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What is your current printer and how size do you normally print?

Henry Goh

Member
I'm still running an old Epson Stylus Pro 4000 and I normally print 16" x 20". I've been thinking of getting a HP Z3200 24" to print 24" x 32".

Share yours and pray tell about your experience, both good and bad.

Henry
 

Don Libby

Well-known member
I’ve got both an Epson 4000 and 9800 sitting side by side. The 4000 doesn’t get the use it once did but it is handy. I really love the 9800 and use it several times a week printing on canvas and paper and have never had a moment’s trouble. I wasn’t certain I’d be using the 9800 to its fullest however I thought that I’d rather have it and not need it (too much) than need it and not have it. I normally print 24x36 and larger with the largest 30x60 but will soon be doing a 40x80.

Don

 

bensonga

Well-known member
I'm currently using an Epson 2200 and 2400, mostly printing letter size for monthly and bi-monthly print exchanges, but in the last few months alot of 11x17 and 13x19 prints too. Those bigger prints sure look good! :)

I will be stepping up to a 17 inch printer in the next few months....trying to decide between a 3880 or 4880 (or it's replacement, if announced in 1Q 2010). Ideally, I'd like to get rid of the 2200 and 2400 to have one printer....but I really want to have both a PK and PM setup in a single printer, without a need for swapping cartridges, so the 3880 is likely to be my next printer.

I am wondering how many of my images will scale up to 17x22 size prints (I really don't expect to go any larger than that...where would I put them?). I know my 4x5 images will do fine, but my highest resolution digital camera is a Hasselblad 503CWD-II...16 megapixels may not cut it. Could be a good excuse to get serious about saving for a CFV-39! It's a slippery slope. :D

Gary
 

Henry Goh

Member
Gary

I think 16Mp is plenty. I have printed many 16" x 22" from D70's 6 Mp. With 16Mp I think you can make gorgeous 20" x 20" prints for gallery. A 17" print will give you 16" x 16" prints easily.
 

Dale Allyn

New member
Gary,

16 MP will print fine at 16x22ish, depending on all of the normal caveats of file quality. Even 10MP or 12MP files print nicely to 16x24, provided that good capture and processing technique used. I agree with Henry.

You may want to dig a bit regarding the PK/PM ink issue with even the 3880 if you like to swap papers around at random. I won't even consider Epson printers until they fix their process in this regard.

I'm a fan of Canon ImagePROGRAF iPF printers. Inks are very good, wide gamut, high longevity according to Wilhem, etc. Service has been great, etc. I'm very happy with them and will buy again (larger) when "timely".
 

Kirmo

New member
Epson 4000 and Epson 9900
The 4000 has been unused over a year.

With 9900 the longest so far was a 0,71 m x 5,9 m pano.
For printing I use Lightroom.

Kirmo
 

Kirmo

New member
5.9m is a nice long pano. Kirmo how was it mounted?
A very simple way on putting painted wooden bars on both sides of the print.
Using screws to tighten these bars (3 on both sides). Same system on top and
bottom and then hanging the photo. So 12 bars altogether (6 top and 6 bottom)

A bit problematic if mounted. As I needed to take it me and don't have a
big car!

Kirmo
 

bensonga

Well-known member
Thanks for your experience on digital image resolution vs printing size Henry and Dale. I had always heard/read that for good photo quality prints, an image file needed to have a minimum resolution of 240 dpi. I normally print with image files of 300 or 360 dpi. When I ran the calculations, it looked like my 16 mp CFV files would only be good up to 16x16 images at 240dpi. Since I usually crop those square image files to rectangular format images to make the most of my 11x17 or 13x19 paper (and assumed I would be doing the same on 17x22 paper), I thought I'd quickly be pushing the limits.

Henry -- re printing something as small as 6mp files at 16x22 inches, are you up-rezing those image files to get a 240+ dpi image file for printing with something like Genuine Fractals? I used to own a 6mp Canon D60 and by my calculations, the native resolution image at 240 dpi would be a 8.5 x 12.8 inch image....so I never pushed them any farther than that, which worked fine on my 13x19 inch printers of course.

Gary
 

bensonga

Well-known member
Gary,
You may want to dig a bit regarding the PK/PM ink issue with even the 3880 if you like to swap papers around at random. I won't even consider Epson printers until they fix their process in this regard.
Can you elaborate a bit on this or point me in the direction to find this info? I had read that the 3800/3880 setup used up much less ink in the purging of PK to PM or vis versa. While I wouldn't anticipate swapping from matte to glossy (baryta) papers at random, so to speak, I do enjoy one aspect of my current setup (two printers, one with PK one with PM) which is being able to view an image printed on matte vs baryta papers without much hassle and then running off a batch of 12 prints on the selected paper.

If that would be a problem on the 3880, maybe I should just buy two 2880s, since going bigger than 13x19 wasn't my primary motivation for upgrading to a 3880/4880 printer.

Gary
 

Henry Goh

Member
Henry -- re printing something as small as 6mp files at 16x22 inches, are you up-rezing those image files to get a 240+ dpi image file for printing with something like Genuine Fractals? I used to own a 6mp Canon D60 and by my calculations, the native resolution image at 240 dpi would be a 8.5 x 12.8 inch image....so I never pushed them any farther than that, which worked fine on my 13x19 inch printers of course.

Gary
Gary,

On Epsons, 180 dpi seems to be the base for a good print. I use Genuine Fractals, Photozoom as well as uprezzing in Photoshop.
 

docmoore

Subscriber and Workshop Member
Can you elaborate a bit on this or point me in the direction to find this info? I had read that the 3800/3880 setup used up much less ink in the purging of PK to PM or vis versa. While I wouldn't anticipate swapping from matte to glossy (baryta) papers at random, so to speak, I do enjoy one aspect of my current setup (two printers, one with PK one with PM) which is being able to view an image printed on matte vs baryta papers without much hassle and then running off a batch of 12 prints on the selected paper.

If that would be a problem on the 3880, maybe I should just buy two 2880s, since going bigger than 13x19 wasn't my primary motivation for upgrading to a 3880/4880 printer.

Gary
3800 and I assume the 3880 uses 1.5 ml ink for the PK MK ink switch...not worth mentioning.

Bob
 

Henry Goh

Member
After looking at B&H's site, I just realized that the HP3200 44" is not double in price compared to the 24". Sure is nice to have the ability to print larger when desired though.
 

gogopix

Subscriber
After years of being a 'dye-sub bigot' (I liked PHOTOS, not prints:D ) where I got 8.5x12 as largest from a Kodak 8660 (boy, do I LOVE discontinued items - goes well with my 'dead Contax 645 ), I was impressed by Michael Reichman's review of Epson 7900 on Luminous Lanscape. Read it - he has all the printers and gives a fair comparison.

I bought the 7900 and some gloss, matte and Epson Exhibition Fibre.

In gloss I have done pano's up to 6 feet (24" wide)

What impresses me?

1. It is EASY no RIPs, calibs and messy colors- it just works
2. Images in gloss are damn close to photos of old (and new - I have some 20"x 30" REAL chem photos from David at Dale Labs) The 7900 gets REALLL close (but not quite :rolleyes: ) However, good enough for me right now
3. vs 3200 it takes thicker paper (I want to do canvas) and even though it lacks the deep reds (well, sorry but some say this - I can't see it reds fine with 7900) and spectrophotometer (which, if you use a good profile, and most papers are profiled for 7900, you don't need)

Hope this helps.

BTW, was a great deal this summer net cost was under $3600.

Victor
 

Dale Allyn

New member
Can you elaborate a bit on this or point me in the direction to find this info? I had read that the 3800/3880 setup used up much less ink in the purging of PK to PM or vis versa. While I wouldn't anticipate swapping from matte to glossy (baryta) papers at random, so to speak, I do enjoy one aspect of my current setup (two printers, one with PK one with PM) which is being able to view an image printed on matte vs baryta papers without much hassle and then running off a batch of 12 prints on the selected paper.

If that would be a problem on the 3880, maybe I should just buy two 2880s, since going bigger than 13x19 wasn't my primary motivation for upgrading to a 3880/4880 printer.

Gary
Gary, sorry for the slow reply. I missed this post. It will be easier for me to post a link to fairly thorough experiment of the ink swap (round-trip). I'll find it and post it as an edit here.

I print mostly on matte paper, but do like some images on semi-gloss or "luster" or "pearl" type papers. The thought of making a print and saying "I wonder how this would look on Hahn. Fine Art Peal" and having to do a purge and swap to run it would make me nuts (more nuts ;) ).

Edit: Gary, I didn't find the "test" that I was referring to, but as I recall it supported this remark:

"According to Epson, the swap from Photo to Matte Black uses about 1.6ml of ink, while going the other direction uses about 4.6ml."

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/epson_stylus_pro_3880_review/

It's the round-trips that can be costly and require a bit of your time. I'm not sure what effect it has on a "maintenance cartridge" as the ink has to go somewhere. On the 4880 the process is impacting on the maintenance cartridge, so one needs to keep that in mind (i.e. keeping a spare handy, etc.).

Bob states that "it's not worth mentioning" and it may not be for the way that he prints. It would be a mess for me. I have room for multiple printers, and in fact have multiple imagePROGRAFs, but for my printing style the Epson process is not acceptable to me. Others obviously don't feel that way. The Epson 3880 produces fine prints, but for some folks the ink swap process doesn't work. Three of my friends just passed on it because of this aspect. It's obviously a great printer for some folks though.

Here is a good description of the ink swap process on the 4880: Link (a brutal waste of time and materials IMO)
 
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J

jackmartinn55

Guest
My current printer is Samsung CLP 315W. The printing quality is best in Sam sung CLP 315W. So many features in CLP 315W. In that High-speed USB 2.0 won’t slow you down. It is a wireless connectivity means no unsightly cords to deal with. In Samsung CLP 315W quality color in an affordable package. Its print speeds up to 17 ppm black and 4 ppm color. The CLP-315W is a compact 15.3" x 12.3" so it will easily fit on your home and office desk. Normally I print A4 size.
 
Hi Henry
Current printer is an Epson 3880 and my most used size is 8.5 x 11 because my only camera is a Panasonic G1. Hope to go full frame eventually but a major house renovation has put a hold on new toys until 2011.

Gary
With respect to Epson 3880 PK/MK ink swapping, a round trip from either ink type to the other type and back again uses about 6ml (note: both ink types are installed but only one can be used at any given time). I agree that the ink line purging is a PITA and poor marketing on Epson's part. Why would it be so hard to just install both types and choose the appropriate ink for the paper in use without having to purge lines. The Epson cartridge for the 3880 is 80ml capacity.

Hope this helps
Paul
 
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