Which printer to choose?

[michael_roach3]

I am overwhelmed by the choices that are available to me for printers, and ink choices, paper chioces, etc.

I had the old wet process nailed, and now???

 

I need some kind of guidence, suggestions, a general direction to travel in on this journey of the digital

darkroom. Naturally my budget will determine which direction it ultimatley takes, but I need some help as

to where to even begin.

 

I mostly shoot medium format and have the trasparencies/negs hi-res scanned, eventually along with

some 35mm work with a Canon 5D. Portraits, weddings, landscapes etc. are my main uses. I am looking

for the BEST output for the money, matching custom lab output. B/W is also an area that I must have. After

all, what's photography without B/W work? Looking for ultimate output of roughly 11X 14ish.

 

Thanks for any help you might have.

[marshall]

The Epsons still (to my knowledge) lead in the pro market. In particular, the 2400 does a very good job on both b&w and color on a variety of papers. Despite Epson's earlier dominance, HP and Canon have both joined the game in a big way in the last two product cycles. I don't know the model number, but HP in particular is known for doing credible b&w work.

[godfrey]

You can't go wrong with the Epson R2400 or R3800 if you need 16x20 print capability.

Both do very well, the Epson K3 inkset is well known and there are profiles available for

the widest array of papers. The R2400 is what I'm using: it produces excellent color and

B&W prints of exhibition quality.

 

The HP and Canon offerings in recent releases are also very good, but there simply hasn't

been enough time and experience with them on the market to have the kind of support

that there is for the Epsons just yet, imo.

 

Godfrey

[ernie_targonski]

Although I have no experience with the Epson 2400, when I decided to go pigment and get wider than 8.5 x 11, I chose the HPB9180. Have been very happy. Color is fantastic and matches my calibrated monitor. B&W is as good as my HP7960 dye based printer. Do some reasearch on the Epson, Canon, and HP's..... don't mix apples and oranges though; size, type of ink, etc. Check features that are important to you. I'm sure any one of them will produce great prints. Good Luck

[jtk]

For B&W you might want to visit

 

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/

 

There's genuine expertise as well as help for beginners.

 

I think you should expect better work from inkjet than from wet darkrooms, IMO.

[philfx]

I have both an HP DJ and An Epson 4800. They are both very good. I get great prints from the Epson out the box, Since the HP prints 24 inches across I need accurate color, so I got a rip for my HP...wow.

Big change. And the Epson I now use for anything smaller than 8x10. They are both great. Something subtly mute about the Epson. The HP has a bit of warmth when the image has warmth, or maybe wider color? Not sure, Maybe less color range? I am surely not a printer pro with the gamut readings and such....I would pick the Epson if I wanted a larger range of papers and was printing smaller than 17 inch across.

 

If you could be happy with a few papers and want to print large, then HP.

 

One factor to think of....My Epson has to do cleaning cycles often, And the heads are not replacable. HP has no need to use ink for clean, and heads are replacable. Took the rip to get good color for me on the HP....I am very picky for getting prepress proofs, so color I trested to a press colormatch. Maybe if you throw out a budget, and a size ..that would help others respond