs from now on. Cheers