How many of you use an A3+ printer for home photo "exhibiting"... is the print size large enough to

Richdog

Richdog

Richdog

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As per title, I have been thinking about buying a decent quality A3+ printer in order to print and mount my favourite photos much more quickly and cheaply than if I was to order larger canvas prints from specialist shops, so that I can easily rotate them as the mood takes me. There is a Canon model, the PIXMA iX6850 which is very reasonably priced at around £120, and photo prints are meant to be excellent.

To clarify my question, what I am wondering though, is if A3 or A3+ size is generally big enough to make a good impression on an average wall in the hallway etc? I'm so used to larger paintings and canvas prints that I look at an A3 piece of paper and think "hmm that looks small", but I guess it's just psychological and what I have been used to.

Do any of you guys have an A3 printer at home for this purpose, and if so are you happy with it? For those that wouldn't bother buying one, why not?

Cheers. :)
 
9designs2 said:
I use A3+ Canon i9950, once mounted and framed it's big enough.... for bigger I use an online ordering supplier, but not often. Watch the ink cost, ordering online is probably cheaper these days.
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In terms of ink costs, I don't think these are so bad, especially with cheaper compatible consumables around which have a very good review on Amazon. http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb...mputers&field-keywords=Canon+PIXMA+iX6850+ink

This means that they work out MUCH cheaper per print (even with frame and paper taken into account) than if I ordered from a local print shop, which are horrendously expensive where I live.

I guess in reality they would be fine, I'll try and discreetly print off an A3 photos today at work and then take it home to see what it looks like on the wall. Would love to be able to print my own stuff and chop and change it as I wanted. :)
 
Personally I wouldn't bother with third party ink :/ I work in IT and I can't say I've even had someone with a legit cartridge that isn't working whereas the third party ones... Well!
 
I've always had trouble with compatible cartridges before so generally avoid them like the plague. That said, the ones I've got in the day to day printer at the moment have been fine so far.

I think the big question mark I'd have though would be over the colour consistency of compatibles for printing photos.

I've had a Canon Pixma Pro 9000 for years and I'm very happy with it. I bought it mostly for the reason you mention, but TBH I don't actually print at A3 that often. I do like the spontaneity of just being able to print something when I feel like it, even though it'd probably be cheaper to get a third party to print it.

It does get through a quite a lot of ink, which with the number of cartridges it has can be a bit pricey, but a lot of that probably goes on cleaning as I don't use it as often as I should. I'm actually getting tempted to try a continuous ink system in it and see how that goes.
 
Phal said:
Personally I wouldn't bother with third party ink :/ I work in IT and I can't say I've even had someone with a legit cartridge that isn't working whereas the third party ones... Well!
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There is plenty of evidence online that they work fine... guess it varies in quality just like anything else.

john_s said:
I've had a Canon Pixma Pro 9000 for years and I'm very happy with it. I bought it mostly for the reason you mention, but TBH I don't actually print at A3 that often. I do like the spontaneity of just being able to print something when I feel like it, even though it'd probably be cheaper to get a third party to print it.

It does get through a quite a lot of ink, which with the number of cartridges it has can be a bit pricey, but a lot of that probably goes on cleaning as I don't use it as often as I should. I'm actually getting tempted to try a continuous ink system in it and see how that goes.
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You mean continuous ink like Epson where they give you a tank for the side of the printer and enough ink for a year?

An Exception said:
I don't like home printers personally. Lab stuff is still way better quality.
The few prints I've done tend to fade etc.
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What printer hardware you were using?
 
Phal said:
Personally I wouldn't bother with third party ink :/ I work in IT and I can't say I've even had someone with a legit cartridge that isn't working whereas the third party ones... Well!
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I specifically bought a printer/scanner/copier combo because it had a good 3rd party toner cartridge market going.

Specialist inks and rigged cartridges to discourage 3rd party ink is probably another matter.
 
I'm sure there are some third party cartridges which are better than others but as usual, third party peripherals vary a lot in quality.

If you're trying to get good, reliable and accurate performance then your best chances are with the manufacturer's own ink.
 
An Exception said:
I don't like home printers personally. Lab stuff is still way better quality.
The few prints I've done tend to fade etc.
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I find the same, home print fade within a few years even with premium photo paper and ink.



It just isn't worth it IMO,you can't beat the price of a photo lab when trying to match the same quality. The Lab has better printers than you could ever afford, regularly maintain, clean, service and calibrate them to professional standards. They buy ink and paper in such huge volumes they get unit costs far lower than even the cheapest 3rd party ink cartridges. Their running costs are low since most of it is automated and there aren't a lot of staff.

Very hard to beat them on price IMO.
 
Richdog said:
You mean continuous ink like Epson where they give you a tank for the side of the printer and enough ink for a year?
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Yes.

I always have concerns about colour consistency with 3rd party inks, but at least I'd not have to consider recalibrating every time I change a cartridge.
 
I briefly looked in to it when I was considering a Canon Pro-100. Pecision colours make some very decent dye based ink which is used to refill the carts with a syringe. Every so often I consider this an option, but concern about longevity of the prints is a sticking point.

You need a pigment ink based printer to stand a chance of a print lasting any length of time without fading, but the ink costs are ridiculous.
 
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D.P. said:
I find the same, home print fade within a few years even with premium photo paper and ink.



It just isn't worth it IMO,you can't beat the price of a photo lab when trying to match the same quality. The Lab has better printers than you could ever afford, regularly maintain, clean, service and calibrate them to professional standards. They buy ink and paper in such huge volumes they get unit costs far lower than even the cheapest 3rd party ink cartridges. Their running costs are low since most of it is automated and there aren't a lot of staff.

Very hard to beat them on price IMO.
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You really care about a home print potentially "fading" after a few years, when the whole point is to have something "disposable" that you can chop and change on your walls as the mood takes you? If I wanted something that lasted 30 years I wouldn't be listing the requirements in the OP and would order professionally on canvas and at larger sizes.

A 3rd party print service is nowhere near as cheap or convenient as a printer if you intend to get regular use out of it, and the quality of a print shop is not noticeably light years ahead of a good inkjet printer on good paper, even photo websites say the same when reviewing dedicated photo inkjet printers.
 
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I have an HP Z6100 and an HP Z5200 at home.

Cost is quite high in initial outlay for the printer and ink, plus you need to factor in maintenance costs - and the space to put them somewhere! But if you're doing a lot of prints and you get one second hand, they're not super expensive to run and it's really nice to be able to print A2, A1 and A0.
I can do a satin A2 for about a fiver.

You could get a smaller 24" model for home, maybe a Z3200, which will still do A2 and A1 (and smaller), but be less intrusive.

I only use genuine HP cartridges. From speaking to the techs over the years I've heard mixed reviews for compatibles. Some push them hard, some don't touch them with a barge pole.

Personally I've decided it's really not worth the hassle trying to save a few quid on the compatibles, especially where colour reproduction or consistency is important.
Plus for longevity I'd rather use the genuine HP Vivera inks, the pigment inks age very well.
 
Richdog said:
You really care about a home print potentially "fading" after a few years, when the whole point is to have something "disposable" that you can chop and change on your walls as the mood takes you? If I wanted something that lasted 30 years I wouldn't be listing the requirements in the OP and would order professionally on canvas and at larger sizes.

A 3rd party print service is nowhere near as cheap or convenient as a printer if you intend to get regular use out of it, and the quality of a print shop is not noticeably light years ahead of a good inkjet printer on good paper, even photo websites say the same when reviewing dedicated photo inkjet printers.
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Yes is do care about a home print fading I dont want have to swap a print over in a few years because it is faded. The additional time alone in re-print and re-framing far outweighs any possible savings, Of which there is relatively little if any.
Moreover if it is a print I gave to a friend as a present I don't want it fading and looking horrible after a year or 2.


Owning your own printer is not at all convenient, they require a lot care, maintenance, cleaning, calibrating, freeing jammed paper, replacing new inks, buying paper and supplies and the space to store it. Alternatively. I can go on a website for 2 minutes and be done.
 
Although I've had issues with 3rd party ink in the past, since I've been using Jettec Ink I can honestly say I haven't had a single issue and I cant tell the difference between it and genuine.

I've got a photo hung on my wall I took 9 years ago printed with it and it still looks fine.
 
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