Charity photoshoot, CF compatible printer needed

[o_O]

I'm doing a charity photoshoot on Christmas day and need the ability to print from a compact flash card. Will need to print about 200 family portraits in a day. Can anyone recommend a printer that isn't crazy on the ink prices too. I would think we're going to need a few cartridges.

We want to give each family a print around 5x7 size, how would you recommend doing that? Can you buy 5x7 photo paper and set the printer to print on that size?

With so many people to shoot in a short time we need to swap out the card in the camera, bang it in the printer, print, hand out and keep it moving as fast as possible.

Any advice appreciated.

--Simon

 

[ghwellsjr]

Yes, 5x7 is one of the standard sizes that Canon printers support and probably most others. You can find paper in that size too.

There are plenty of printers that will allow you to print directly from a CF card, however, most of then tend to be six color models which use ink at a much faster rate than the four color models. This is because they provide light cyan and light magenta which the printer favors but which takes a lot more ink to print the same intensity.

I would highly recommend that you get two identical printers because this will not only double your speed, but it will provide redundancy in case one of them craps out (on Christmas). And I would buy lots of cartridges with the stipulation that you can return unused ones. If you get a four-color (plus a fifth pigment black which you won't be using) printer, then you will use probably twice as many yellow cartridges as cyan and magenta, and half as many photo blacks. So you might want to buy 10 photo blacks, 20 cyan, 20 magenta, and 40 yellow cartridges.

 

[o_O]

That's great info thanks for that. Any recommendations for a printer model?

 

[qwertydude]

I can do about 200 or so pictures on a refill on my ip4600, it doesn't take CF cards though it does have pictbridge which just means instead of putting your card in you just plug your camera in. Remember you're also going to need oem paper along with that oem ink. You may need a backup set in case you use one color faster than the other. Now maybe what I recommend is an ip4600, they're blowing them out at a lot of places for like $60. You should use a laptop though, and install a printer profile if you choose to refill or use non oem paper and a card reader. Then this won't be a one time only thing, and you'll be set for printing for a long time to come.

 

[o_O]

I don't do this kind of thing often, my printing is usually done through mpix.com or a local lab. Last time we did this was last Christmas Day and someone else brought a printer and ink. On this occasion the recipients of the pictures are low income and homeless families so with nowhere to send them, we'll just print them. The line of people will be constant all day so the camera can't be brought out of service to connect with a printer, but the CF card can be swapped out with minimal fuss.

So we'll need a printer that takes 5x7 paper, has a 'print 5x7', button and reads the images from a CF card.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Looking at Canon's website , I see they are offering the MP560 for $150 which will do everything you want.

 

[o_O]

Cool, thanks. Found it here for $85! Looks like a bargain.
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Wireles...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258730342&sr=1-1

 

[qwertydude]

Hey is it just me? I could have sworn the ip4600 printer and it's similar FINE cousins printed at 9600x4800 dpi, but the site says 9600x2400. Has it always been 9600x2400?

 

[pharmacist]

Qwertydude,

When I print the same picture on the same type of photo paper on my Canon i9950 (4800x2400 dpi, 2 pl) actually looks much better than on my Canon MX850 (9600x4800 dpi, 1 pl) especially in toning and shadow gradients. So resolution is not the only factor to ensure optimum printing quality.

 

[o_O]

So you might want to buy 10 photo blacks, 20 cyan, 20 magenta, and 40 yellow cartridges.

Isn't $500 dollars up front on ink to print 200 5x7s a little excessive? How many would you estimate it would take take to print just the 200 5x7s with an MP560.