Beginner question

slungu · Jul 25, 2007

Hello everybody,

I am looking for a printer that is good enough for printing color and digital negatives. I would be content with a printer that can do A4, but should be able to print on thicker papers and good for digital negatives for UV processes. Is there such a tool or do I have to pay the premium for a larger printer. I have not seen too much about the Canon printers on this site. Is there a reason for this ?

Regards, Stefan

dwross2 · Jul 26, 2007

A "Today's Posts" ping.

(Because I'd like to see it stay easily visible until someone posts a response.)

donbga · Jul 26, 2007

dwross said:
A "Today's Posts" ping.

(Because I'd like to see it stay easily visible until someone posts a response.)

Okay. I would suggest to the OP that he/she search or browse the forums since this topic has been fairly well discussed of late.

Don

dwross2 · Jul 26, 2007

Don Bryant said:
Okay. I would suggest to the OP that he/she search or browse the forums since this topic has been fairly well discussed of late.

Don

Well...I suspect I'm going to get myself in trouble here. I'm sitting here putting off doing a bunch of scans of this week's work. Procrastination is a dangerous thing .

Hybrid is growing - slowly to be sure, but there is very little fluff, so there's actually quite a bit of solid information here. I'd love to see us figure out how to organize things so that all the good stuff can be found easily. All I've come up with so far is a volunteer "librarian" concept where an individual watches for a topic that they know something about and 'collates'?, 'tags'?, 'wikis'?, 'links'? I'm sure there's a tool/concept that will work here, if there is any interest.

donbga · Jul 26, 2007

Wiki-wonki

dwross said:
but there is very little fluff, so there's actually quite a bit of solid information here. I'd love to see us figure out how to organize things so that all the good stuff can be found easily.

Denise,

Isn't the Forum Search engine good enough? And making a wiki-library or whatever; isn't that reinventing what the forum does to begin with?

Don

dwross2 · Jul 26, 2007

It's sometimes hard to know if something is a 'simplifier' or a 'complicator". Danged if I know which this is. I just searched 'canon printers' and got 20 threads, each with a number of replies. It would be hard to search through that much data if you knew what you were looking for. When you're searching for newbie info, you can get hit with the Paradox Whammy. How do you know what you don't know? Even chocolate can't fix that one.

I know that 'it' would take volunteers (whatever form 'it' might take.) jd doesn't have time - at least at present.
I could only volunteer to collate silver gelatin emulsion and darkroom chemistry (and maybe, at a stretch, Pentax K10's) That's cheap words because of the stunning lack of interest in those topics here. It would take five minutes a day. Being in charge of digital negative info coordination could be a part time job.

It probably comes down to what we feel the role of this site is. I suspect I'm in the minority by wanting hybrid to be more than the digital answer spot for APUG. It does that very well, as is. If we want it to be a place where we are all out front together creating a new way of looking at art - and we are inclusive and welcoming to newcomers (including I hope young people who may not have the confidence to push dialogue with geezers (excuse me, with seasoned professionals) we may want to think about why the traffic here is slow and getting slower.

Just a thought. Now, I'll finally get to that scanning and stop torturing people .

denise

Katharine Thayer · Jul 26, 2007

I tried searching on "gum" and came up with no matches at all, although there is information on gum woven into various threads here. I don't know how useful the information contained within those threads would be to beginners even if they could access it, but at any rate the information about gum that's available here is apparently not accessible through the search engine.
kt

donbga · Jul 26, 2007

The search engine on HybridPhoto is broken. Using the search engine on APUG works as expected.

My point was and is, if the search engine is working properly there isn't a need to re-invent the wheel. The Forums are a knowledge base.

Don

dwross2 · Jul 27, 2007

Don Bryant said:
My point was and is, if the search engine is working properly there isn't a need to re-invent the wheel. The Forums are a knowledge base.

Don

Ah! A philosophical fork in the road: I rejoice in reinventing wheels.

Katharine Thayer · Jul 27, 2007

dwross said:
Ah! A philosophical fork in the road: I rejoice in reinventing wheels.

slungu · Jul 27, 2007

Don, I have searched around this site but the printers that are discussed here are for larger formats and out of my budget. This is why I asked the question. I also noticed that Canon printers are not wide spread around here - wondered why that was so. But since I didn't get any direct answer I'll search around more...
Regards, Stefan

donbga · Jul 27, 2007

slungu said:
Don, I have searched around this site but the printers that are discussed here are for larger formats and out of my budget. This is why I asked the question. I also noticed that Canon printers are not wide spread around here - wondered why that was so. But since I didn't get any direct answer I'll search around more...
Regards, Stefan

Stefan,

What is your budget for purchasing a printer?

Don

slungu · Jul 27, 2007

Don Bryant said:
Stefan,

What is your budget for purchasing a printer?

Don

The budget is at 300EUR, I could go a little bit higher but I would rather invest in materials and get some experience with the process. So far, I only saw the Epson 200/300 Models that are mentioned here that would somehow fit the budget. What I don't always find is a relation between various inks and the printer models. My target ist to be able to do A4+ prints/negatives of digital images or scans of 6x4,5 6x7 and 4x5 B&W and slides for cyanotype and platinum/palladium. For now I plan to stay a while on the small formats for the prints.

Regards, Stefan

donbga · Jul 27, 2007

slungu said:
The budget is at 300EUR, I could go a little bit higher but I would rather invest in materials and get some experience with the process. So far, I only saw the Epson 200/300 Models that are mentioned here that would somehow fit the budget. What I don't always find is a relation between various inks and the printer models. My target ist to be able to do A4+ prints/negatives of digital images or scans of 6x4,5 6x7 and 4x5 B&W and slides for cyanotype and platinum/palladium. For now I plan to stay a while on the small formats for the prints.

Regards, Stefan

If you are will to spennd 300 euro why not consider an Epson 1400 or it's Euro equivalent. That allows you the option of printing larger in the future. In my experience A4 sized desktop printers are not as well made as the larger B3 (13x19 inch) printers and the ink costs are about the same.

My 2 cents,

Don

timeUnit · Aug 2, 2007

I'm also interested in a smaller printer for diginegs for gum printing. I don't have the room or need for a great but big and expensive one.

Any ideas?

donbga · Aug 2, 2007

timeUnit said:
I'm also interested in a smaller printer for diginegs for gum printing. I don't have the room or need for a great but big and expensive one.

Any ideas?

Most any inexpensive desktop inkjet printer will work for gum, but you need to understand how to make an inkjet negative that will work.

But again you guys need to learn to think big! It doesn't cost anymore to operate a 13 inch printer vs. an 8 inch printer. If you can afford to gum print you can afford to get a good quality 13 inch printer!

Don Bryant

garri · Aug 2, 2007

I have an Epson R200 and am more than happy with it. I have not used it for Digi negs but that is what it will be used for when I get round to replacing my dead A3 printer.

It prints great colour photos on good paper such as Hahnemule photo rag, it will cope with the 308gm paper if you give it a gentle push when it picks up the sheet. Gloss paper is not my thing but I have tried some Ilford Gallerie gloss and it works weel with that too.

I plan to experiment with the pigment/platinum workflow discussed on this site so will soon be trying to print Diginegs. I shall post if and when I get round to it.

That said I am not sure if the 200 is still available, the 300 and 340 are the same printer for all intents and purposes I believe.

Gari

timeUnit · Aug 2, 2007

Don,

I generally agree with you. But right now, I can't really fit a bigger printer. Also, printing bigger involves a lot of more things to invest in, for me anyway, like a bigger printing frame, a bigger UV-unit, etc.

Looking at Epson printers, the R1400 model is three times the price of the R265 model.

If I need to print bigger, I might rent my teachers shop. They have an enormous Epson (9600?), vacuum print frames for bigger than 56 x 76 cm papers, UV-unit from hell (or heaven?)... etc.

donbga · Aug 2, 2007

timeUnit said:
Don,

I generally agree with you. But right now, I can't really fit a bigger printer. Also, printing bigger involves a lot of more things to invest in, for me anyway, like a bigger printing frame, a bigger UV-unit, etc.

Looking at Epson printers, the R1400 model is three times the price of the R265 model.

If I need to print bigger, I might rent my teachers shop. They have an enormous Epson (9600?), vacuum print frames for bigger than 56 x 76 cm papers, UV-unit from hell (or heaven?)... etc.

I'm not saying that you have to print bigger but a wider printer gives you options for the future. You can improve your printing environment incrementally.

Also as I said before I think as desktop printers go the bigger ones seem to be more robust and last longer. but I can understand the need to use a printer with a smaller foot print. I was just suggesting alternatives to consider.

Don

timeUnit · Aug 3, 2007

I actually have an old 1290 printer which I think would work OK for diginegs, but the footprint is too big. Can't really fit it in my apartment right now. Plus it's dang ugly!

Don,
Thanks for your input in the matter, I really appreciate it. I too find that the bigger printers are better built (well, excluding my 1290 which has been to service twice and still has the same issue). Hopefully a smallish, cheapish Epson will last a year or two at least.

timeUnit · Oct 4, 2007

I've now tried to make my 1290 behave like a good printer, but it's banding, banding, banding... just like it's done since the day I got it. It's a dud, and it's always been.

So I think I'll need to invest in a new one, and as you say, I might as well buy a big printer from the start. I have a new darkroom with space for a A3 printer.

I'm seriously considering the HP B9180. My other alternative is the Epson R1800. Which would you choose?

The 9180 seems great for black / white, but I'm more into printing BW in the darkroom.

My first ane foremost use of a new inkjet printer is diginegs. If I can print good looking, archival color prints as well, that's a great bonus.

timeUnit · Oct 4, 2007

R1900

Just to add to the confusion Epson UK announces the R1900. It seems QUITE interesting, with an ORANGE ink, which might be great for blocking UV.

Beginner question

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency