Just a little help for a friend. Canon or Epson

[rodbam]

Gday everyone. An old friend (yes he's older than me) He lives in Perth about 4500klms from me & he emailed me that he wants to buy an A3= printer. The three names he gave me are the Canon Pixma pro 10s, the Pixma pro 1 & an Epson Epsom surecolor sc-p600.
He only just started refilling his old HP A3 printer but the thing has died on him so are any of the three he mentions refillable? The prices of all three are in the same ball park so can anyone recommend one over the other? Thanks.
I will do some research but the Pro 1 seems good value with the bigger ink tanks for a cheaper OEM price per ml & great looking prints & because of its age the price seems around the same as for the other two.

 

[philippa]

Hello I dont know about the canon models but I know Rihac are selling refillable cartridges & inks for the epson surecolor printers http://www.rihac.com.au/index.php/large-format-supplies-c-106 from what I understand the P800 is the new version of the Epson Stylus 3800 which they have a detailed review of on there website too, i guess it would work the same or similar? http://rihac.com.au/press/trevern.html

 

[philippa]

Hello I dont know about the canon models but I know Rihac are selling refillable cartridges & inks for the epson surecolor printers http://www.rihac.com.au/index.php/large-format-supplies-c-106

My bad, you said SC-p600 not 800, they do have those too but I think the P600 is the new version of the R3000

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

It would help to know what your friend is planning to print - which choice of paper he likes - glossy and/or matte, whether he is planning to print unusual formats like posters, using roll paper, and what is happening with the printouts - exhibition - give aways or print for sale or ???

 

[Taksmon]

On refilling, the P600 and Pro-10 are both easy to refill and good inks are available for them. The Pro-1 is a bit harder, as you'll need to use replaceable single use chips.

 

[rodbam]

Thanks Philippa, Fingers & Taskmon I've been out of the loop for a while & the pro10 didn't seem to have quality aftermarket inks so it's good to know they are available now. My mate will be just doing A3+ prints for himself & the family but I imagine all three printers will produce great looking prints on gloss & matte, even my old pro 9500 does that.

 

[Taksmon]

One thing to consider is that the Pro-10 and Pro-1 have Chroma Optimizer, which will effectively neutralize gloss differential on papers with gloss and give them a more even looking result.

The P600 doesn't have that, and while the P400 does have it (Gloss Optimizer) third party support for the P400 is still a bit of a work in progress. I personally didn't like the varnished look this gives prints, but that's a personal choice.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

all printers named here will most likely produce good quality printouts, but there is more to it, some refill handling practice, understanding of color management and profiling, as soon as you select 3rd party inks and/or 3rd party papers you are getting color shifts in the printout, and profiling is a systematic technique to counteract these effects. Serious ink/paper suppliers offer their customers as well such icc color profiles for their portfolio for the popular printers. The handling of the printers may be different to a degree but that's what you just get used to. The Epson models offer the option to print on roll paper, almost any arbitrary length - attractive for posters and panoramas if that's of interest at all, the Canon printers don't have such functionality. The Epson P600 wouldn't let you switch instantly from glossy to matte paper since only one nozzle row for both black inks is available, the inks are switched and some purging follows before you can continue. It's not an issue for lots of people who just almost solely use either glossy or matte papers, but o.k. it's a lesser cost factor with refill inks anyway.

 

[jddriver]

Hello I dont know about the canon models but I know Rihac are selling refillable cartridges & inks for the epson surecolor printers http://www.rihac.com.au/index.php/large-format-supplies-c-106

I priced up these inks for my R1900, would you believe that it was more cost effective to buy from the US including the freight! Rihac do reckon that their pigment inks are micro encapsulated, so they may be ok.

 

[jddriver]

A certain bloke who has the best printer you tube channel thinks a lot of the Canon Pro 100, which is a dye ink based printer, also the Epson Artisan 1430 dye ink does a pretty good job. These range from $400 to about $600 AU ish. For a beginner or someone who wants to print without having to learn about ICC profiles etc they are a good place to start.

Paper is the big problem in Australia, getting anything decent other than the printer manufacturers paper is nigh on impossible!