Buying a printer - Help please

[WJT]

Hi all, I am looking at buying a large format ink jet printing, either 24" or 36" depending on price. This is to print my own photos for an exhibition and ongoing sales. Can anyone recomend a brand and give reasons why it is good, or note any bad brands and resaons. I am not an experienced printer and want one that will be reliable above all and simple enough to use. My budget is between AUD 5000 and 7000. Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Wayne

[Polar01]

If you check out some of the top pro shooters you will see that most of them have their work printed on Epson printers, most standard widths are of 17", 24", 44", and 60". Inks used are the Ultrachrome HDR series of inks.
Remember these units are big and heavy, I would get the service plan, 3 years yes it costs, but if something goes wrong, they come and fix it or replace it. If not they charge by the hour including travel. I wished that I had gone this as my Stylus Pro 4900 has decided to tell me that it can not read any ink getting to the head, so the head my have to be replaced this could cost me almost half of what I paided for it 14 months ago now out of warrenty by 2 months.
It is an excellent printer mind blowing print quality, but high end printers can bring high cost problems. Remember that it is an machine and if not working it is not making money, infact losing money if not working so those business that use high end printers would have the service warrenties, the cost of it going down, the replace parts and service fees is more than the cost of the service contract. It is a betting game your move.

Cheers:

Allan

[Black Pearl]

We used a Canon imagePROGRAF iPF6400 at work and I have to say the results were fantastic.

http://www.canon-europe.com/For%5FWo...ormat/iPF6400/

It was used all day, every day printing onto rolls of satin paper and photo canvas, never gave us any problems, the quality from the 12 inks was superb - I have a few prints on the wall at home from it and they are outstanding - and the software was excellent.

[WJT]

If you check out some of the top pro shooters you will see that most of them have their work printed on Epson printers, most standard widths are of 17", 24", 44", and 60". Inks used are the Ultrachrome HDR series of inks.
Remember these units are big and heavy, I would get the service plan, 3 years yes it costs, but if something goes wrong, they come and fix it or replace it. If not they charge by the hour including travel. I wished that I had gone this as my Stylus Pro 4900 has decided to tell me that it can not read any ink getting to the head, so the head my have to be replaced this could cost me almost half of what I paided for it 14 months ago now out of warrenty by 2 months.
It is an excellent printer mind blowing print quality, but high end printers can bring high cost problems. Remember that it is an machine and if not working it is not making money, infact losing money if not working so those business that use high end printers would have the service warrenties, the cost of it going down, the replace parts and service fees is more than the cost of the service contract. It is a betting game your move.

Cheers:

Allan

[WJT]

Thanks Alan, that's good advice

[WJT]

We used a Canon imagePROGRAF iPF6400 at work and I have to say the results were fantastic.

http://www.canon-europe.com/For%5FWo...ormat/iPF6400/

It was used all day, every day printing onto rolls of satin paper and photo canvas, never gave us any problems, the quality from the 12 inks was superb - I have a few prints on the wall at home from it and they are outstanding - and the software was excellent.

Thanks Robyn