Should you replace your printer with a better one? Is it really time to get a better printer?

Should you get a better printer - what benefits could a new printer give you, or is it just you need to get better results from the one you have? Looking at different reasons to get a new printer and what you could expect.

Is the problem the printer or some other aspect of your photographic workflow? is it a printer for business? What about getting prints made for you?

I've also a video about why sometimes a new printer might not give you the results you were hoping for

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[宋豫杰]

Looking forward to your testing the new L8050 printer from epson.
It is a true 5-color design.
But it seems that the weather resistance of the ink is not as good as ET-8500.

[jbairdexp]

My Canon Pro-300 is all the printer I need. The only reason I may consider getting a new printer would be if I wanted to start printing A2...but I might then need bigger walls! lol

[sylviastagg-giuliano]

Do you know if there is a Rip for canon if 6400? Thank you for all your information

[curtbrandhorst]

Easy... my current printer does average prints at best, and sim-ply drinks ink doing it.

[victoro]

Hi Keith can you recommend any photo paper companies that makes 13” rolls of glossy photo paper, I’ve been searching but haven’t found any, I see videos of people printing with 13”wide prints are they cutting it to size (13”) because they don’t make 13” roll size paper, it’s for making panoramic photos an my pro 200 allows up to 13” paper

[Lance_Magillicuddy]

Keith, after watching most of your printer-oriented videos, my takeaway is that printing is more than a notion; it's not necessarily brain surgery, but it’s not plug-and-play either. For hobby purposes, I don’t see how one could possibly print enough to make it worthwhile. In other words, one only has so much wall space, and only so many friends that might want to hang up a seaside sunset image. I fear that the ink nozzles will dry and clog all too soon at such relatively low production. On the other hand, if you can sell prints at sufficient volume and price to make buying a printer cost-effective, then have at it.

I think the key really has less to do with the technical aspects of photography and printing and more to do entirely with figuring out how to get your images in front of people with the financial wherewithal to afford to pay you what you need to make it worth your time, which is more than 10 bucks/quid for a print. Easier said than done, but I think the key is not so much creating a website for selling prints, but rather in-person sales of larger prints to people who can afford that, or getting space in a gallery that caters to such persons.

I have recently started buying larger prints from a service bureau to start to get the hang of what physical prints look like relative to what I see on the screen. My monitors are calibrated, so the prints are fairly close. I would prefer to have my own printer to more easily fine-tune, but the economics are such that it just doesn’t make sense unless or until I got a level where the print sales would pay for the printing equipment and consumables and maybe turn a little profit as well.

I suspect that some, if not most, enthusiasts buy a printer thinking money from print sales will fall from the sky like so much manna from heaven but end up disappointed and owning a boat anchor that largely resembles a printer with dried-up ink.

Anyway, your printer videos have gotten me thinking about such things, so I thank you!

As a side note, I would be interested in a video about how you archive your terabytes of image files. A NAS on the network? On the Cloud? Bank Vault? What is your system for organizing your files? Directories and subdirectories? Keywords? Lightroom? Adobe Bridge? Something else?

[palindromic]

The last person to ask is the guy with something to gain by selling you a new one. Something to do with independence i think.

[richardallan]

I am seriously considering upgrading my printer soon. I think printing is a fun & exciting part of photography. I am on my 4th photo printer, an Epson Stylus Photo R2880. This thing must be going on 15 years old or so & has lasted longer than the previous 3 put together. I reckon it's paid for itself many times over. I am still very happy with the print quality - no problems there. I am starting to find the ink cartridges harder to find & the prices are going up. Also, I would like to start printing bigger. I am looking at an Epson P900 (P906 here in Australia) as it's not much bigger than my A3+ printer in physical size. The other attraction is the ability to have matt & gloss black inserted together. This is the other major downside to what I have now. Also the ability to print on roll paper much more easily is another advantage. I just wish we had more brands of paper available here such as the fotospeed which you seem to use quite often. Inkjet paper is very expensive here & not easily available where I live. Not anymore anyway.

[Dagonator]

What about buying a used printer? I see very good printers for little money on the internet from time to time. 1-2 years old rarely used.

[willemdelange]

Hello Keith, I am a fan of your channel. I just wonder what kind of books you have in the background of you? Is it beneficial for us to have some insight in that?

[giovannibaga]

I will change my printer only because it's broken or if it will be on the market a new printer with similar performances and a much, much lower ink cost to justify a investment in new technology. I don't see other reasons.

[Dstonephoto]

Hi Keith, I’ve had a burning question to which I have yet to find much information online. This is a two part question. How do modern printers stack up to darkroom printing techniques? To throw an additional level of complexity to this broad and false comparison, could a hybrid workflow potentially deliver magic unicorn prints? And how theoretical is this? What ultimately led me to this question was asking myself why there weren’t machines which automate the darkroom printing process. I have seen and read about stunning prints created from silver gelatin and the like, but from what I understand pigment, laser, and dye printers have benefits and tradeoffs. So I’m wondering if there’s such a thing as a theoretical or practical hybrid solution. I find this the domain super fascinating . Sometimes I’ll see videos about UV, lambda, or other printing processes — some of which aren’t intended for photo printing, but whereby I find myself wondering if applying a certain process or paint/ink/something could magically give prints a wow factor . I hope this question makes sense. Myself, I’m particularly interested in black and white, but since you often mention the complexity of monochrome printing I’m even more curious. The precision of 3D and off the shelf laser or inkjet printers has me assuming that those machines are more than capable of dealing with alignment issues. Is there a secret cabal keeping all of the magic sauce hidden from the prying eyes of the peasantry or is this nothing more than mental gymnastics ?

[dunnymonster]

I'm very happy with my Canon Pro 100S but I'm very tempted to replace it with the Epson ET8550 EcoTank simply because of long term ink costs. My Canon has been faultless in the 4 + years I've owned it. At £100 for a set of OEM inks it soon adds up. Given I've been happy with my little ET2650 I'm sure the bigger ET8550 would match the quality my Pro100S with considerably less cost. The fact I can produce my own ICC profiles means it's not a concern if paper suppliers don't support the ET8550 with profiles.

[robinjones]

Thanks to you Sir, my bank balance is 600 gbp lighter. My knackered Canon is going into the wifes office, since it ok for documents, and my Epson arrives tomorrow!