Print Yourself or use a Commercial Printer

[KarenC]

If I were to print from home what would be the best printer in the $1,000 - $1200 range to set up.

[ZedEx]

Well I guess the question you need to ask yourself is: how big do you want to print? You could get a good A3 sized printer for around that price, but that limits your print sizes to fairly small enlargements

If I were to print from home what would be the best printer in the $1,000 - $1200 range to set up.

[ricktas]

If I were to print from home what would be the best printer in the $1,000 - $1200 range to set up.

If you are going to print from home this site is your friend. It details printers, inks and paper. In particular, look at the inks and papers. If you get a good combination there is no reason your prints should not last 100 years or more from an inkjet printer these days, as long as you select correctly

[Lance B]

I have printed all my own stuff on my Epson R2400, even my panoramas two of which are about 1550mm wide by 330mm high! They look fantastic, even if I do say so myself.

[DavidG]

For those folks who use commercial printers, does the the sRGB v's AdobeRGB issue come into play?

Ive used a mob in Melbourne for my prints. They print from sRGB files. Thus fare I happy(ish) with the results.

Other photogs Ive spoken to have raved about the print improvement using a AdobeRGB printhouse in terms of colour range and tonalities.

I understand the different colourspaces but am interested in real printed differences.

To add further spin I heard of some folks now using ProRGB with positive results. Are there any prolabs that use ProRGB for its wider gamut?

Appreciate your comments ....

[kiwi]

Doesnt come into play for me. Not saying it won't but my clients view the photos on a website and order online so I'd think that they view in sRgb and probably are not wanting different colours on their prints when they arrive, not that I'd know how much difference there actually is

[Gregpen]

I use both commercial and also print myself using an Epson 2880, my monitors are calibrated using a spyder Elite 3. I figure this is just another part of being a photographer and having a good understanding of how to achieve quality results myself just adds to the overall experience. Give both a go why not...

[I @ M]

I don't know how correct the following statement is but --- I was told by a commercial lab that there are no printers available that could print beyond the srgb gamut.

Food for thought.

[Sobriquet]

I print myself using Epson 3880, if i need bigger I go commercial, 5 x 7's I do commercially, too small for me to bother with. It is just one more part of the creative control I like and I am loving the metallic papers and experimenting with watercolour paper that I can't get elsewhere. Cost effective for archival quality and there is no one near me that I can get good prints from.