Any of the filmies got experience with A3 colour printers?

Mr Bump

Mr Bump

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I just treated myself to a Canon Pixma IX6550 A3 colour printer, well my ltd company did :-)

before I wire it up in the new year anyoone got one?
 
Yep I own the company so I just asked myself if its ok :-)
 
Well I got an Epson Photo 2100 for 20p with all attachments and spare ink...yep true just 20p, the seller I think was getting fed up and said "anything for 20p, all must go".

 
I had an Epson 2100 but couldn't get acceptable black and white prints with it, so I added an Epson 1690 with a specialist black and white ink set. I moved on to the Epson 2400 when it came out, as that did give good black and white photos. I've also had a Canon Pixma 9500. I now use an A2 printer, the Epson 3800.

My first ever colour inkjet prints were on a Lexmark (A4) printer.
 
I have been using a Pixma Pro-100 for the last twelve months and the print quality is superb. I had a few issues with wireless transmission at one stage, but once that was sorted I have been extremely chuffed with it.
 
StephenM said:
I had an Epson 2100 but couldn't get acceptable black and white prints with it, so I added an Epson 1690 with a specialist black and white ink set. I moved on to the Epson 2400 when it came out, as that did give good black and white photos. I've also had a Canon Pixma 9500. I now use an A2 printer, the Epson 3800.

My first ever colour inkjet prints were on a Lexmark (A4) printer.
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The advantage of these old Epson printers is the cheap compatible ink...a full colour set is about £8 for 2100. I've picked up a few non A3 Epson printers from 50p to £1 and they work but have some small annoying fault in colour printing, and always go back to my Epson Stylus 600 (bought new) which uses ink as cheap as 50p.
Anyway I'm pleased with the colour output from the 2100 (also the 600) but I suppose a modern printer would be better and I'm not going to buy one to find out. ;)
 
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Yellowbelly said:
I have been using a Pixma Pro-100 for the last twelve months and the print quality is superb. I had a few issues with wireless transmission at one stage, but once that was sorted I have been extremely chuffed with it.
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I dod look at that but at £370 it was a bit to cheeky to put through my company to be fair.
What paper do you recommend for the Pixma printers for A3 use?

I will look to ordering some from 7 day shop later.
 
I've got the same printer - problem is, it's been sat for the last 3 months or so since I printed anything on it, and the cheap non-canon ink cartridges appear to have dried up in the pipes and it's not blimmin working anymore. When it WAS working though it was pretty damned good - on a par with the ip4700 it replaced, but obviously capable of BIGGER piccies.

If anyone's got any tips on cleaning/flushing the printer and getting it working again I'm all ears :D
 
Mr Bump said:
I dod look at that but at £370 it was a bit to cheeky to put through my company to be fair.
What paper do you recommend for the Pixma printers for A3 use?

I will look to ordering some from 7 day shop later.
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My most used paper is Permajet Oyster. Excellent quality at a reasonable price.
 
TheBigYin said:
I've got the same printer - problem is, it's been sat for the last 3 months or so since I printed anything on it, and the cheap non-canon ink cartridges appear to have dried up in the pipes and it's not blimmin working anymore. When it WAS working though it was pretty damned good - on a par with the ip4700 it replaced, but obviously capable of BIGGER piccies.

If anyone's got any tips on cleaning/flushing the printer and getting it working again I'm all ears :D
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I usually just dipped the heads in the sink which dissolves the gunk then run the cleaning cycle.
 
I have a Canon Pixma IX6550 and after using my Spyder Print colorimeter to calibrate the printer I could get acceptable B&W prints but the Colour prints were much better. I changed from the standard Canon Inks to those supplied by City Ink Express with refillable cartridges and they have always worked well for me with a good cost saving over the OEM versions. It is a pity but apart from plugging it in once a month or so to do a nozzle check I rarely use it anymore.

I also have a Epson 2880 which is a fantastic printer and use this with only OEM inks at the moment but on the 30th Dec I will be collecting a Large Format Epson 4880 Pro A2 printer which I shall keep for colour and will change the 2880 to Jon Cone's Peizo Inks to give true monochrome images.
 
Mr Bump said:
I dod look at that but at £370 it was a bit to cheeky to put through my company to be fair.
What paper do you recommend for the Pixma printers for A3 use?

I will look to ordering some from 7 day shop later.
Click to expand...

I took receipt of my Pixma PRO-100 today for £388 - that was with Pro Platinum Paper, Replacement inks and a Datacolour Spyder4Express... bargain really.
 
I haven't had any experience of the Canons but you generally hear good things about them.

I have owned two hp A3+ photo inkjets, the 8750 which is nine inks in three cartridges great printer horendous running costs if you actually want to print A3. hp B9180 aka the printer of Satan I currently have a working one of these ... one of the few left I suspect, 8 pigment inks, read how wonderfull it is read why some people hate them. http://photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00cEt6?start=0

The issue with all A3 printers tends to be the cost of the ink and the consumer level build quality the hp was about 650 new but not considered a servericable item if problems arose out of waranty.

I can maybe get the ink for 20 odd for 27ml whereas the 44" Z3100 takes 130ml cartridges that I can get for 50 but tend to pick up for 20 - 25 with short / out of date expirey dates so 4 to 5 times the ink for about the same price.

If you find you actually want to print a lot of large prints it pays to go for A2 inkjets or larger as the running costs are way cheaper with the larger cartridges.

Most of these printers run dailly self tests / cleans it is important to always leave them on and try and print something at least once a month that way most stay trouble free even if they are using ink doing nothing.

The recomended head cleaning techniques are usually distilled water and a cotton bud I have also found a scanner (or suitable screen ) wipe moistened with distilled water and the head left to soak on it effective, if neither of these work most people recomend Magic Bullet. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Specialistink-MB-Bullet-Printhead-unblocker/dp/B002YUEEXI


Lost the will to live trying to get the forum editor to do pretty links
 
I agree with the A2 suggestion if you have the space and can collect as like all big things they tend to be collect only, not only that but the 4880 weighs about 40kgs. A used one on ebay can be had for around £300 depending on the model, I just picked up an Epson 4880 Pro with 3 months Warranty for £335.

The ink cartridges for it can be either 110ml or 220ml depending on what you want to spend compared to 12ml-14ml in the consumer models. They are more expensive at circa £50 for a 110ml but when you consider that the 12ml cartridges for the 2880 are about £15 each the difference in volumes and cost per ml is vastly different.

The other advantage is that the pro inks are date stamped and you can often pick up OOD 110ml and 220ml for peanuts. Don't worry though they are still perfectly okay even when years OOD. Just give them a shake now and then to disperse the pigment and all will be fine.

The other advantage is that they are designed for pro use and as such almost all important parts can be replaced and with standard consumables also being readily available unlike the consumer models which are pretty much destined for the rubbish tip if they go wrong out of warranty.
 
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Mr Bump said:
I dod look at that but at £370 it was a bit to cheeky to put through my company to be fair.
What paper do you recommend for the Pixma printers for A3 use?

I will look to ordering some from 7 day shop later.
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Why? The Tax man doesn't care what you spend as long as it's a legitimate business use item. You can claim for so much of the cost the first year and a decreasing amount each year after that. In fact, the Tax man would be less likely to complain about the purchase of a real Professional Model (with it's associated lower running costs and facility for proper repairs if the need should arise) than a consumer model pressed into service for pro use that could become useless if it ceases to work outside of the warranty period.
 
I use a Canon iX4000 for my photo printing. I only use genuine Canon inks after a bad experience with a cheapo 3rd party ink. I get good results using Ilford Galerie paper but since Ilford Switzerland's demise, 7dayshop seem to be short of stock...
 
EdBray said:
Why? The Tax man doesn't care what you spend as long as it's a legitimate business use item. You can claim for so much of the cost the first year and a decreasing amount each year after that. In fact, the Tax man would be less likely to complain about the purchase of a real Professional Model (with it's associated lower running costs and facility for proper repairs if the need should arise) than a consumer model pressed into service for pro use that could become useless if it ceases to work outside of the warranty period.
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Hi sorry been away in Egypt for a weeks diving back now, burnt and waterlogged. :-)

its a bit cheeky as I am an IT service company so colour A3 printer was justified for urrrm Visio diagrams .
 
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