Is high quality home digital printing feasible these days? Or

Can you afford to run a high maintenance large format printer?

If yes - yes.
If no - no.

>>2904326

I've owned an Epson 3880 for a few years now. Love the prints and it has been the lowest maintenance ink jet I've ever owned.

Ink carts are expensive, but last a very long time.

File: Canon Pro10.jpg (482KB, 675x900px) Image search: [Google]

482KB, 675x900px

>>2904314
Just got a Canon Pixma Pro-10, and the results look great to me. Spent $200 on it from Craiglist, it was practically brand new, and came with a lot of paper.

Here's a 13x19 with a large border of a photo I took today on Canon's Pro Luster paper.

File: IMG_4712.jpg (582KB, 900x600px) Image search: [Google]

582KB, 900x600px

The image I printed.

[EXIF data available. Click here to show/hide.]

Camera-Specific Properties:
Equipment Make	Canon
Camera Model	Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Camera Software	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.0 (Windows)
Maximum Lens Aperture	f/1.4
Image-Specific Properties:
Horizontal Resolution	4800 dpi
Vertical Resolution	4800 dpi
Image Created	2016:08:16 01:59:04
Exposure Time	1/250 sec
F-Number	f/2.8
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO Speed Rating	200
Lens Aperture	f/2.8
Exposure Bias	0 EV
Metering Mode	Pattern
Flash	No Flash, Compulsory
Focal Length	50.00 mm
Color Space Information	sRGB
Rendering	Normal
Exposure Mode	Manual
White Balance	Auto
Scene Capture Type	Standard

>>2904314

I can't speak to other brands.

The Epson professional line is pretty good in that you don't have to print every day to keep the ink lines and heads working. Ink lines are pressurized; head is well capped when the printer is off; and the heads are now coated with something that repels ink. So clogs from lack of use usually clear up with one head cleaning. (Note: I'm speaking of the 17" and wider models. I don't know how much of this is true for the 13" models.)

Ink carts are expensive. They last a long time, i.e. per photo print price is lower than a lab or a consumer ink jet. But they hurt when they run out. ($60 per cart on the 17" models.)

I wouldn't bother buying a pro ink jet if you don't think you're going to print through an ink cart set at least once per year. If you think you will print that much, then they're great. Nothing like being able to experiment with papers, immediately fix any problems that show up in print, etc.

>>2904326
>high maintenance
My Epson 9800 Pro is the lowest maintenance device I've ever owned. I have an ink cart plugged in that's from mid-2008. It also ran perfectly after months of inactivity at times.

The K3 Ultrachrome printers are in general known to be the most reliable ever made. Epson dropped the ball a bit on the x900 printers that use the HDR inks, as those clog constantly, but they went back to Ultrachromes with the new P series.

Whether it's worth it or not depends on various factors, but ink tanks become considerably cheaper with each increase in size category, so running a big 44"er will cost you 1/4th as much in inks versus your typical table-top. The biggest hurdle is the up-front cost of the device, inks and paper. A full set of inks is like $1200, but you can print out 100 full-width prints and not even come close to draining them.

>>2904512
>The K3 Ultrachrome printers are in general known to be the most reliable ever made. Epson dropped the ball a bit on the x900 printers that use the HDR inks, as those clog constantly, but they went back to Ultrachromes with the new P series.

That's probably a more important distinction than mine in >>2904484.

If it's a K3 Ultrachrome printer, it's reliable as fuck.

>>2904314
Ayyy we have basically this exact printer at work.

>>2904839
Any word on the Claria ink printers? Are the ultrachrome hg2 reliable as well?
Looking at an Epson artisan 1430 or sure color p400 for occasional home use, nothing crazy. I don't really need roll media, so the 1430 being half price of the p400 is appealing.

>>2905905
The 1430 uses dye inks, which don't have as great longevity as pigment inks and take longer to dry, but can be more vibrant (at least for the first few years).
Reading various user reviews it seems that the P series doesn't have clogging problems, but it's also a fairly new system. It also seems the 1430 goes through inks quickly. I'd get the P400 if I had to choose, the cost of the machine is the least of your expenses anyway.

>>2905929
I'm going to get a cis system for either one anyways, they cost about the same for ink after that. I heard pigment inks clog more though? I won't be using it every day, but probably firing off a few prints every week.

>>2905992

* 3rd party ink/CIS system is going to alter IQ and longevity, and possibly introduce clogging issues. Be sure you know what you're getting into.

* The specific ink set (formulation), plus the design of the printer (lines; print head; head cap) is going to affect clogging. Not so much dye vs. pigment.

* I agree with >>2905929 that between the two I would grab the P400.

* That said, Ultrachrome HG2 is not going to be as good for B&W as Ultrachrome K3/HD.

What printer would you anons recommend for someone who doesn't have one, has a money to spare, and wants to start getting into home printing? Volume would likely scale up if results produced can be good.

>>2906086
I'm looking at Marrutt, are they any good?

>>2905992
>cis
>inb4 gender memes
I have never seen a good CIS implementation, also I once dealt with a company that used one when I needed to print bigger than 44" (they had an 11800), and results were terrible. They also used some off-brand canvas that sucked donkey balls and looked matte even after I coated the motherfucker with varnish... never again. They also had shit computers that must have had like 2-4GB of RAM because they struggled to open my files.

Next week I went to another company that used genuine carts, but massive 700ml ones that stuck out of the printer. They also used off-brand canvas, but because it was a more expensive German brand... the results were very satisfactory and the prints cost me about the same amount. They used Macs with nice NEC displays.

Some lessons I've learned:
Don't own a shit computer.
Use genuine inks unless you don't really care about quality.
Try to stick to paper made by the same company of the printer, unless it's actually better, like expensive art papers.

If you want cheaper inks, just get a larger printer that can accept bigger carts. A 220ml cart is significantly less expensive per-ml than an 80ml one, and in turn a 20ml one.

>>2906389
The Epson 3880 is a rock-solid classic, although discontinued. Can print big, but is not oversized. Never clogs. Not very expensive. Accepts any size of paper from 4x6" to 17" wide.
The P800 is its modern replacement, but if you can find a used 3880 it's still worth getting.

I'm just going to link to my printing related posts in the FGT here and see if anyone has anything constructive to add.
>>2904800
>>2905101
>>2905113

Can /p/ establish a printing repository of information/sticky/general?

>>2906536
>Don't own a shit computer.

care to elaborate on this? Do you mean the OS or just the computing power in general?

>>2907168
Kinda both. Megapixels are starting to really stack up these days, so a decent system is needed if you do anything more than basic adjustments from simple camera shots. Printing a 100x250cm file really puts a strain on my current computer.

The second thing is that OS X has a much better print spooler than Windows, which has terrible memory management and is prone to all sorts of crappy behavior. If I ever move to a Windows machine, I'll install a RIP just to bypass it, which is seeming more likely every day.

>>2907188

Photography is my hobby, programming my profession. (Though sometimes I think I would like to reverse that.)

Don't move to Windows. Windows 10 is literally Microsoft spyware. There is no excuse for the stuff Microsoft is reading off people's drives and sending back to their server farms. And you cannot turn it completely off despite any claims to the contrary from Redmond.

Windows 7 is the last version I run as a regular computer, and even then I have removed specific updates and blocked automatic updates. I have a Windows 10 VM for testing, but I restrict it's access to my network and drives. It's a sandbox.

If you're into photography, stick with OS X. You can't get the same software / plugins / print drivers on Linux. Otherwise I have been recommending Linux over Windows for servers and mundane work stuff now. I can't in good conscious recommend Windows any longer. They are that intrusive and disrespectful of end user privacy.

>>2908176
I agree, but Apple still hasn't updated their Mac Pro, nor made a standard desktop-style system that could run without throttling, and after already owning an iMac for a long while, I can say it's not really for me.
Besides, it'd be like twice the price of a comparable Wangblows machine, I'd sooner build a hackintosh. I rarely connect the Internet to my work machine, so the botnet wouldn't bother me either way, whether it's Apple's or Microshaft's.

>>2908386
>I'd sooner build a hackintosh

Then do that.

>I rarely connect the Internet to my work machine,

Or never do that. (Never connect your Win10 machine to the net.)

I can honestly say that I'm actually creeped out by what Microsoft is collecting, and wondering what the hell they are up to. Their OS is dead to me.

>>2904314
It's gotten better...

>>2908677
>>2908176
shit so glad I didn't take the "free upgrade" when they were trying to force the koolaid down everyone's thought

>>2904314
More than feasible OP. I run a P800 that just replaced a 3800 that I had bought new however many years ago.

if you print a lot you can pay for the printer if fairly short order printing for yourself and others. I have also marketed myself as the guy who will get you a print at whatever time day or night for $$$, and yes it happens that a photographer needs something printed at 1:30am for first thing in the morning and will pay a premium to get you out of bed to do it.

>>2913040
W-who needs something printed at 1:30am?

>>2913417
Been there done that. Stay up till 2am setting up prints, get up at like 7~8am to squeeze one more in before I have to pack it up.