 - Greg Lessard Contact Greg Lessard Greg Lessard's Gallery |
Printer Recommendations? I am looking into buying a new printer. Does anyone have any experience with the epson r 1900? Can anyone recommend another printer that is comparable in the $400-$500 price range? I need to be able to sell the prints at local galleries. (I own the epson r 1800. I love the quality of its prints, but I am disappointed at how short its lifespan has been. There are consistent bands when printing cyan. I have spoken with epson. They directed me to an outside print repair company. They repaired it for $100. The repair lasted for a month. I can't afford to keep repairing it at that rate. I have researched online and have not found a solution. So now I must replace it.)
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Hi Greg, I bought a Canon Pixma Pro 9000 last year and it made beautiful prints for about 4 months (with the occasional print having a streak) and then it malfunctioned (paper wont feed) and I have yet to get it repaired. The reason I dont want to put anymore $$ into the printer is that the price of quality paper, inks & repairs doesn't seem to be cost efficient. I have since started using MPIX & orderng through my Zenfolio site because ultimately, a $500 printer will never compete with the $25,000 machines they use and I am tired of buying so much ink. I do like the convenience of having my own printer but the delivery time for MPIX is only 2-4 days. I also looked at the Epson R1400 but I dont think I will be buying that either. I pay $10 for a 12 x 18 print when the cost of ink & paper alone cost that much. my .02 Carlton
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- Greg Lessard Contact Greg Lessard Greg Lessard's Gallery |
Thanks Carlton. I have considered mpix, but I like to print my photos full frame. My Nikon D80 works at a ratio of 1x1 1/2. So if I want something in the 8x10 range, I print at 7x10 1/2. I have yet to find a company that will print that custom size affordably. Its good for me to know that Canon may be just as unreliable as Epson. I was hoping to hear that they were superior to Epson at least in durability.
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Hi Greg, I am pretty sure if you wanted a 7 x 10.5 inch print, you would just have to order an 8.5 x 11 paper sized print and then trim the excess. Aren't you having to do this anyway ? I may get another printer but not a larger one that prints anything over 8.5 x 11 since I need a basic printer for everyday stuff and will only print smaller images with it. So I will be reading reviews as well. I am curious about the new Kodak printers that supposedly sell their inks for much cheaper than the rest of the manufacturers. I still have to figure out what I am going to do with my Canon printer as it is taking up a lot of unnecessary space. Carlton
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Nicholas Semo |
I use a HP photosmart pro B9180. It will print borderless 13x19 inch prints. When it works...it works great...the prints are amazing. So far most of the problems I've had have been feed problems. HP tech support is useless...their answer to everything is to replace it....which is fine if it's still under warrenty. I resolved my issues by merely switching the usb cable to the rear of the pc....go figure! Even with the problems I've had I would still recommend this printer...just make sure to buy the extended coverage. Nick
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- Greg Lessard Contact Greg Lessard Greg Lessard's Gallery |
Thanks Nick. It seems that the first company that can figure out how to make a reliable printer will own the entire market. Carlton, I print my 7 x 10.5 on 8.5x11, but I then mat it with an 11x14 mat. So I don't have to cut the photo. I will look into the Kodak printers. Thanks guys.
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wildlifetrailphotography.com - Donald R. Curry Contact Donald R. Curry Donald R. Curry's Gallery |
Greg, I have been using an Epson R2400 for a couple of years. The print quality has always been great. I have had zero problems. It is a little out of the price range you mentioned. I highly recommend it.
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- Greg Lessard Contact Greg Lessard Greg Lessard's Gallery |
Thank you everyone. I just purchased an epson r 1900. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will last over time. So far the quality of the prints is great. It prints extremely fast compared to the r 1800. I haven't confirmed this, but the ink cartridges seem to be much smaller than those for the r 1800. If I am right, that makes the extremely expensive ink even more expensive, because the cartidges go for the same pices as the r1800.
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Tareq M. Alhamrani |
I highly recommend Epson R1900, another a bit expensive but great is Epson R2880, that R2880 using UltraChrome K3 which is better than of R1900 [UltraChrome 2], also has advanced B&W photo mode option, at the end you get what you pay for.
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- Greg Lessard Contact Greg Lessard Greg Lessard's Gallery |
Tareq, I won't argue that if you pay more for a bigger/"better" printer, that you will get more options, like the ability to produce bigger prints. But the durability of these machines has such a poor track record. The quality of prints between their lowest end and their mid range printers is almost negligible. I know a very well respected photographer who prints his 8x10's on a $50 printer. You can't tell the difference. Now $50 vs. $500 vs. $2500 being very similar in print quality, as a consumer I expect the bigger investments to last for a long time. Unfortunately, many of them don't. Epson needs to do a better job.
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Tareq M. Alhamrani |
Greg, so true, not only one brand, but almost even with Canon and HP printers, but at the end it is an investment, it is the same with cameras, there are many cameras in say 80-10mp can do the job and if you print at 4x6 or 8x10 of those cameras you can't tell the difference, but there are features of each that you may look at, and at the end we are consumers buy different things even almost they are all close to each other.
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Randy A. Myers |
One other thing folks should consider is that the Epson 2880 sips ink as compared to the 1400 and the 1900. In the long run, the 2880 will make up the difference in ink savings alone.
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