A3 printer or Web service printing?

W44NNE

W44NNE

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I've finally accrued some photos that I'd like to print. We're talking very few now and again for the walls in our house.

On tv the other day I noticed a Brother A3 printer and had visions of it being perfect for this. Ink can be found cheap on fleabay too.

However it's doubtful the quality would be as good as photo box etc but just how different? Has anyone gone down this route?
 
I used to use a Canon A3 printer for similar occasional use. It was fine most of the time to begin with, although colour matching took a bit of work so sometimes I ended up needing to print a couple of times before getting it right. Then the jets started to block, so you run a clean cycle that wastes lots of ink, plus you've probably wasted at least another print. The costs of doing that add up to more than getting Photobox to do it, plus their prints are archival and generally better colours, so it ended up being a no-brainer for me. Ok so you have to wait a few days for them to come in the post, but that's a non-issue in my case.
 
I use a Canon Ix4000 A3 printer for all my photo printing. I'm too impatient to wait for prints to come back from a web based printer. I make sure I do a couple (at least) of colour prints every week to avoid any head clogging. I also only use genuine Canon inks which have less of a tendency to clog than cheap (e-bay...) inks. I have lots of fairly old prints that I did with my previous printer (another Canon) and they show no signs of fading - even the ones that aren't framed or in albums. I have similar age prints from film that were done by a lab and they've suffered the ravages of time.

Prints costs for large prints (bigger than A4) seem to be fairly high from most labs - A3 seems to be closer to 4x the price of A3 than double - but if you home print, the costs are basically just doubled for the larger size. Good A3 printers aren't cheap but if you want to do it yourself (and can afford it), go for it! Watching the prints come out of the slot isn't quite as magic as seeing a B&W image appear in the developing tray, it's as close as most people will get. Costs of ink and paper can be reduced by buying from 7dayshop and the like and using 3rd party papers (inks are IMO best kept original).
 
Dscl photo labs. Very good service. Having your own is ok but the inks are a joke and itl neber be setup correctly to match your on screen images. Also you'll be forever cleanong the heads and wasting ink as your an occasional printer
 
Find a local lab, I have a Canon Pro 9000 Mk2 but it is bulky, the inks expensive, paper is expensive, profiling is critical (although not terribly difficult) and all in all it is a bit of a ballache.

I also have a very good local printers who know what I want, will fit in rush jobs, a choice of papers, mounts, framing if needed, the whole lot.
 
barratt1988 said:
Dscl photo labs. Very good service.
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last time I used them they couldnt even print onto a3 paper... yes they do a3 prints but not on true a3 paper.... has this changed? no more white space down side of print ?
 
barratt1988 said:
Did you contact them about that? Ive never had an issue with that
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yes and they had some explanation about the rolls of paper they use... so your a3 prints come on true sized a3 paper with no bleed? not slight smaller? the measurments are proper a3? if thats true i will give them another go.. but the explanation they gave me was that they couldnt do it.
 
If you're only doing printing occasionally, it isn't really worth the outlay and the hassle to have your own printer. Speaking as someone who has had an A3 printer for the past few years, I'd say that the quality of prints off my Epson are better than a lab, and I can also match my screen. However, good quality paper isn't cheap, OEM ink isn't cheap and the printer itself was damned expensive. It's also BIG.

Of course an A3 printer can also print sizes smaller than A3 (something not everyone realises, surprisingly), so it is a viable option for regular printing of smaller stuff and general document printing.
 
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These >>>>> best value by far, http://www.proamimaging.com

FTP server facility, colour profile for perfect excellent quality prints and very competitive prices.

Used them for years.
 
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