Best Option for printing photos ?

[nighttraintt]

Hello everyone, and thank you for taking the time to read this post. I run a small photo printing business (using my inkjet printer) and was considering a CISS System. However, I am also reading quality of photos are dramatically decreased...

Due to the amount of photos I will have to print (alot) I am open to suggestion

Example: What would be the more ideal printer for printing 1,000 photos a week ? Brand , make
Would a ciss system work for me ? Or am I reading correctly quality suffers dramatically...

I also have a few canon color laser printers just not seeing much in the photo printing arena there. Let alone the price of cartridges roughly 600.00 to fill one printer with all 4 colors...

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

forget laser printers for photo print. And please forget inkjet printers for home use to run a business with, those refill inks are not commercial grade in terms of longevity, just forget that approach. If you want to run that print volume you should look for printers like those by Fujifilm with their Drylab printer family , this model may suit your purpose

http://www.fujifilm.com/products/photofinishing/dry_minilabs/frontier_s/

Epson is running a similar printer family with their Surelab printers

 

[nighttraintt]

Ink stained fingers THANK YOU! for responding. I can not tell you how many times I have gone to various forums with this very same question... A nudge in the right direction opens all kinds of doors in Google. Now I do have a few questions for you, not sure if you have any experience with the various printers you suggested (and I know it is only a suggestion) The INK cost is of my biggest concern and I see we are also not looking at regular photo paper from a retail store instead there is somekind of photo paper roll ...

When I goto Epson, each cartridge seems to be 230.00 US when I look at Fuji if I am reading this correctly each cartridge (6 in total I think) seems to be a avearge of 75.00 some more some less..

Trying to get a reasonable understanding on cost per photo of 4x6 which will be and currently is the focus.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

with your print volume you wouldn't buy your paper in the next store I guess. Those printers mentioned, Fujifilm, Epson, as well Noritsu are printers used in photo finishing stations for instant photo print, they come with a paper cutter, and you define the format via software .
Epson, as well Canon or HP original inks in cartridges have a very good long term stability and resistance
against UV and ozone, refill inks which you might consider for your CISS all are poor, very poor in this respect, those prints would last probably 10% of the time under comparable conditions, and that's not something you seriously can sell to your customers.
Epson ink, Fujilab ink are a very different class of inks lasting much longer, good for professional use. Some of those printers use 4 inks, others 6 inks.

And when you would print with a small printer,even with a CISS, you run into frequent brakes . everytime a cartridge chip is counted empty with your CISS you have to do a reset, and with your print volume you pretty soon will have to replace the waste ink reservoir as well.

Ink for these drylab printers come in large cartridges - between 200-700ml depending on the model.
You will save already a lot on a per gallon/liter base compared to original small Epson/Canon cartridges, I for the reasons above do not compare to typical refill ink pricing. And when you scan Ebay-US you'll find pretty quick sale out offers of such cartridges at about half the list price, so ink pricing should not be your prime concern.
And for the paper rolls you'll find alternative suppliers as well supplying foto paper at lower prices than the original rolls.

If you are really on a very tough budget, you may pick 2 - 3 like Epson printers, equip them with a CISS, install a drain tube into a ink bottle for the waste ink, and buy those Fujifilm cartridges, suck the ink out from there and fill the ink into your printers.
You have the additional handling, stops for resetting the cartridges, you need to reset the waste ink
counter once in a while, but you would have enough reserve printing capacity in case one printer needs service, handling whatever. Some of the newer Epson printers have a waste ink reservoir which is pretty easy to replace, one screw only, but you need to do a counter reset and have a spare reservoir available, so you have some more handling with this low budget approach.
And as mentioned above please do not make any compromise with your inks. But if you would argue that those customers won't come back anyway and it wouldn't matter - o.k. - that's your business decision