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

Richdog · 20 Apr 2015 at 21:43

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.

Richdog · 21 Apr 2015 at 06:28

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.

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.

Richdog · 21 Apr 2015 at 18:35

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!

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.

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.

What printer hardware you were using?

Richdog · 21 Apr 2015 at 18:51

Hotwired said:
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.

So how do the compatibles perform, decently?

Richdog · 22 Apr 2015 at 20:45

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.

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.

Richdog · 27 Apr 2015 at 19:34

Where I live it is around 15-20 quid for an average print with no frills, matte photo paper. That does not seem cost-effective solution if I want to chop and change my photos every few months, which for 5 photos would be £75 per round.

Richdog · 27 Apr 2015 at 20:39

Raymond Lin said:
Get it online?

I haven't printed something near where I live for about 15 years.

Ok then, would appreciate some links to examples examples of cheap online print shops that ship to Swissy land? I have searched and can't really find anything cheaper than £15 a pop...

Richdog · 27 Apr 2015 at 21:01

D.P. said:
Posters from 2.45CHF
http://www.snapfish.ch/snapfishch/gifts/product=foto-poster

Ok that is more like it... prints look reasonable even for 50x75. Thanks D.P. I'll check it out and see if it's any cop.

Richdog · 28 Apr 2015 at 16:35

2StepSteve said:
I've gone full swing just ordered a Pro 100. There I was, rocking in the corner thinking good God, the prints will only last a few decades behind glass. Get a grip man. I'm not looking for them to survive if our civilisation becomes lost, nor am I selling these prints FFS!

I've been on the verge for a while now and to add to the fun I will be going down the high quality refillable route. If I'm happy with the results, it will save huge amounts of money and make home printing much more attractive than what it is with current ink prices.

I was semi tempted by the Pro 10 with its pigment inks, but I'm not totally convinced that third party inks are there just yet for the Pro 10. The chroma optimiser fluid which is used on gloss and semi gloss prints to deepen blacks and increase saturation seems to be a tad iffy. There are not enough people shouting positive things from the roof tops to roll the dice.

Shall see how I get on.

Please keep this thread updated with how you get on as soon as you get it and start printing, as your sentiments seem to match my own with regards to the durability etc. Good luck!

Ps please also post which inks you get!