Cost of Printing

[Shadowman]

Still reviewing for my own needs.

http://www.redrivercatalog.com/cost-...3800-3880.html

[DanK]

Still reviewing for my own needs.

http://www.redrivercatalog.com/cost-...3800-3880.html

I print with a Canon dye-based printer, which has a somewhat different cost per page, but my view is that unless one prints a lot, the cost of printing is remarkably low, given what it used to be, and particularly given how much money most of us spend on the rest of the photographic enterprise. The real costs is in framing or mounting, even if you use cheaper framing options, which I generally do.

[Manfred M]

Frankly, back many years ago, I used to do colour printing (negative and positive) in my home wet darkroom.

With the cost of chemicals and paper, that was expensive and based on the costs you show in the link; it is significantly less expensive to print today than it was back then without accounting for inflation. Add in inflation (and my significantly improved income situation versus what I had as a high school and university student), the costs are now really a fraction of what it used to cost me.

Back then, like now, the key driver for me to do my own is the control (quality) I have of the final product.

[rpcrowe]

also like the immediacy of being able to print any time I want and have the print pop out of the printer shortly. I also think that I can do a better job than the massed produced printing, but probably not better than a custom printer. However, custom print companies are very expensive.

[Shadowman]

Has anyone heard the term "mechanical print" relating to printing lab and "hand edit" or "hand print" when referring to the photographer doing the editing and printing?

[loosecanon]

When I fully went digital and started printing myself for public display (not often as photographic exhibitions) I realised that costs needed to be controlled. So apart from when I am selling a print (when I use a pigment printer) I use a Canon or Brother dye printer, both A3. Canon wastes ink when turned on, but quick and better print quality, Brother slower but always on and wireless.
I use refillable carts with ink at £5 per 100 ml. I use reasonably priced/quality paper - bought a lot of Jessops as they went bust.
I spent £300 on print calibration equipment so I could make my own colour profiles for the paper and ink combination.

Result - excluding cost of equipment I print A3 for 30p to 50p depending on the paper used. The results actually exceed my initial expectations.

[Boatman]

Shadowman:

Consider these two factors when reviewing costs shown on Red River's analysis: 1. I assume they are using the paper prices based on their cost, which are quite low. (Not to say RR paper is not good, I have used it for years and love it!) 2. I assume that their ink cost are based on Epson prices. There are a number of good 3rd-party ink suppliers that can provide quality inks at about 1/20th the cost of Epson. (Even less with dye inks if you don't mind a bit of fading.)

Overall, for the cost, control and convenience of doing your own prints, I can't image sending my work out.

[Shadowman]

Shadowman:

Consider these two factors when reviewing costs shown on Red River's analysis: 1. I assume they are using the paper prices based on their cost, which are quite low. (Not to say RR paper is not good, I have used it for years and love it!) 2. I assume that their ink cost are based on Epson prices. There are a number of good 3rd-party ink suppliers that can provide quality inks at about 1/20th the cost of Epson. (Even less with dye inks if you don't mind a bit of fading.)

Overall, for the cost, control and convenience of doing your own prints, I can't image sending my work out.

Homer,

Thanks for the comments. RR did state that their calculations had potential errors in calculations. I'm sure that anyone who used their template would find a +/- variance on a monthly basis.