Printing at home

[Drmat]

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Hi everyone,

for obvious reasons, printing is a bit challenging these days.  Does anyone have a suggestion for a printer that can produce archival quality photos with nice tones?  Using M10M.  Money is not the issue, but I do not think I want to own a factory printer!

20x30 would be ideal, but I suppose I could live with 16x24.

[ropo54]

Epson Sure Color P800 will print to 17x22, and is fairly reasonably priced at under $1000.  You'll have to do some homework as it may be that Epson is upgrading it to a newer model/version (in which case the sale prices should be attractive).

 

[Guest]

If you are wanting to find a printer/inks solution to make B&W prints then I would look at Epson large format printers, ( SC-P800 for up to A2 that's roughly 16"/20" size to something like the SC-P7000 STD for up to 24" wide printing, or even the SC-P9500 which produces up to 44" wide ), then use John Cone's Peizography B&W ink-sets for any of those Epson printers, ( https://piezography.com ). It would be hard to find a better digital printing solution for B&W work. I know, I use the Piezography inks with my older Epson 3800 A2 size printer for the best quality B&W prints while using the SC-P800 for colour work with Marrutt inks................Having said that, I can still get very nice results printing B&W with the SC-P800 using the standard all spectrum Marrutt/Epson ink-sets, but Piezography is more than a step beyond if /when you need the best B&W print quality.

Edited May 30, 2020 by petermullett
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[Drmat]

Thank you.  I have looked at the Epson printers - the ink suggestions is quite helpful.

[Jager]

Desktop photo printers up to 17" are relatively affordable and are the size most typically found in home studios.  If you need/want to go wider than that (as for your 20x30") then you'll end up stepping up to very large, very heavy, professional-grade printers and paying quite a lot more.  Those printers also have considerations that warrant far more research than the answers you're going to find in this thread.

Epson has long been the dominant manufacturer with respect to photo printing.  They have announced the successor to their P800 mentioned above.  Their new P900 will ship in the next couple of months.  I would wait for the new model, vice the P800... as the P800 has quite poor paper handling.

The Canon Pro-1000 is a bit long in the tooth, but is the other 17" printer I would consider.  

Whatever you buy, if archival permanence is a concern you'll want a pigment ink set.  Dye-based ink sets do not last nearly as long.

Black and white prints directly from the Epson produce excellent prints, on a par with (or superior) to traditional silver gelatin prints, IMO.  I assume Canon B&W prints are similar.  Piezography is an option, but typically only work with older Epson printers.  Epson has made integration of third-party inset solutions working with their later model printers very difficult.  In any case, the qualitative difference between OEM black-and-white and that produced by Piezography and similar dedicated B&W ink set solutions has diminished greatly.  Again, IMO.

 

 

[Guest]

It sounds like the Epson SC-P7000 STD could be the way for you to go, it's a very flexible printer and it covers the size of prints you might like to go up to. Remember though if you go with the Piezography B&W ink-set then that printer will have to be dedicated to making B&W prints. You can of course change back to regular full colour spectrum inks, Epson/Cone/Marrutt, but the process is quite exhausting because all the ink-lines and print heads have to be thoroughly flushed through before a full spectrum ink-set is installed. If quality B&W printing is your aim though then the SC-P7000 STD / Cone Piezography route is the way to go in my opinion, and if you've the funds for it I would get the SC-P800 A2 size printer to handle your colour work....it's a great printer as are most large format Epsons I have found, my 3800 has seen over 9 years of use and is still going strong.

[Drmat]

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@petermullettI only own a monochrom, so I can imagine any issues with the printer being dedicated to no colour!  Thanks for the advice.

[tommonego@gmail.com]

Check with the folks at InkJet Mall, see if they are selling older Epsons already converted. https://shop.inkjetmall.com/

[Jeff S]

I’ve had great results using the P800 (and, for 7 years prior, the 3800), in conjunction with ImagePrint 10 (now called IP Black). I use IP as an external editor with Lightroom in lieu of the LR print module.  I’ve expounded on its benefits in other threads, but briefly, it provides full time soft proofing, has superb custom profiles for virtually all papers (and for multiple lighting situations, as well as greyscale), and optimizes all print settings and controls without need for user inputs.  I like the paper/profile options provided versus Piezography, which relies on specific  inksets/papers for certain rendering options, and IP is a breeze to use vs third party systems.  IP costs near the same as the printer, but far less than the cost of custom profiling gear, let alone the saved time and effort.

I’ll await the P900 (P800 successor) reviews to avoid any surprises or problems, but easier black ink switching (matte/gloss) is appealing, as is a potentially improved inkset, and possibly reduced gloss differential.  But the ink cartridges are reduced from 80ml to 50ml, so it will be interesting to see if cartridge prices are proportionally reduced.

Before considering a 24 or 44 inch large format printer, I encourage you to read this (even though printers have evolved since 2014)....

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/so-you-want-a-large-format-printer/

And that’s without even getting into the issues with converting to Piezography.

Always check for manufacturer rebates and dealer discounts on print machines. If you don’t see them, wait 10 minutes.  The profits are in the inks, not the machines (like razors/razor blades), so machines are  routinely priced to hook you in, especially the 17” (and 13”) models.

Jeff

 

Edited May 31, 2020 by Jeff S

[CharlesL]

On 5/30/2020 at 6:15 AM, Jager said:

Epson ... have announced the successor to their P800 mentioned above.  Their new P900 will ship in the next couple of months.  I would wait for the new model, vice the P800... as the P800 has quite poor paper handling.

My P800 has fed paper reliably. Also, a rotary trimmer (Dahle, for example) lets me crop and fake-mat images to my taste.

You might want to grab a P800 before they become unavailable as new or refurbished; it would be a roll of the dice to buy a used one from a private party. At this time a P800 is preferable to a P900. The P900 is considerably smaller than the P800; I have seen a couple of reports that it uses more plastic and less metal; and a user who seems to be reliable has posted on dPreview that its paper feeding often just does not work. There is enough smoke that it pays to wait and see if there is a fire here.