Boney Loc: Huntington Beach

I am 80 and have been taking photographs since I was 13, using my Dad's Kodak Pony camera for slides. I now own two Nikon DSLRs, with a large collection of lenses, and still enjoy taking pictures. Since printing color pictures at home has been viable I have gone through more than a dozen inkjet printers. These printer print several nice quality pictures then in a short time they are clogging or malfunctioning. I have spent literally thousands of dollars with these poor printing devices.
I know that there are Dye Matrix printers but they are hard to find, difficult to get much information on them and only very few businesses sell them. The color laser printers all seem to be of low resolution and not really intended for photographic quality prints.
I am an engineer with an advanced degree and have spent most of my career working in the field of electro-optics, so you don't' have to talk down to me. I sure would love to be able to print good quality pictures at home on reliable hardware. I tend to print in spurts and then be idle for some time, which may be one reason inkjets don't work for me.
Another thing that is driving me crazy is that I cannot find a B&W home laser printer that will print on 11 x 17 inch paper.
Any ideas or any new technologies that I may not be aware of. I'm not donating another dollar to the inkjet world.
Thanks in advance.

NMGal Loc: NE NM

I feel your pain. I just got rid of an ink jet printer that used cartridges and replaced it with one that has tanks that you fill. I would go months not using it and as you say, everything is dried up. I am going to try very hard to use it at least once every couple weeks. There are many Canon printer users here who are happy. I have Epson and am happy. I’m sure you will be hearing from them.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

There is simply no better quality printing technology than *high end* inkjet. I’m sorry your seldom used printer developed a clog, but inkjet printers of all types thrive on frequent use.

I put 44” Epsons in a photo lab in 2003-2005. In season, we ran luster surface photo paper in one of them 8 to 20 hours a day. The other was used nearly every day (printing large canvas portraits).

However, they sat idle in much of January and July. The only times they clogged were during those months, or when my printing supervisor ordered some third party inks, which formed precipitates in the ink lines and heads when they mixed with Epson ink.

We learned to make 8x10 test prints every five days or so, just to move ink around and keep it from hardening.

Dye sublimation printers were once used heavily in the event portrait market, but that’s mostly gone, now.

Lasers are good for office printing. If you want 11x17 or 17x22, it’s going to be very expensive, and may require a service contract and a “click charge.” There’s not much available in those formats — in any technology — under $500.

BebuLamar

I have no idea but do you think a B&W laser is good enough for you? I personally do not think so. I have access to a color laser that can do 11x17 (of course it can do B&W of same quality as a B&W laser can) but I don't think the quality is good.
However, if you do think such a printer is good enough for you perhaps you can buy an off lease printer? Companies tend to leases those printers and after 3 years the printer company would make enough money and sell them cheap.

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

I've used Canon printers for many many years, and have never experience clogging. The Canon Pro200 (dye ink) or Pro300 (pigment ink) might be of interest to you. Check them out on B&H for more information.

tcthome Loc: NJ

This would be my choice. I have gone 3-4 months without printing sometimes with a Canon Pro100 without any problems. I believe the Canon Pro printers uses a thermal head which heats the ink which in turn keeps the ink from drying causing head clogs. The 200 is the 100 replacement from Canon & can do longer prints for panos.

RGreenway Loc: Morristown, New Jersey

I like the Canon Pro-100 so much! I had an older model for years and didnt use it much so it eventually clogged. Got a new one last year on sale at B&H for a great price, and it hasn't clogged yet. Oh, I do use it more, mostly for Hallmark Card Studio (which is great BTW) and for printing checks from Quicken (easier to insert a partial page than on my laser printer). So the Canon gets used about once a week or so. Totally agree, the print quality for the occasional photo is amazing, and the ink, while not dirt cheap, seems to last a pretty long time.

TonyBot

Burkphoto is our resident expert on printing and I for one will completely agree with him.
Don't get a laser printer, unless you want really good, fast everyday document printing and only occasional, barely adequate photo printing.
I'm a Canon printer fan, and I would agree with other posters about Canon. But there is certainly nothing wrong with Epson. I can't tell you much about Epson, but I would believe that a real, honest-to-goodness photo printer would be the best way to go - if you're not doing too many documents, cause the photo printers are not very cost efficient and very slow when it comes to documents.

wet3843

I am very pleased with my Canon Pro-10. Only downfall is it will not accommodate paper rolls, only sheets up to 13X19.

TonyBot

You *can* do a 14"x26.1" sheet. I have printed 14x24s on mine, using a chunk of 24" wide paper that I talked someone into 'donate' to see if it really would work.

Go to "Manage Custom Size" on your set-up menu.
Type in 14x26.1
Use the back paper feed (where you'd insert "fine art" papers).

So, you could invest in a box of 17x22 or 17x25" paper, cut it down to 14" wide, and print some work on it.
-or-
Go to your local art supply store, get a big sheet of watercolor paper, trim to 14", use "Plain Paper" setting, (boost contrast a little bit) and experiment!

(Still wish it took rolls!)

BebuLamar

Making test prints every 5 days or so is something I don't want to do that is why I can't have an inkjet.
Dye sub seems to fit need well for infrequent use and the fixed cost per print and they can print true 300dpi. But they are now going away. If you buy a dye sub printer today you wouldn't know how long you can buy ribbon and paper.

one_eyed_pete Loc: Colonie NY

One old engineer to another, since you state months can go by between your printing sessions, I think your best option is to send out to a printing shop when you want prints. I don't print often but i refuse to give up my photo printer because of the joy I experience watching a print roll out reminiscent of the old days when I made prints in my wet darkroom. FYI I use an Epson inkjet and I refill my ink cartridges. I have program (Qimage) that I set to automatically print a small 5X7 test image every 5 days to exercise the nozzles and keep them from clogging. As you know periodic exercise is necessary to keep our muscles and joints from "clogging". The best way to kill an inkjet printer, just like an old man, is to let it sit idle in the corner for month after month.

wet3843

Thanks for this info, I will give it a try after taking appropriate photo.

Boney Loc: Huntington Beach

I think One Eyed Pete has the correct approach until a new technology surfaces for home color printing. Since most of my photographs end up being viewed on a computer or tv or some other electronic media I will just have what I want printed. I always have an 8 x 10 laser printer for text and a nice B & W print occasionally.
Technology will eventually come up with something new.
Thanks for all the input.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

If you adjust images in post-production software, monitor calibration and custom profiling are the keys to "what you see is what you get" color. It takes a colorimeter or spectrophotometer and its accompanying software to do it properly.