On Location Printer?

[Bethany Wright]

Does anyone use a printer on location? We have tried using a kodak before, but it never seems to run smoothly. We have a big 'showcase' coming up for our area's Arthur Murray Ballroom students. It's actually 4 studio's combined. And we've found in the past, that having the photo's ready to be picked up at the end of the night works best. It's being held at a hotel with no access to a 'quickprint' shop, so any suggestions on a reliable, fast photo printer would be great!

Thanks!
Beth

[brian.austin]

What's the budget? Are you looking for an off-the-shelf standard photo printer or one designed for high volume work, like the Sony Snap Lab?

[Bethany Wright]

I would love a Sony Snap Lab, I just don't have the budget for that. So something that will deliver good results for the time being.

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by Bethany Wright

I would love a Sony Snap Lab, I just don't have the budget for that. So something that will deliver good results for the time being.

All that tells me is that you can't afford a $1,200 printer. How much is the budget? $1,000? $800? $500?

[Bethany Wright]

Sorry, I can;t justify a 1200 printer for one event at this point. I'd like to keep it lower than 500 if I could.

[Songman45]

Take a look at Epson R1900. It's a wide carriage printer, prints pretty quickly and the results are good.

[brian.austin]

Steve is on with the Epson R1900 from my experience but I've noticed some banding with high speed and dark colors. Unchecking the high speed box seems to help, although in certain angles I can still see banding in blacks.

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by Bethany Wright

Sorry, I can;t justify a 1200 printer for one event at this point. I'd like to keep it lower than 500 if I could.

Perfectly understandable. Without a budget, though, it's impossible to toss out ideas. You'd see everything from a $90 Walmart special to a $2000 fine art printer.

If this is one single event, you might just consider whatever is on sale. For most photo printing, with the right paper, most people would be satisfied with a good quality print from a $100 printer. The $100 printer won't have the archival quality of a nicer model nor will it be as economical in the long run. But for one event? I'd consider doing some testing at the stores and try it, personally.

[Songman45]

Originally Posted by brian.austin

Steve is on with the Epson R1900 from my experience but I've noticed some banding with high speed and dark colors. Unchecking the high speed box seems to help, although in certain angles I can still see banding in blacks.

Wow Brian now you have me second guessing my opinion. I only had 3 weeks of experience with an R1900 and found it a pretty darn good machine. The photographer I was shooting for holds a very high opinion as well. Granted we didn't have many dark areas in our work. I was getting all geared up to buy two of them. Maybe I'll take a closer look. Thanks for the heads-up

Regards
Steven

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by Songman45

Wow Brian now you have me second guessing my opinion. I only had 3 weeks of experience with an R1900 and found it a pretty darn good machine. The photographer I was shooting for holds a very high opinion as well. Granted we didn't have many dark areas in our work. I was getting all geared up to buy two of them. Maybe I'll take a closer look. Thanks for the heads-up

Regards
Steven

For the money, I don't think it's a bad buy. And in Epson's defense, they don't market it for good B&W prints. For that, they point you at the 2880. A nice printer from what I've seen/read but I wanted the newer technology. No ETA on a 2900 series yet.

I am pleased with the overall print quality in colors with lighter backgrounds. And B&W work with more mid-tones vs blacks turns out fine. And I'm pretty happy with the print capacity. For such a tiny little cartridge, they last a while. I have yet to change one. They aren't widely available, though, so plan ahead with spares (I keep a full set on hand and replace as I use them).

I'd buy it again. I just won't use it for anything with large areas of blacks. I'll get those done at a lab instead.