Monitor advice, please

[John King]

A bit better example of the R3880 size when printing an A2 print.

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[JensM]

@John King, and others who may have an interest.

I checked in on the Pro 200 ink longevity, and it has a new formula and an estimated lifespan of more than 100 years.

Also popped up another interesting bit for "Instant tactility", a printer segment I have never looked at seriously before, and that are those mini printers. Canon has the Selphy 1300 and some other specialised ones, which prints 10X15cm - 4X6 or smaller with additional media and that is what they do. Other producers have similar stuff in their line-up.

I have seen them around and sniggered at them, but having looked a bit closer, I think that it may actually have a place in a "output production" chain. By all means, not the cheapest option in town, but the one I mentioned above can take a battery and offers 56 prints off the battery anywhere. Could very well be some sort of digital Polaroid/instant gratification thing. The output media is a bundle of papers and sublimation cartridge with enough media to print to the paper content.

Locally, its seems the print cost run from about 27 cents to about 60 cents pr picture, so shopping around have its uses. I found the possibilities such a printer presents, somewhat intriguing and will look a bit further into it.

 

[doady]

@doady, The R3880 is very small when folded up. Weighs a lot, and takes up a lot of room when both feed and output trays are fully extended.

I saw Keith Cooper's video on the P900 and was surprised how compact it was when folded up. P700 inks also cost twice as much as P900 inks, which is just crazy. So 13 inch or A3 printer does seem kinda pointless.

I guess for me it's the amount of space on the walls to hang prints that's the bigger problem. I love the idea of making prints at home, but it is hard to justify it if I only print for myself. I am not sure that printing from labs is actually more expensive anyways.

 

[John King]

I saw Keith Cooper's video on the P900 and was surprised how compact it was when folded up. P700 inks also cost twice as much as P900 inks, which is just crazy. So 13 inch or A3 printer does seem kinda pointless.

I guess for me it's the amount of space on the walls to hang prints that's the bigger problem. I love the idea of making prints at home, but it is hard to justify it if I only print for myself. I am not sure that printing from labs is actually more expensive anyways.

Doady, I don't know about the later Epson printers, but the tanks in the R3880 are 80mls each (x9). It also has a cheap and user replaceable waste tank.

Having prints done commercially can be a lot cheaper than doing your own. I approached a professional lab here and told them what I required. I then went and spent just over AUD$2,000, as they were expensive, and I could foresee fights looming about the quality of output.

I estimate that it costs around $25 per A2 print on the R3880. My local Officeworks costs a fraction of this using colour laser printers and photo paper. I should do a test print there.

Test prints done on a store R7880 were nowhere near the quality I get, even though the inks and technology are identical to my R3880.

BTW, Canon also reckoned that their Chromalife inks were good for 100+ years. In Arrhenius dark storage conditions, they lasted less than 12 months. And that was using Canon photo paper. Slightly longer (~18 months) on copier paper!

I would still recommend the Epson XP-970. The prints compare well with my R3880 using Epson glossy photo paper in both. The XP-970 inks show no sign whatever of colour change after 6+ months hanging on a wire photo hanger, exposed to bright daylight, but not direct sun. I periodically compare the two test prints I made.

The Selphy printers use a wax dye sub process, and produce good prints that should last a lifetime. Very limited size prints though.

 

[John King]

@doady, always remember that you can make small prints on a wide platen printer, but you cannot make big prints on a small throat printer.

The XP-970 is described by Epson as an occasional use A3 printer. Most of my prints are A4. You can only feed one A3 sheet at a time through the rear feed of the XP-970. A3 is a straight through paper path.

 

[BosseBe]

Let us talk about the elephant in the room from my point of view!
The Epson R3880 costs about 21500 SEK or $2500!
That is to much for me to start out with!
I would like to get a printer but $2500 is to much!

I have looked at Canon Pixma iP8750 and Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000, both available here for just less then $400.
Are either of them a good starting point if you want to explore printing?

 

[John King]

Let us talk about the elephant in the room from my point of view!
The Epson R3880 costs about 21500 SEK or $2500!
That is to much for me to start out with!
I would like to get a printer but $2500 is to much!

I have looked at Canon Pixma iP8750 and Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000, both available here for just less then $400.
Are either of them a good starting point if you want to explore printing?

Bo, the Epson XP-15000 looks fine. It is a dedicated photo printer (i.e. not a multifunction device).

Bear in mind that it is a printer only.

As a general purpose device (scan, copy, print DVDs) the XP-970 may be a better choice, and it is cheaper here. It uses different inks. The XP-15000 uses black, yellow, cyan, magenta, grey (light black) and red. The XP-970 uses black, yellow, cyan, light cyan, magenta and light magenta.

I use the scanning and copying features surprisingly often. I also print DVD labels direct onto the DVDs.

My R3880 cost me over AUD$2,000 about 10 years ago, with a 50 pack of Ilford smooth pearl paper.

 

[JensM]

I have looked at Canon Pixma iP8750 and Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000, both available here for just less then $400.
Are either of them a good starting point if you want to explore printing?

Cant offer any hardcore info on either of them, but the 15000 looks interesting and somewhat on par with the Pro 200 running 6 instead of 8 ink cartridges. The list price from Epson direct in Norway is just 500 kroner below the Pro 200, even though it goes for quite a bit less at the retailers, about 2000 kroner, in fact.

Could be that Epson is about to be release a new model and there is a stock reduction going on?

As far as I have found by research, is that the "cheaper" printers have higher running costs, or smaller ink cartridges which somewhat offsets the costs, less money up front, but more going out with usage.

 

[Acraftman]

As far as printing goes I had a Cannon pixa pro100 along with my desktop and cameras etc that where stolen so just recently I have found a local art framer that also has a printer business and he charges me $25 U.S. for a A2 print that includes a A5 proof the up side is I find his skill for details very acceptable and the price helps me stop and think before I send things off to him. I got the printer free Canon often has these deals so you buy there paper and inks. This guy "Jose" is one of the best when it comes to home printing IMO.

 

[John King]

As far as printing goes I had a Cannon pixa pro100 along with my desktop and cameras etc that where stolen so just recently I have found a local art framer that also has a printer business and he charges me $25 U.S. for a A2 print that includes a A5 proof the up side is I find his skill for details very acceptable and the price helps me stop and think before I send things off to him. I got the printer free Canon often has these deals so you buy there paper and inks. This guy "Jose" is one of the best when it comes to home printing IMO.

That looks like a good, basic, straightforward introduction to printing, thanks for that link.

My one and only disagreement is that Epson fixed the ink head clogging problem at least 10 years ago. None of the Rx880 series (R3880, R4880, etc) has this problem AFAIK. It was a big problem with the Rx800 series (R3800, R4800, etc).

 

[JensM]

So, pulled the trigger on the monitor today, all sellers have been sold out of much of their stock, so I have taken the time to dvelve into it, but ended up with the Asus mentioned in my first post.

The Dell offerings seems to swap quicker than one swaps underwear, and having browsed what was currently on the table, I very much think that it could have been rebranded Asuses for about $100 more, when looking into the specs as well as the looks of them, some of the ones with honourable mentions in the tread was not available over here in Norway.

The printer musings continue, I do favour the Canon Pro 200 at the moment, relatively reasonable cost, much of the outlay could be recouped if sold etcetera, but another Pixma with A3+ size popped up yesterday for a price well below both the Pro200 and the Epson but probably higher running cost than both of those, and there is always the fading ink to consider, so twiddeling my thumbs a bit at the moment.

 

[LVP]

I've got the PA278QV and absolutely love it.
I trust the specs are accurate, thus best bang for the buck.
Took a short while to get used to going from 19" to 27". I find I can sit back further and more comfortably.

 

[JensM]

I've got the PA278QV and absolutely love it.
I trust the specs are accurate, thus best bang for the buck.
Took a short while to get used to going from 19" to 27". I find I can sit back further and more comfortably.

I am coming over from a 15" laptop screen, so I guess I am in for a treat...

 

[BosseBe]

So, pulled the trigger on the monitor today, all sellers have been sold out of much of their stock, so I have taken the time to dvelve into it, but ended up with the Asus mentioned in my first post.

The Dell offerings seems to swap quicker than one swaps underwear, and having browsed what was currently on the table, I very much think that it could have been rebranded Asuses for about $100 more, when looking into the specs as well as the looks of them, some of the ones with honourable mentions in the tread was not available over here in Norway.

The printer musings continue, I do favour the Canon Pro 200 at the moment, relatively reasonable cost, much of the outlay could be recouped if sold etcetera, but another Pixma with A3+ size popped up yesterday for a price well below both the Pro200 and the Epson but probably higher running cost than both of those, and there is always the fading ink to consider, so twiddeling my thumbs a bit at the moment.

Have you thought about calibration of your new monitor?
Calibrating both the monitor and the laptop screen so they show the same colours is good to do.
But maybe you are already doing calibration.

 

[JensM]

@BosseBe

Looking into that as well, I thought I should get the monitor going first and take it from there, to see if it comes with any sort of recommendation as to which of the calibration system is preferred and such. Ordered the monitor from the one place I found it in stock by chance, and that was a computer warehouse sort of thing (komplett.no).

 

[doady]

I'm still watching movies on a 26-inch CRT TV in my bedroom and other people are buying 27-inch monitors for their computer. Just another example why my opinions about technology should not be taken seriously.

This thread does make me think maybe I should keep an eye out for a drop in price for Asus PA248QV. My Dell 2209WA probably won't last much longer, and the new Ultrasharp monitors are not 16:10. The Asus monitors are also marketed toward photographers and artists which is interesting.

 

[JensM]

@doady I wouldnt describe myself as specially tech savy, but I have a somewhat notion about what I think I want, and a big internet to help with it, and this fine forum for the final nitty gritty, in regards of the photo stuff with peripherals.

 

[frankmulder]

In case anyone finds this thread and is still looking for a monitor: I have bought the AOC U2790PQU for € 319. 27", 4K resolution (works great with a Mac), colours seem fine (especially after calibration), and the price is reasonable (for a 27" 4K monitor with an IPS panel).

 

[LVP]

I am coming over from a 15" laptop screen, so I guess I am in for a treat...

Youtube videos are going to be awesome - really appreciate Mads and Nigel's work!

 

[JensM]

Step one is somewhat complete, good news is that I am somewhat blown away. Bad news is that I probably ends up with redecorating the entire room, bringing it from 2/3 storage and workshop, 1/3 storage and study, to 1/2 study - 1/2 lightroom...

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Straigth out of the box, with the stuff that came in the box...

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First hook-up, I probably can say that I haven`t run the lap-top monitor excessively bright and that I will order a calibrator this weekend. That said, seeing the stuff on the large screen was somewhat mindblowing. Very happy camper at the moment.