home printing

[killfreak]

Hi, I'm new here. I wanna get a home printer to print my own photos at home (not in large quantity of course, those i will send to the shop). I need it for more personalised and customized photo prints, like at weird sizes (creditcard size, etc) or for cd labels, greeting cards, etc.

Basically i need something that can print shop-quality images up to around 4R, with decent, reasonable-looking prints at A4 size. Can someone recommend me a good cheap printer?

And can pls explain to me the costs involved? like how much would it typically cost to print 20 4R photos, including ink and paper cost? thnx

 

[killfreak]

hmm ok realized the error in what i wrote above - the pic size depends on the image, not the printer. So yah i need something that can print good shop-quality photos.

 

[mpenza]

if you factor in the cost of the paper and the ink, it is cheaper to print at the photo labs. and printouts from inkjets will lose its colors after a while.

 

[Flare]

Unless you are going to print large prints. Send it to a lab. It's cheaper.

 

[Jayan]

Originally posted by Flare
Unless you are going to print large prints. Send it to a lab. It's cheaper.

Agree...the ink alone will kill u.

 

[mpenza]

If it's just occassional prints, you could get a cheap Epson Photo Printer. But don't expect to use it for volume printing cos it's slow. And the colors fade (this is the problem with most inkjets now-a-days) unless you get the more expensive models that can do archival prints.

 

[killfreak]

wow okay... hmmm i didn't know anything about the color fading problem, thnx for pointing it out. I'll look into this!!

 

[Flare]

Was looking into printers as well, now seems I have more time, I'll ellaborate on what I found.

Epson photo stylus 8xx:
Great Great Great prints. I'll add more greats if it wouldn't irritate the hell out of the person reading it. Need not necessary get the highest end as some of the other 800 series takes the same ink and churns out prints of similar quality (a lower end one cost about $330). And with the border free printing and photo paper rolls. 3R prints will be a snap.

BUT~ I'm planning to get the printer as a regular printer to replace my 6 yr old canon BJC-210... If i'm gonna print the regular stuff, I'll not use the photo cyan and photo magenta in the ink catridge. And I'll run out of the regular cyan (the most common ink used, usually) and have to chuck away the cartridge which has plenty of ink left. That means $$$$$$$ wasted.

Canon S series, Particularly the S800:
I find that only the S800 gives a print that has dots that are not noticable. But it lacks the border free printing and paper roll of the Epson printer. And costing nearly $500, it's a bomb.

BUT~ It comes with the think tank ink system where I can just replace the colur that i've ran out. WHich will save some running cost. And it has the option of a scanner cartridge... But well, I already have a flatbed scanner and a digital camera... One more think, canon claims that their printouts has the ability to maintain at least 75% of its colour for 25 years under regular flourescence lightning... (I guess sun light will still kill it)

So will it be an Epson or a Canon?

I'm stuck.........


P/S: Dun ask me why I didn't compare HP... I have a personal grudge against it.... I used to work in a warehouse that process HP printers...... And HP printers doesn't seems to churns out good prints.

 

[erwinx]

The current epson promo is: PhotoPC 2100Z Digital Camera @ S$249 w/GST with any purchase of Stylus Photo 890, Stylus Photo 895 or Stylus Photo 1290 printer and @ S$299 w/GST with purchase of Stylus Photo 810 printer.


The only issue about Epson printers is print head clogging for printers after 1+ year, you have to occasionally go down to Epson service centre to get the heads cleaned/unclogged for optimal performance.

My 750 is due for a print head cleaning.... but sigh, the 810 with borderless printing is looking attractive.... of course, if 8x10 dye sub (like the Olympus Camedia P-400) printers plunge in price...

 

[nuts]

in a similar position 1+ months back and I got the Canon S800 :

Border-free - don't really need it as I have access to a paper
cutter; however, there's news that there's a Canon S820D I
believe that does border-free and does not need to connect
to a PC (like Epson 895). Dunno when it'll be released.

Roll-paper - hmm.... initially was thinking of printing those
panaromic pics that I've stitched on my digicam but can't find
any photo roll paper....

a few points on the S800 :

seems quite particular abt the paper; works beautifully out
of the box with the Canon Photo Paper Pro which is quite ex.
with other papers, gotta tune...

its designed to be a photo printer, and a fast one at that.
but for general color prints, S600 supposed to be better


And as someone pointed out, if you're printing lots of 4Rs,
think its more economical to goto the labs, but if you're
targetting lots of 8R prints, then photo printers makes sense


..NuTs..

Originally posted by Flare
Was looking into printers as well, now seems I have more time, I'll ellaborate on what I found.

Epson photo stylus 8xx:
..... And with the border free printing and photo paper rolls. 3R prints will be a snap.

BUT~ I'm planning to get the printer as a regular printer to replace my 6 yr old canon BJC-210... If i'm gonna print the regular stuff, I'll not use the photo cyan and photo magenta in the ink catridge. And I'll run out of the regular cyan (the most common ink used, usually) and have to chuck away the cartridge which has plenty of ink left. That means $$$$$$$ wasted.

Canon S series, Particularly the S800:
I find that only the S800 gives a print that has dots that are not noticable. But it lacks the border free printing and paper roll of the Epson printer. And costing nearly $500, it's a bomb.

BUT~ It comes with the think tank ink system where I can just replace the colur that i've ran out. WHich will save some running cost. And it has the option of a scanner cartridge... But well, I already have a flatbed scanner and a digital camera... One more think, canon claims that their printouts has the ability to maintain at least 75% of its colour for 25 years under regular flourescence lightning... (I guess sun light will still kill it)

So will it be an Epson or a Canon?

I'm stuck.........

 

[Flare]

Me again. Ha Ha, was thinking of helping someone, but now I need help. For the S800, the $500 price tag seems like an overkill. Yes, I agree I don't need boder free printing, Borders are nice, and I like them. (planning to make photobooks). And if I wanna frame them, I can always choped the borders off. You mentioned that its fussy with paper and tuning is required. Can you elaborate? How much is the paper pro? More than 2$ a sheet? he only pro I see is the think tank ink system.

HP810 seems to be a cheaper alternative at just above $300. Is the ink head clogging bad? And since the ink head is not part of the cartridge, the cartridge should be quite cheap right? How much does one cost?

 

[erwinx]

I've used the Canon glossy film at $5/sheet and it is pretty amazing. I would have to admit that my HP photosmart scans printed on Canon glossy film at 5R looks better than a Nikon scan printed on $1 Epson photo paper. Now I compromise and use Konica paper because its better than Epson photo paper but of course not as good as canon glossy film.

p.s. Nobody says you can't use Canon paper on an Epson printer and vice-versa, tho' you might have to tweak colour balance.

 

[mpenza]

wah! $5 is pretty ex. Is it better than what you get for a normal glossy photo at the shops?

When you add in the cost of the ink (easily $0.50 to $1++), it's cheaper to develop at the shops ($3.50 for 8R).

 

[Flare]

If that's the case... Wouldn't getting an Epson for regular printing and sending them to the shops if good prints are wanted be better and cheaper?

 

[erwinx]

With the right sort of image (at least 360dpi and perceptually sharp), Canon glossy film looks Better than a Fuji Frontier print. It just doesn't last as long (but I'm looking at one pinned on my wall - i printed it 2 yrs ago and the colour hasn't faded yet). I'm pretty sure a Fuji Frontier 8R print costs more than $3.50 since 5R a Konota costs $2.50 already.

Don't forget, when you print on your printer, you get to use sophisticated sharpening techniques as well.

idea - have a gathering/printing clinic where people bring their inkjet printouts... so we can see which printer/paper is better

Originally posted by mpenza
wah! $5 is pretty ex. Is it better than what you get for a normal glossy photo at the shops?

When you add in the cost of the ink (easily $0.50 to $1++), it's cheaper to develop at the shops ($3.50 for 8R).

 

[mpenza]

Kodak (Singapore Color Centre and Standard Photo) charges $3.50 for 8R prints and $1.50 for 5R prints (applies to digital image as well). If you have a discount card, you get 15% off. That means you pay around $3 for a 8R print.

hmm.... what you said sounds promising. Is there any color shift in the print? Did you do apply any spray to the print? I experience color shift as well as color fade in my Epson prints.

Originally posted by erwinx
With the right sort of image (at least 360dpi and perceptually sharp), Canon glossy film looks Better than a Fuji Frontier print. It just doesn't last as long (but I'm looking at one pinned on my wall - i printed it 2 yrs ago and the colour hasn't faded yet). I'm pretty sure a Fuji Frontier 8R print costs more than $3.50 since 5R a Konota costs $2.50 already.

Don't forget, when you print on your printer, you get to use sophisticated sharpening techniques as well.

idea - have a gathering/printing clinic where people bring their inkjet printouts... so we can see which printer/paper is better

 

[nuts]

The S800 printer driver provides settings that you can customise the colour balance, brightness etc. There are of course some preset settings for the Canon papers.
The Canon Photo Paper Pro costs abt $20 for 15 sheets. I've been trying the Kodak Premium Picture Paper (can get 50 sheets for $40) but couldn't get the colour right. There are many reports of good printouts on the Epson Heavyweight Matte on the S800 but I don't like matte, though many claims that once laminated or behind glass, its no different from glossy prints. Anyway, the bottom line is that there are many types of photo papers with different weight & thinkness, so gotta take note
Yes, the thinktanks system is pretty nice. A review I've read tested and clocked 50+ 8R prints before the photocyan ink tank runs out. That's pretty good mileage methinks

Originally posted by Flare
You mentioned that its fussy with paper and tuning is required. Can you elaborate? How much is the paper pro? More than 2$ a sheet? he only pro I see is the think tank ink system.

 

[nuts]

no lah, think can get cheaper than that lah
even the Canon Sg website list the glossy film as 10 for $36, and I'm sure we can get it cheaper in SLS or Funan
but I've not tried the glossy film, always thought that its like those transparency type; so its actually like photo paper?

..NuTs..

Originally posted by erwinx
I've used the Canon glossy film at $5/sheet and it is pretty amazing. I would have to admit that my HP photosmart scans printed on Canon glossy film at 5R looks better than a Nikon scan printed on $1 Epson photo paper. Now I compromise and use Konica paper because its better than Epson photo paper but of course not as good as canon glossy film.

p.s. Nobody says you can't use Canon paper on an Epson printer and vice-versa, tho' you might have to tweak colour balance.

 

[mpenza]

50+ 8R on a cyan ($16?) and a portion of the other catridges... say total $50 ink cost, so that's about $1 per page. This doesn't include the cost of the paper.

 

[Flare]

Originally posted by mpenza
50+ 8R on a cyan ($16?) and a portion of the other catridges... say total $50 ink cost, so that's about $1 per page.

That seems to be the cost steve's digicam/imaging resource (can't remember) estimated. Now this is really really tough... But seems like S800 is a good way to go. But now, the problem is with the price... My bro said he will buy printer... I wonder if he's regretting now...