Printers...I need a printer!

Phate

Phate

Phate

Caporegime
Joined
1 Nov 2003
Posts
35,700
Location
Lisbon, Portugal
Hey guys,

Currently I have a Canon i865 which I've had for donkeys, it's been a fantastic printer...printed for me thousands of times...but...now...it's well and truely shagged.

So I'm in the market for a new printer.

Requirements are as follows:

To be able to print on CD's/DVD's
Photo print quality to be good enough to sell

I'm undecided to go for A4 or A3 - Options on both?

I'm inclined to stick with Canon, as their inks are cheap, and they make good gear.

Wireless would be nice, but not necessary

So guys, what are my options? :) - budget? Well lets not be silly but I don't mind paying for quality.

Cheers,
Jake
 
Phate said:
So I'm in the market for a new printer.
Click to expand...

Well, let me give you a data point.

Epson R2880.

A3+ CDs too. 8/9 colours.

Pro:

1) When it works well, the quality is outstanding.
2) Excellent monochrome.

Cons:

1) With my current software stack (Lightroom 1.4, OSX 10.6.4), the colour profiles don't work. Looks muddy.

2) 9 different colours for only 8 slots. Need to switch between Matt black and gloss black depending upon which sort of paper you want to use. The change is unreliable and wastes ink.

3) Expensive, low capacity ink. (11ml for a tenner if I recall correctly)

If you are printing large numbers, should you be going for Continuous Ink?

Andrew
 
Well I forgot to post an update last night so here it is now.

What I didn't know was that the print head on my printer is removable and I've always known it was that that was shagged. I remember having a quote for £150 to clean it and get it working!

Well after discovering last night it's removable I took it out and found it was CAKED in gunk, ink etc. So I got the white spirit, 20 mins later it's lookin good as new. So I've ordered 3 sets of ink, here's hoping :)

3 sets because, I'll run a full set through to flush the head then have a fresh set and a spare.

Obligatory pics
http://www.je-design.co.uk/public/IMG_6146.jpg
http://www.je-design.co.uk/public/IMG_6145.jpg
http://www.je-design.co.uk/public/IMG_6156.jpg
 
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Errr, hasn't been used for a good few years now. Originally was quoted £150 to replace the head, hopefully a good clean should fix it. If it hasn't I've lost a few quid in ink. £8 for a full set. Bargain! Canon cartridges to!
 
Are you after a business investment? Not just something cheap that will do the job for a little while, but eventually end up costing you hundreds in replacement ink costs because you plumped for the one with the crappy small cartridges?

If you're going to end up printing high volume look into something you can hook up external inks too. They're not a great idea for someone printing one page a week as they can be more problematic with clogging if you leave them for a while, but the running costs are reduced dramatically with high volume printing.

Everyone I know has an Epson 3880 or 4880 (latter more pricey granted), but they're fantastic workhorse printers, never skip a beat and chuck out predictable quality consistently. If you're serious about the business it could be a very wise investment. Even if you don't go down the external ink route the carts on them are much larger than cheaper printers, which does offer better value for money and less time changing carts.
 
Won't load paper properly and the cheapy ink I bought (wish I hadn't, I thought how bad can it be) has totally screwed the heads I think. I've just bought a Canon MP272 as I don't need anything fancy since I only really print the odd document here and there, plus the scanner is handy.
 
Sirrel Squirrel said:
Won't load paper properly and the cheapy ink I bought (wish I hadn't, I thought how bad can it be) has totally screwed the heads I think. I've just bought a Canon MP272 as I don't need anything fancy since I only really print the odd document here and there, plus the scanner is handy.
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Cool, fair dues. I want to get myself a little laser now for documents. Save wasting my ink and have the i865 just for photos assuming the head cleaning has worked!

Certainly fantastic printers the i865's though. Have had mine for 6 years now. When I've got it up and running (presuming this works) I'll be printing some pin sharp images to see how it performs. Be nice to use it for A4 prints instead of waiting for Photobox or whoever else to deliver...providing its upto standard.
 
If you're thinking of printing extensively for sale then Epson + CIS is pretty much the standard in my experience, the R2880 and a CIS is a reasonable investment if you want to go that route.

Personally I did it for a few years and gave up, I can get decent prints from online providers (once I got a feel for their colour profiles anyway), they're here next day, I'm not limited to size and don't need to worry about keeping stocks of paper and ink.
 
bigredshark said:
If you're thinking of printing extensively for sale then Epson + CIS is pretty much the standard in my experience, the R2880 and a CIS is a reasonable investment if you want to go that route.

Personally I did it for a few years and gave up, I can get decent prints from online providers (once I got a feel for their colour profiles anyway), they're here next day, I'm not limited to size and don't need to worry about keeping stocks of paper and ink.
Click to expand...

I went Epson + CIS and so long as you set it up properly and print the profiles correctly the results are great. My first CIS failed and siphoned the entire ink from all the bottles into the printers sponge. we're talking about 800ml of ink here. Permajet I went with.
 
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