roan Loc: England

Hi all,

Can anyone recommend a decent photo printer for up to A3 size prints? I am looking at spending up to £300 and don’t mind second hand if there are some deals I might be able to search/buy through auction sites.
Or does anyone have a printer they can advise if it is good or not?
I am looking to have a strong mix of colours as the shots I want to print can range in colour as:- http://www.flickr.com/photos/roanmanion/

Any help would be great :)

Danilo Loc: Las Vegas

I've been using a Canon Pixma Pro9000 for a few years, now, and I'm completely happy with its performance in all respects. It uses 8 ink color tanks, and seems quite reasonable as far as ink usage (although this is something very difficult to quantify).
I've printed on several types of glossy paper, canvas, vinyl, transparency material, t-shirt transfers, matte finish, plain paper and envelopes, all with excellent results. It will print up to 13x19" (A3).
Back when I purchased it they were higher priced, but I believe you'll find it currently available in your price range.
Also: the inks are dye-based, if you prefer pigment-based ink, the Pro9500 would work well.
I hope this is helpful to you.

roan Loc: England

Thank you Danilo, it does have some great reviews and looks like a good way to go.
Also is the difference with the dye based and pigment based just down to the flow of the ink?

Thanks again for your advise.

deryk Loc: scotland

I also use the Canon Pro 9000 mkii and am totally satisfied with it, as I have been with all my Canon printers over the years, less so with other brands.
One tip - please be careful if you are tempted by some of the inexpensive 'so-called' compatible inks. I have tried them twice over the years and clogged up beyond economical repair both printers, now I stick to Canon original cartridges and shop around for the best deals and find the internet suppliers far better priced than the high street.

William Bennett Loc: Il

I have the Canon Pro 9000 for a couple of years never had any trouble. Know Iam going to sell it for $200.00 an get the pro 9500

johnb20 Loc: West Sussex. UK.

Hi
I have a HP Deskjet 1120C. This prints up to A3 and does a good job. It is now a fairly old model but just keeps on going and is not expensive to run. I am sure you could pick one up as a used item fairly easily.

Rathyatra Loc: Southport, United Kingdom

I have a canon ix6550 A3 printer and the print output for photos is absolutely brilliant and cartridges can be purchased on ebay at a very reasonable price - would highly recommend.

I paid £188.00 (incl Shipping ) on Amazon - worth every penny.

Buy my paper from Jessops - fabulous quality.

roan Loc: England

Cheers all.....a few to look through :)

roan Loc: England

Hi, Got the printer and all looks and feels good. I have now got some gloss paper and set up the print through the canon software. The picture looks great on screen but when printed out the image seems darker and the skin on my daughters face is more grey and nothing like the image on screen. i printed this from the tiff file. Is there something I am missing?

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

Has your monitor been calibrated? You probably need to do this so that what you see on the screen is very close to what the output of the printer will be.

One of the basic things is that we often have our monitors set at too high a brightness level resulting in prints that are too dark. Sometimes and I emphasize "sometimes" that is enough to normalize the prints. If you are saying that the color is off, then you will need to do a calibration. Google it and you will find many systems available to take care of it.

If you are using Canon paper and inks then make sure that you are making the correct choices for the paper type when setting up the printer. If you are using non-Canon paper, then you may need to have your post processing program do the color management (rather than the printer) and install the proper profile for that printer/paper combo. Many paper manufacturers have them available on their websites.

Rathyatra Loc: Southport, United Kingdom

The advice from birdpix is correct but I have never bothered calibrating monitor and printer or using specific profiles. I find the output of the ix6550 just fine. If you are not printing for commercial reasons it seems too much bother to go to all that trouble.
Turning down the brightness on your screen can help if it is a matter of light or dark but if there is a serious colour difference then try one letting the printer set the colours and and then using your preferred software and compare.
The paper you use can be important and Canon papers are very good but I use Jessops because they are less expensive.
I imagine with it being a new printer you have installed Canon original ink cartridges but I have, over many years, used compatibles and get good results.
In fact the magazine called Computeractive
(www.computeractive.co.uk ) have carried out lab tests and found compatibles, in many instances, to be better than the originals and to produce more prints.
Printers are coming down in price with new models coming out continuously and the manufacturers are making their money on selling cartridges at exorbitant prices.
I get compatibles on ebay for around £9-15 per set against nearly £50 for originals and get good prints.
I do not sell my prints so they just have to be acceptable to me or friends I give them to free.
I believe you will find the ix6550 an excellent printer and you may have to use different papers until you get a print which is acceptable to you.
There are many UHHers who are far more experienced than me and you will get further good advice, Good luck with your printing.

roan Loc: England

Hi, Thanks for the reply....I am going to try the calibration as i doubt its been done as i dont remember doing it also some things I read may also help with a relared issue I have with a few images I put on Flickr that have a colour banding issue but are not shown on PS or the JPEG saved. Do you think this will help the same way?

Should I let canon run the settings or PS?

Thanks again

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

If you are using Canon Papers and ink, then it would be simpler to use the printer to do the color management. If you are using ddifferent brand papers then use PS and the profiles for that paper and your ink.

As to the color banding, I have no idea.

Danilo Loc: Las Vegas

I would be cautious about calibrating your printer or monitor, roan. Always remember when you look at the image on your monitor you are actually viewing a "light source". When you view your printed photo it is by reflected light from the surface of the photo...it is not a light source, it will ALWAYS look "duller" or "darker" than the image on your monitor. I've not been disappointed in the output from my Canon 9000Pro, but I know it will never look as "brilliant" as the image on my monitor.
Now, I DO insist my colors come out right! So far, I've been having the printer control the color, not PS.
Oh...from earlier: Pigment inks are more permanent than dye-based inks, but they are also more expensive, and in some cases have clogging issues in the print heads, but I have no personal experience with pigment inks, I may be making it sound worse than it is.