[John M]

Hi folks,
Wonder if anyone would give me advice on what they consider to be the best A3 printer on the market at present.
Sole use for printing photographs.
Cheers,
John.

[Hils at Birdwing]

Hi,
We bought the HP PHOTOSMART PRO B9180 and it is fantastic.
Did quite a bit of research back in March when we got it and this seemed perfect for us.
It has lived up to our expectations. A3 bird photos now all over our house!
If you want further details, ask away...
Hils

[Taxboy]

Originally Posted by John M

Hi folks,
Wonder if anyone would give me advice on what they consider to be the best A3 printer on the market at present.
Sole use for printing photographs.
Cheers,
John.

John

I'm in the same position. My initial research on line seems to indicate that the 3 main contenders are :

The Epson 2400, Canon 9500 & the HP 9180. All appear to produce excellent colour & b&w prints and the only downsides appear to be as follows

Epson - You lose ink in changing the black cartridge & the inks appear a little pricey

Canon - Expensive to buy initially. Not too many profiles for 3rd party papers around & won't print to the edge on the very large size of paper

HP - Some users reporting reliability issues e.g. pizza wheel marks

The Epson has recently been replaced by a newer model so there may be some deals around.

You may have already come across this but if not the review & forums are worth a read http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/pri...gs/page_1.html

Hope this helps. I'm leaning towards the Epson personally because of the cost & it's more of a known entity over the HP. The cost of the Canon puts it into 3rd place from my perspective

Andrew

[Hils at Birdwing]

Hi,
There are sometimes problems if you don't use the correct paper with the HP, e.g. if you set it to print on Advanced paper and then use it Superior paper etc., but if you get the two things matching it's fine.

An extra comment - the online help (where a real person has a real-time written conversation with you) is excellent. The set up of the machine was easy, but I ended up with a problem when trying to load A5 paper. They were fabulous in going through different options, only to find that it was my fault in not setting my MS printer settings to the correct paper size. For product support - they were quick and really helpful.

Good luck with your choosing...
Hils

[Martin Thomas]

I second Taxboy's comments and would add that Epson seem on the ball when it comes to providing paper profiles. The 2400 is a superb printer but don't be tempted to run it on 3rd party inks as there's nothing I can fnd that will give you true reproduction (plus it defeats colour profiles). Expect to pay around £10 per cart.

If you want also high gloss (especially when printing monochrome) then the results I've seen from the new 1900 and 2880 are exceptional.

p.s. If you're using 'lesser' Epson models then I'd heartily recommend Phoenix inks from here. They are as close as any I've ever come across to originals and believe me, between a number of us, we've tried dozens of makes!

[pe'rigin]

John,


I'm firmly in the Canon 9500 camp.

I think before you buy any printer, you should ascertain just what you intend to achieve from it. The models mentioned are not cheap to run if you just want to bash-out A3 prints.

What the Canon will give you is top class reproduction. If that is your desire, then I would not get too worried about printing profiles, because you should create your own to your particular style of photography.

[John M]

Thanks Guys,
Lots of good advice coming in, just as I had hoped.
I am going to check a few printers out, next time I get to the city, and I will take on board all the advice.
A friend printed one of my pictures on A3 useing an older Canon, and I was very pleased with the result. So I want one soon.
Thanks again,
John.