Printers

What type of printer would you reccomend that can print up to a 16x20? and I'd really rather not have to mortgage the house to get it

Epson 3880!

Second Epson 3880. It can go to 17x35.

Epson 3880..is this a poll?

I dont know about a poll... but it looks like there is a clear winner among those that have voiced their opinions. Guess I need to save up 1200 bucks.

See if you can find a rebate. There are often Epson rebates out there. Also note that it comes with $400 in ink!

E.J. Peiker wrote:See if you can find a rebate. There are often Epson rebates out there. Also note that it comes with $400 in ink!

Ok...now your making me nervous. How often do you have to refill this thing (yes I know it depends on how much you print)

It has fairly large tanks - 80ml instead of the 11mm tanks that smaller 13" printers have. it's MUCH more economical than the 13" printers from a cost of ink standpoint. Plus, there are a couple of the inks that you go through at a much greater rate than the others. You don't replace them all at the same time.

anyone have a rough guess as to what it cost to produce an 8x10 print on this machine. I currently get all my prints from a pro lab and I'd like to compare costs.

Also... where is a good place online (reasonably priced) to get paper?

It depends mostly on the paper. Some papers like Epson Ultra Premium Luster (a good mass market paper) are about $0.40 a page (assuming you bought a box of 50 sheets from a discounter)and the ink cost on that is minimal - a max of about $0.60 cents a print. On the other hand if you are using Canson Baryta (an awesome luster paper) you are looking at more like $2.00 a print.

Most people don't print their own to save money. They print their own to have complete control of what the print looks like. Printing is an art form in itself.

Kevin,

I have priced this about 6 ways to Sunday and E.J. is right, you don't do this to save money, however, it can be very economical if you are good on keeping the heads clean and printing often as these machines like to stay busy. If they are left dormant too long you can run into printing issues with ink drying in the heads etc. That is not as much of a problem with the newer machines as the old ones however.

Overall with all of the printers that I have had it looks like using basic paper (Epson premium Lustre, Red River Polar Matte, and Red River Ultr Pro Satin and Vibrance Lustre from Breathing color, (they are all roughly about the same price) it costs between $.80 and $1.25 per 8x10 and that is pretty much my pricing structure on 8x10s for the pro leve printers. The desktop 13 inch models raise that to about $1.50-$1.80 which is still pretty competetive with most labs. You will have some waste but the instant gratification is nice and far outweighs the downside.

If you can swing it the 3880 is a great printer and will last for many, many years. Good luck.

Another vote for the 3880! I find it to be vastly superior to my earlier 2200 & 2400 and it is certainly more economical due to the larger ink tanks. A fine printer!

E.J. Peiker wrote:Most people don't print their own to save money. They print their own to have complete control of what the print looks like.

I'll third that. I could definitely get prints cheaper from a pro lab... especially given that I like to try out some different things and change around the types of paper I use with some images to see how they look.

There is currently a $300 rebate on the epson website for the Epson 3880.
Better still, B and H quotes a final price of $849 with free shipping.
Offers expire at the end of November.

http://www.itsupplies.com/ has OEM supplies including paper plus many manufacturers of fine art papers. Scroll down to view on the left the papers available other than OEM. Occasionally they have sales.

3880. As noted has a 300 dollar rebate. Full ink tanks with printer. Also no swapping out of black inks (from matte to photo) thus saving a lot of ink. A full set of ink is around $500. About 59.95 per cartridge, up here in Canada anyways. You do have full control and soft proofing is wonderful to get the look you want for your print.

I am happy with my Epson 3800, didn't feel sad that Epson produced 3880 after a while, the results are outstanding out of this printer truly, so i also recommend 3880, another option is 4880 or 4900, taking rolls but could be pricey a bit over 3000 series.