qwertyydude
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2008
- Messages
- 1,115
You know it seems many people here are the DIY type. What I'd like to know is how many people print their own photos? Used to be people use a darkroom and develop their own photos. But now it seems the dark arts of the darkroom have now moved into the mainstream of just pressing print, then using inks that cost more than human blood.
And since many people are the DIY type I'd like to here what kinds of printer setups people have for their photos. I personally use an Epson Artisan 50 with a generic CISS system, used to be Canon but they've lately become so user unfriendly that I just can't stand to use them. If you own a newer Canon you know what I mean with the inane startup and wasteful automatic "cleaning" cycles.. I really like it because it basically makes the cost of printing just the cost of the paper. I use Kirkland so a 4x6 costs me about 8 cents to print. With a color profiler like Profile Prism that I use the colors are actually better and more accurate than the photo lab because it's custom profiled for my paper, ink, and printer.
I'll also let you in on a little secret. The dye inks Canon and Epson use aren't really that much higher quality than decent refill stuff. I ran my own tests on various media and honestly they all fade at about the same rate. The photo paper makes more difference in print life than the ink if using dye inks, pigment suffers far less from fading.
I'm also a member on the nifty-stuff printer forum. Lots of good info there. Just thought I'd post and see what kind of responses I get to people's frustrations with their printer and how they deal with it.
And since many people are the DIY type I'd like to here what kinds of printer setups people have for their photos. I personally use an Epson Artisan 50 with a generic CISS system, used to be Canon but they've lately become so user unfriendly that I just can't stand to use them. If you own a newer Canon you know what I mean with the inane startup and wasteful automatic "cleaning" cycles.. I really like it because it basically makes the cost of printing just the cost of the paper. I use Kirkland so a 4x6 costs me about 8 cents to print. With a color profiler like Profile Prism that I use the colors are actually better and more accurate than the photo lab because it's custom profiled for my paper, ink, and printer.
I'll also let you in on a little secret. The dye inks Canon and Epson use aren't really that much higher quality than decent refill stuff. I ran my own tests on various media and honestly they all fade at about the same rate. The photo paper makes more difference in print life than the ink if using dye inks, pigment suffers far less from fading.
I'm also a member on the nifty-stuff printer forum. Lots of good info there. Just thought I'd post and see what kind of responses I get to people's frustrations with their printer and how they deal with it.