Which printer NOT to buy?

[martin-images]

Originally Posted by jfrancho

I said printing at home was at the hobbyist stage, as far as printing up to 13". I still think printing at home, even with the equipment is an advanced aspect of the hobby, irrespective of whether you sell hundreds or thousands of prints. I'm speaking of the equipment, and what the equipment can do for me. It may do one thing well, but can't be all things. If I were to get all the equipment necessary to produce all the items I've sold in the past six months, the cost would be in the millions. Yes, millions. $1500 printer vs. millions of dollars in printing equipment. But I digress, all you home printer guys are "pros" not "hobbyists."

Thank you JF, not all but there are some out there, anyway we got there in the end , lets see more of you in DMF

Martin

[Chris and Izzy]

Getting back on topic: I found my old Epson 1280 to be very frustrating. Constant clogs and terrible colors out of the box. Finally the head cracked and I chucked it.

[Dave R.]

To bad someone can't ask a simple question without ego's getting ruffled up and then high jacking a thread. We all have the right of an opinion, but frankly its damn rude to run over a thread like this one has been. But of course, that is my opinion.
As far as a printer goes, it's the luck of the draw from what I have read. HP, Epson, and Canon all have good products. They also have products that can and do fail. Good luck with your purchase if thats what you decide to do.

[Paul Shields]

I've not had a great deal of experience with printers but from what I can see they're all more than good enough if you choose wisely. I'm slightly worried about what I read about Epson printers - they seem to have some head clogging issues and aren't very efficient when it comes to swapping between the two black ink variants. As I'm still keen on picking up an A2 printer (e.g. the Epson 3800) soon this makes me a bit wary, but there is little choice at the moment in this format unless you spend a great deal more.

[jfrancho]

Well, my HP Laser prints up invoices with exactly the same price as I see on my screen

[Kosherpaparazzi]

Hewlet-Packard printer/scanner drivers are real good at hogging (computer) processing power. I had to delete all HP drivers from my (Mac) computer because it would not go into sleep (standby) mode.

AIO printers don't produce great quality prints/scans, they're made for con-sumers.

[jfrancho]

I have no issues with my simple laser printer - must be Windows is better. As I said, it prints out three invoices per second and they look exactly like the screen . Too bad I don't have enough customers for that speed .

[Kevin Barrett]

Make sure whatever printer is purchased gets utilized on a regular basis. Older Epsons in particular are/were prone to nozzle clogs. This can be very frustrating.

I use both a professional lab and my own photo printer. It all depends on the end product and my desired outcome. There is no wrong answer. However, some answers are more correct.

[Kevin Barrett]

Originally Posted by jfrancho

Let me put this "hobbyist" statement into perspective. I used to be a an aquarium hobbyist. I had four six foot display tanks (125-150 gal), two more four foot tanks (70 gal.) upstairs, as well as the few odd smaller tanks. In the basement I had over 2000 gals. of spawning, nursery, and growout tanks in my fishroom. I had a RO/DI unit capable of providing 300 gal./day of completely deionized water for use with my discus fish and the few marine tanks I maintained. I had more water analysis tools than the local water authority. I have not only bred discus successfully, but over 125 other species of Cichlids. Add in the few Anabantoids, Characins, Livebearers, Killis, and oddball catfish (Ancistris hoplygenys and various Corydoras sp.) that I've bred, and that number approaches 150. I've even had spawnings of some marine fish, specifically some blue devils and percula clowns, but wasn't able to get them past the larval stage. I've kept and propagated several species of coral, both soft and the calciferous "true" corals. Many of these fish that I raised were sold in quantities to satisfy the demands of the wholesale pet industry. I have written articles for club newsletters as well as popular aquarium magazines. I have met many people through my "expertise" in this area, and even been given fish by a famous fish collector.

All of this is way beyond the typical guy with a few tanks. I made a profit that offset all of the cost of all this equipment. But, I still consider it a hobby. Later, I worked in a importer/wholesaler of tropical fish. We had 1500 sq. ft. fishroom with hundreds of tanks. Fish came in, were conditioned for sale, sold, and distributed to pet shops all over the state. This was not a hobby. I visited a goldfish farm and a couple of tropical fish farms, and these were operations that made the wholesaler look like small potatoes. That was not a hobby.

Now, as for the quality of product, I would say all three had similar overall quality, although in my biased opinion, mine were the best. But I could only produce four or five species worth of sustainable stock. The fish farms had a larger variety, even then, they were specialists. Each farm and location had its strong species groups. The wholesaler on the other hand was able to consistently deliver hundreds of species for every type of customer on a consistent business.

I realize this is in no way related to photography, but the point is, despite using some sophisticated equipment to rear delicate livestock, my setup was still a hobbyist setup. Home printing can only provide a few products, whereas the pro lab can provide everything.

Well that sure puts my 40 gallon Lake Tanganyika Cichlid tank in perspective!

[jfrancho]

The smaller Tanganyikans are probably my favorites of all of them, especially the shell dwellers. You should get some pics of your fish!

[golfer]

I have been using a Canon 9900 for about 3 years. It has been used to print my 8x10 and some smaller. It is not used a lot and sometimes sits for 30 to 60 days. So far it prints stunning color prints and I could not be happier.
I call myself a hobbist and the printer is used in that context. From my perspective, the are only a few printers capable of really great prints, Canon, Epson and a few others that come close. Hope I don't ruffle too many feathers with that statement.

[lightandimages]

My 1280 sucked when it was new and it still sucks for color control. I savlaged it by getting a CIS for it an using to spit several hundred 5x7s that did not need to be "accurate" in color, just close.

I tried three HPs and chucked all three after some serious debate with the merits of doing the chucking from my 2nd story window. The HPs had issues with printer heads and lousy support for my Mac.

I bought a CanonM P950 all in one (same print engine as the i9000, but only 8x10) and surprise!!! it's been a real workhorse. The colors are spot on when I calibrate the screen , never jams, never clogs and the scanner actually works in OSX. Not that I use it much other than faxing. I have a Epson 4990 scanner I love. And the ink for the Canon is reasonably priced and seems to last, to me a fair amount of time. I dont see the color shifts I had with the Epson after even a few days exposure. My Epson prints all had to be coated in order to last any amount of time.

[CI Photography]

Originally Posted by jfrancho

All of them, unless its a cheap monochrome laser printer. Home printers are for dittos. Get your photographic prints from a lab.

Bingo!!!!!


Joe

[ToJohn]

I believe it really comes down to the person's ability to print, and their
knowledge of printers. ( excluding walmart printer purchases )

Case in point... there are people walking around with MkIII'$
that capture less than some that own Rebel's. I have seen some
great offerings here, from entry level gear... and some not so great
offerings from Pro Gear-Heads.

The best Digital Output on the market at this time.... Océ LightJet.. Mundo Mulah..

Best Ink Jet... The Canon iPF 5000/5100 - 8000/8100 - 9000-9100
This printer has a D-Max higher than a ( old school ) fiber based print.
Unlike all other ink jets on the market... the iPF Series uses a 7 Channel Media Profile,
as opposed to a 4 Channel on "ALL" other ink jet.
What that means is it's a CMYKRGB Profile...
not CMYK or RGB. Also it has a PS Plug-In, that makes RIP's redundant.
A 100Mb file will start to print in less than 30 seconds.
Also sports a 4 Picto-litre Dot, through all colors.

john

[CI Photography]

Originally Posted by ToJohn

Case in point... there are people walking around with MkIII'$
that capture less than some that own Rebel's. I have seen some
great offerings here, from entry level gear... and some not so great
offerings from Pro Gear-Heads.
john

The gear does not make the Photo nor the Photographer for sure. I get paid for Photography, but I'm no pro by any means. Some say your pro because you get paid. I've read that many times on several sites and on the Camel. Bull crap!!!!!!


As far as printing, it's getting fairly cheep to get great prints from photo labs if you check around. I've seen great prints from other Photographers that they got cheep from mail order labs. Sorry I can't list any of them here, as I don't know the name of them. I'm lucky and have a local Pro Photographer with a large pro printer that do my prints cheep. He does ariel work and prints from 4x6 up to 44inch wide and as long as it needs to be.


I shot a wedding a little while back with the deal I only sold them the shots on CD, and a few DVD slide shows. I croped the photos they wanted to print. Later they brought the prints by to show me what they had. They looked great. When they told me where they got them, I couldn't believe it. They live in Memphis Tennessee and went to Sam's Club and had them done. I had a 16x20 printed at our local Sam's to try them out. Very nice and only 6 bucks and some change. I don't know if all sams has this good or kind of equipment, but there are places out there if we look that do great work for a good price. Enough I will not worry about having to do all that too. I don't have the time to shoot like I want to.


Joe

[ToJohn]

Originally Posted by ToJohn

( excluding walmart printer purchases )

Let me stipulate... "walmart printer' does not equate to Walmart Mini-Lab

I'm mean excluding the hardware purchased there.


john