Need a new photo printer

I need a new photo printer for home. I'd like to know
your experience with newer printers.

I would like to make prints up to 13x19 (ideally 16x20),
with long life.

Does anyone have experience with the Epson 3800 or 4800 printers?
Is there something similar at lower cost with maybe a few
less features?

I often travel and am not using the printer for perhaps a month
or more, so I have a concern about heads clogging. If you have
experience with leaving your printer for long periods, please
comment.

I do a variety of prints from 8x10 inches (smallest) to very large,
4x5 feet+. I use a pro lab and print using a lightjet
for the large prints, but I would like to go up to 16x20 inches
(16x24) with inkjet.

Roger

"Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark)" wrote:

I often travel and am not using the printer for perhaps a month
or more, so I have a concern about heads clogging. If you have
experience with leaving your printer for long periods, please
comment.

FWIW, both the Epson R800 and 2400 have been very well behaved here, despite
both abuse and periods of not being used much (respectively). The R800 has
required a couple of trips back to Epson, but it is my work printer and gets
used a lot for plain paper printing, and I don't use the 2400 very much (the
bit about having to change inks is driving me nuts). My place has high
levels of dust (and fairly nasty dust at that: downtown Tokyo isn't the
worst major city in the world for air quality, but it ain't suburban
Colorado (the current mayor is a bit of a crazy, and made attempts at
banning diesel trucks from downtown, but failed, unfortunately)), and Epson
returns the printer each time with a snide note about how they cleaned heavy
dust out of the mechanism. But it's several years out of warrantee and still
printing just fine, other than it's annual cleaning trip, for which they
charge me US$100 or so.

I had much nasty clogging problems with an earlier Epson dye-ink printer.
That was unpleasant, and I hesitated quite a while before buying the R800.

I do a variety of prints from 8x10 inches (smallest) to very large,
4x5 feet+. I use a pro lab and print using a lightjet
for the large prints, but I would like to go up to 16x20 inches
(16x24) with inkjet.

I was initially somewhat disappointed with the 2400 (it doesn't have the
gloss optimizer that the R800 does, so glossy prints aren't quite as good as
the R800), but the subtlety of enhanced matte is growing on me.

My take on printers is that I suspect that printers up to 13x19 may be
better than larger ones for prints that you will be inspecting at close
reading distances.

But these things are incredibly obnoxious ink-sucking pigs.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

David J. Littleboy wrote:

Roger N. Clark wrote:

I often travel and am not using the printer for perhaps a month
or more, so I have a concern about heads clogging. If you have
experience with leaving your printer for long periods, please
comment.

My place has high
levels of dust (and fairly nasty dust at that: downtown Tokyo isn't the
worst major city in the world for air quality, but it ain't suburban
Colorado

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

Denver has pretty serious pollution.

--
Paul Furman
San Francisco
(from suburban Colordao)

Scott W wrote:
Paul Furman wrote:
David J. Littleboy wrote:

Roger N. Clark wrote:

I often travel and am not using the printer for perhaps a month
or more, so I have a concern about heads clogging. If you have
experience with leaving your printer for long periods, please
comment.

My place has high levels of dust (and fairly nasty dust at that:
downtown Tokyo isn't the worst major city in the world for air
quality, but it ain't suburban Colorado

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

Denver has pretty serious pollution.

Technically, yes, but in reality it's not much. Denver sits in a bowl,
and in the winter during a temperature inversion, the pollution is
compressed into the bottom of the bowl. I live about 12 miles west of
downtown, 800 feet higher and air quality in this area has never
gone below "good." Sometimes I look downtown and the pollution
is so compressed, the tall buildings stick out above it and it
looks like a ground fog in the central city. So if you don't
live downtown, its not much of a problem, especially compared
to other big cities.

We live on an island in the middle of the ocean in a very small town,
and yet we have huge air pollution, about 2,000 tons of sulfur dioxide
are put into the air every day. This is pretty hard stuff on
electronics, and well just about everything else.

I found the salt spray from the ocean to be a major problem
when I lived in Hawaii. It rusted a lot of stuff, even the
rings in 3-ring binders that contained my college notes, and
photo albums.

How about back to printers?

Roger

How about Epson 2400 versus Epson 3800 versus HP 8750?

I've read reviews on the net, but they all seem to be a couple
of years old. It seems that inkjet technology has plateaued,
as these printers are 2+ years old. Perhaps new better printers
are about to be introduced?

Unfortunately, my current printer won't feed photo paper, so
I really need to replace it soon.

Roger

"Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark)" wrote in
message ...
I need a new photo printer for home. I'd like to know
your experience with newer printers.

I would like to make prints up to 13x19 (ideally 16x20),
with long life.

Does anyone have experience with the Epson 3800 or 4800 printers?
Is there something similar at lower cost with maybe a few
less features?

I often travel and am not using the printer for perhaps a month
or more, so I have a concern about heads clogging. If you have
experience with leaving your printer for long periods, please
comment.

I do a variety of prints from 8x10 inches (smallest) to very large,
4x5 feet+. I use a pro lab and print using a lightjet
for the large prints, but I would like to go up to 16x20 inches
(16x24) with inkjet.

Roger

If you are not using often enough, why get one at all. I didn't use my epson
photo printer but once a month or less. I had to fight the thing to clean
the head every time I used it. I had to remove screws and unplug ribbon
cables to remove the head to clean it. After reassemble and more head
cleaning cycles, I finally got it going.

All this was frustrating and since I didn't print much anyway, I got rid of
it and pay to have prints made somewhere. Some of the online printers may be
a good option too.

Just my experience, John

On Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:23:42 -0600, Roger N. Clark (change username to
rnclark) wrote:

I need a new photo printer for home. I'd like to know
your experience with newer printers.

I would like to make prints up to 13x19 (ideally 16x20),
with long life.

Does anyone have experience with the Epson 3800 or 4800 printers?
Is there something similar at lower cost with maybe a few
less features?

I often travel and am not using the printer for perhaps a month
or more, so I have a concern about heads clogging. If you have
experience with leaving your printer for long periods, please
comment.

I do a variety of prints from 8x10 inches (smallest) to very large,
4x5 feet+. I use a pro lab and print using a lightjet
for the large prints, but I would like to go up to 16x20 inches
(16x24) with inkjet.

Roger

I've not used those particular models - we adore our Stylus Photo R320.
Generlly, it seems that wide format printers are insanely expensive. I
would suggest you check the Epson online store for a refurb - I've found
good deals there in the past.

On Sat, 20 Oct 2007 15:07:19 +0000, JohnR66 wrote:

"Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark)" wrote in
message ...
I need a new photo printer for home. I'd like to know
your experience with newer printers.

I would like to make prints up to 13x19 (ideally 16x20),
with long life.

Does anyone have experience with the Epson 3800 or 4800 printers?
Is there something similar at lower cost with maybe a few
less features?

I often travel and am not using the printer for perhaps a month
or more, so I have a concern about heads clogging. If you have
experience with leaving your printer for long periods, please
comment.

I do a variety of prints from 8x10 inches (smallest) to very large,
4x5 feet+. I use a pro lab and print using a lightjet
for the large prints, but I would like to go up to 16x20 inches
(16x24) with inkjet.

Roger

If you are not using often enough, why get one at all. I didn't use my epson
photo printer but once a month or less. I had to fight the thing to clean
the head every time I used it. I had to remove screws and unplug ribbon
cables to remove the head to clean it. After reassemble and more head
cleaning cycles, I finally got it going.

All this was frustrating and since I didn't print much anyway, I got rid of
it and pay to have prints made somewhere. Some of the online printers may be
a good option too.

Just my experience, John

With my Epson Stylus Photo R320 - it does not seem to matter if I don't
use it for several weeks - I've never had a problem requiring a head
cleaning - it just works whenever I turn it on. I appreciate your comments
about costs - I use mine for 1) convenience 2) 8x10 (or 8.5x11) to have
the larger sizes printed commercialy seems to cost inordinately; 4x6 or so
are better printed that way.

" Denver sits in a bowl,
and in the winter during a temperature
inversion, the pollution is
compressed into the bottom of the bowl."

true...if you drive 10 miles north on i25...it is 100
mile vis.....go into the bowl, on a bad day..and
its very poor vis...fly over it @ 2,500 feet, or so...and
it is a brown blanket of air..sittin' on the city....







On Oct 20, 8:48 am, "Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark)"
wrote:
Scott W wrote:
Paul Furman wrote:
David J. Littleboy wrote:

Roger N. Clark wrote:

I often travel and am not using the printer for perhaps a month
or more, so I have a concern about heads clogging. If you have
experience with leaving your printer for long periods, please
comment.

My place has high levels of dust (and fairly nasty dust at that:
downtown Tokyo isn't the worst major city in the world for air
quality, but it ain't suburban Colorado

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

Denver has pretty serious pollution.

Technically, yes, but in reality it's not much. Denver sits in a bowl,
and in the winter during a temperature inversion, the pollution is
compressed into the bottom of the bowl. I live about 12 miles west of
downtown, 800 feet higher and air quality in this area has never
gone below "good." Sometimes I look downtown and the pollution
is so compressed, the tall buildings stick out above it and it
looks like a ground fog in the central city. So if you don't
live downtown, its not much of a problem, especially compared
to other big cities.

We live on an island in the middle of the ocean in a very small town,
and yet we have huge air pollution, about 2,000 tons of sulfur dioxide
are put into the air every day. This is pretty hard stuff on
electronics, and well just about everything else.

I found the salt spray from the ocean to be a major problem
when I lived in Hawaii. It rusted a lot of stuff, even the
rings in 3-ring binders that contained my college notes, and
photo albums.

How about back to printers?

Roger- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

ray wrote:
On Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:23:42 -0600, Roger N. Clark (change username to
rnclark) wrote:

I need a new photo printer for home. I'd like to know
your experience with newer printers.

I would like to make prints up to 13x19 (ideally 16x20),
with long life.

Does anyone have experience with the Epson 3800 or 4800 printers?
Is there something similar at lower cost with maybe a few
less features?

I often travel and am not using the printer for perhaps a month
or more, so I have a concern about heads clogging. If you have
experience with leaving your printer for long periods, please
comment.

I do a variety of prints from 8x10 inches (smallest) to very large,
4x5 feet+. I use a pro lab and print using a lightjet
for the large prints, but I would like to go up to 16x20 inches
(16x24) with inkjet.

Roger

I've not used those particular models - we adore our Stylus Photo R320.
Generlly, it seems that wide format printers are insanely expensive. I
would suggest you check the Epson online store for a refurb - I've found
good deals there in the past.


I tend to go along with the idea of an Epson refurb. My wife uses an
Epson. I'm on my third HP foto printer. She has fewer glitches and
time-consuming troubleshooting session than do I.

Avoid a printer with a 'drying fan' -- a fan would circulate the
corrosive atmosphere through the printer. Look for a paper path that
minimizes airflow through the printer. (The older Epsons had a door on
the front that kept the print heads from drying out.) Consider using a
vinyl cover over the printer when it's not in use.

hth ... pete