Did somebody mention home printers....

[geogphotos]

...got up nice and early, fresh and ready to go out on a sunny Sunday. But first a cup of tea and print off a photo for a friend's birthday. 

 

6O minutes later I'm frazzled. First it was printing with feint lines. Sorted that. 

 

Why does it keep telling lies about there not being any paper in the tray? How many times do I need to fill that damn tray with paper.

 

Then it spits one out after going through an age of backwards and forwards and that 'print' turns out to be completely blank. Quickly followed by the same error message that I need to load paper into the tray.

 

 

I'm half expecting it to tell me to have a nice day with a wink icon

 

Grrrr..

 

Edited April 11, 2021 by geogphotos

[geogphotos]

And of course you can guess what happened the minute I posted the above.......the very next minute.....the ba**ard👹

[Allan Bell]

5 hours ago, geogphotos said:

And of course you can guess what happened the minute I posted the above.......the very next minute.....the ba**ard👹

 

Perhaps the date is set wrong and it was doing an "April fool" on you??🙂

 

Allan

 

[Mr Standfast]

Just don't turn your back on it...

[Chuck Nacke]

On 11/04/2021 at 04:28, geogphotos said:

...got up nice and early, fresh and ready to go out on a sunny Sunday. But first a cup of tea and print off a photo for a friend's birthday. 

 

6O minutes later I'm frazzled. First it was printing with feint lines. Sorted that. 

 

Why does it keep telling lies about there not being any paper in the tray? How many times do I need to fill that damn tray with paper.

 

Then it spits one out after going through an age of backwards and forwards and that 'print' turns out to be completely blank. Quickly followed by the same error message that I need to load paper into the tray.

 

 

I'm half expecting it to tell me to have a nice day with a wink icon

 

Grrrr..

 

OK,

 

What printer are you talking about? What OS are you working from?  I have an old, very old, EPSON wide format in the basement.  Hated that printer

but it made REALLY GREAT prints on 300 GSM fine art paper.  I now have a Canon Pro-100, that I've only used with Canon photo paper and it is easy to work

with and I'm happy with the prints (usually 14 X) that it produces.  It also hits it on one, sometimes two shots.  The EPSON never hit it on the first shot.

 

FYI, years ago I got the same message about out of paper when the EPSON was not and I had to find a tech to rebuild the paper feeder.

 

Chuck

Edited April 13, 2021 by Chuck Nacke
grammer

[geogphotos]

Thanks for the comments.

 

It's just a cheap HP home printer - HP Envy 5540.

 

It is probably time that I bought a better, newer one. It is just that they can be so frustrating! 

[CAROL SAUNDERS]

2 hours ago, geogphotos said:

Thanks for the comments.

 

It's just a cheap HP home printer - HP Envy 5540.

 

It is probably time that I bought a better, newer one. It is just that they can be so frustrating! 

That's for sure, the other week my printer started churning out blank pages, I checked the settings and it said it still had ink in the cartridges, but no they had run out, I guess they are very approximate.  Again, it's a cheapo HP.  OH has the same one, put his cartridges in and all fine.  

 

Carol

[NYCat]

My Canon Pixma MG7520 has died? while not being used. The little thunderbolt sign is lit and it won't turn on. I'm supposed to be able to fix this by unplugging it for a while and then plugging it back in but that does nothing.

 

Paulette

[Allan Bell]

Hmm!    I once had a lot of trouble with an HP printer and despite it going back to the manufacturer for repair under guarantee it still did not work when I got it back so returned it for a refund and bought a different one.

 

My little Epson XP-335 hardly gets any use and sits idle for weeks, even months sometimes, but always fires up and prints fine when asked.

 

Allan

[geogphotos]

I would like to get a more reliable and better quality printer for photo prints. But it all gets so complicated! There are these cheapo consumer ones and then a huge jump in price and quality ( and ink prices) for something much better. The one I have only costs a few £ a month for printer ink on a subscription basis and in all honesty it has done me well for the last few years. It's just that now and again we don't seem to get on😊

Edited April 12, 2021 by geogphotos

[Matt Limb]

Any one want a wide format 24inch Epson I have one going ....

Yes, it may be old but can print some ourstanding prints and being roller fed it is quick and easy

 

 

[John David]

Here is my experience with printers.

Having once been a "computer engineer" I would never ever pay money to buy anything with Packard in the name. 
Looking at the printers owned by professional photographers, both Epson and Canon seem to be very popular.
I once owned an Epson colour laser printer. The prints had a shiny, semi gloss appearance and were, frankly, superb - even when printed on sheets of £2.49 per ream A4 paper.
Personal experience of Epson and Canon printers - if you don't print a photograph every day, the print heads soon clog up, they've got a life of about 12 months, 2 years if you're lucky.
Apparently, according to rumours I once heard, Canon printers have better colour resolution / depth than Epson.

Nowadays, if I want a print to be of high photographic quality, I pay the professional lab to do the job and I charge the customer accordingly. Job sorted.

My day to day printing needs at home are things such as invoices, purchase orders, packaging labels etc.  My year 1999 Brother MFC-465CN is still perfectly capable of printing those things. 
however, when it comes to printing photos, the Brother printer is absolutely sh*te.
In summary, printers are horses for courses.

[MDM]

39 minutes ago, John David said:

Here is my experience with printers.

Having once been a "computer engineer" I would never ever pay money to buy anything with Packard in the name. 
Looking at the printers owned by professional photographers, both Epson and Canon seem to be very popular.
I once owned an Epson colour laser printer. The prints had a shiny, semi gloss appearance and were, frankly, superb - even when printed on sheets of £2.49 per ream A4 paper.
Personal experience of Epson and Canon printers - if you don't print a photograph every day, the print heads soon clog up, they've got a life of about 12 months, 2 years if you're lucky.
Apparently, according to rumours I once heard, Canon printers have better colour resolution / depth than Epson.

Nowadays, if I want a print to be of high photographic quality, I pay the professional lab to do the job and I charge the customer accordingly. Job sorted.

My day to day printing needs at home are things such as invoices, purchase orders, packaging labels etc.  My year 1999 Brother MFC-465CN is still perfectly capable of printing those things. 
however, when it comes to printing photos, the Brother printer is absolutely sh*te.
In summary, printers are horses for courses.

 

You may be right about a lot of that but it is unwise to make statements based on hearsay, especially hearsay that is well outdated. 

 

I would totally disagree with the very generalised statement which is not my experience: " you don't print a photograph every day, the print heads soon clog up, they've got a life of about 12 months, 2 years if you're lucky."

 

Printer technology has changed a lot over the years. I have a 2015 Epson SC-P600 and I can leave it several weeks without printing and there is no clogging.  It just starts up and prints and the prints are superb quality.  Recently I left it about 6 weeks and it just got up and did the business. It wastes very little ink on cleaning itself. I use the Epson inks and have never used anything else. I am wondering if the head is going to go but no problem to date.

 

My previous Canon 9000 printer from 2008 on the other hand was always cleaning itself and wasting loads of ink. The print quality was nowhere near the 2015 Epson. The head died in 2015 which is why I went back to Epson.

 

That is not to say that the latest Canon equivalent is not superb and wastes no ink cleaning itself. In fact I don't know as I don't have one to compare with my 6 year old Epson.

 

The key point here is that when you see comparisons of different makes by users, they are very rarely if ever comparing equivalent models. It will often be nothing more than brand favouritism rather than a realistic and fair comparison. If I was to compare with my experience, then I would be comparing printers from different generations which is unfair. So all I can say is that the 2015 Epson is an incredible printer (now updated with a new generation since 2020 I believe).

Edited May 6, 2021 by MDM

[John David]

What a wonderful reply.

[MDM]

1 minute ago, John David said:

What a wonderful reply.

 

Thanks. I enjoy a good rational discussion.😀 

[Betty LaRue]

On 12/04/2021 at 02:41, geogphotos said:

Thanks for the comments.

 

It's just a cheap HP home printer - HP Envy 5540.

 

It is probably time that I bought a better, newer one. It is just that they can be so frustrating! 

Yeah, after wrestling with my HP 7640 a couple of days ago, I was eyeballing laser printers. The toner never dries out. 😊 Expensive, though, because I want a copier/scanner. Not in my budget.

 

[Michael Ventura]

 

I have given up on doing photo quality printing.  I don't do enough of it to justify the ink and paper so I just upload images to a lab and they send them to me.  I do have a nice Epson all-in-one printer, scanner (more for scanning docs for PDFs) and copier for my basic office needs.  I also just got a new Epson flatbed (V600 Photo) scanner for scanning old film and prints and I totally love it.  The film scans are better than my old Nikon scanner.  But that is getting off topic of printers and printing at home.

[Harry Harrison]

6 hours ago, John David said:

Personal experience of Epson and Canon printers - if you don't print a photograph every day, the print heads soon clog up, they've got a life of about 12 months, 2 years if you're lucky.

Having followed a professional Epson printer forum for quite a few years I think that you are correct in your characterisation but with the proviso that it would mainly refer to 'wide-format' ink jet printers, starting at perhaps at 17" like my own 4880 but really referring to 24" and beyond. They do prefer regular use for the simple reason that the ink has to travel a long way from the cartridges to the head, the wider the print platen the longer the tubes. This can lead to problems with air getting in and pigment settling out and is exacerbated after a year or so by the 'damper' filters getting clogged and the soft rubber seal around the print head suction unit losing its suppleness. These professional printer operators also get a lot of trouble with low humidity in the dry desert States of the USA, not a problem in the UK generally.

 

MDMs Epson SC-P600 is an excellent choice because the small 25.9 mls cartridges are stacked close to the head and yet it still prints to A3+, so 13" wide. It looks like a great printer. The ink is relatively expensive at almost £1000/litre but although the ink is cheaper in the larger cartridges (mine are 110mls or 220mls) a lot of ink is wasted through the necessary cleaning cycles with the wider printers so it can be a false economy, it is for me I think.

 

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/epson-surecolor-p600-review/

 

I daresay you've seen this but I never tire of watching it:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf6kOEtgQqE&t=17s

 

Edit:

One thing I've noticed is that these professional operators always have service contracts, and when they can they extend them. It doesn't take much to ruin a print head, even just running two cleaning cycles one after the other, and Epson need around $2000 to replace them.

 

Edited May 6, 2021 by Harry Harrison

[Chuck Nacke]

Well I have been involved with "Ink Jet" or Giclee printers since the CANON CLC 1000, very high-end ink jet in the early 1990's.  Just the service contact on the

CLC 1000 was over $2000.00 per month.  the only "wide format" Epson printer I've owned is the very old R1800, very good printer, but it is in the basement with all of my

chromes of "dead U.S. presidents" and few EU and Russian's as well.  I will say that EPSON customer support was really bad,  I also own a CANON Pro 100 and

CANON support is great.  There was a time when people wanted "Fine-Art archival" signed prints and I did them on the EPSON on 300 gsm archival fine art

matt paper for more than $700 per print.  The CANON Pro100 makes nice prints, but I have not used it with 300 gsm fine art paper.  The ink cost on the EPSON was high.  

The CANON is not much better.

 

I've used EPSON printers for decades, but in my own opinion and based on my own experience, CANON makes a better printer.  Cameras are another story.

 

Chuck

[MDM]

11 hours ago, Harry Harrison said:

Having followed a professional Epson printer forum for quite a few years I think that you are correct in your characterisation but with the proviso that it would mainly refer to 'wide-format' ink jet printers, starting at perhaps at 17" like my own 4880 but really referring to 24" and beyond. They do prefer regular use for the simple reason that the ink has to travel a long way from the cartridges to the head, the wider the print platen the longer the tubes. This can lead to problems with air getting in and pigment settling out and is exacerbated after a year or so by the 'damper' filters getting clogged and the soft rubber seal around the print head suction unit losing its suppleness. These professional printer operators also get a lot of trouble with low humidity in the dry desert States of the USA, not a problem in the UK generally.

 

MDMs Epson SC-P600 is an excellent choice because the small 25.9 mls cartridges are stacked close to the head and yet it still prints to A3+, so 13" wide. It looks like a great printer. The ink is relatively expensive at almost £1000/litre but although the ink is cheaper in the larger cartridges (mine are 110mls or 220mls) a lot of ink is wasted through the necessary cleaning cycles with the wider printers so it can be a false economy, it is for me I think.

 

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/epson-surecolor-p600-review/

 

I daresay you've seen this but I never tire of watching it:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf6kOEtgQqE&t=17s

 

 

I love that video Harry. 🤣🤣🤣. The only interaction I ever had with Epson support was really positive. I had an Epson 1290 printer back in the early 2000s which developed serious head problems just after the one year guarantee had run out. They sent out a technician who replaced the printer free of charge. It was a prosumer printer and I wasn’t using it professionally so it was an extremely welcome surprise, especially as they guarantee had run out. 

That is interesting what you say about the proximity of the head to the cartridges. I wonder if the newer inks are less prone to clogging the heads. 

[Harry Harrison]

41 minutes ago, MDM said:

I wonder if the newer inks are less prone to clogging the heads. 

Well, you don't tend to hear good news on an Epson Wide Format printer forum but anecdotally it would seem possibly not. There are some real experts on there, it's US based and I'm quite envious of all the different respected ink suppliers out there but Epson are fighting back by locking them out of the latest printers. I think you chose a good printer there.

[Betty LaRue]

22 hours ago, Michael Ventura said:

 

I have given up on doing photo quality printing.  I don't do enough of it to justify the ink and paper so I just upload images to a lab and they send them to me.  I do have a nice Epson all-in-one printer, scanner (more for scanning docs for PDFs) and copier for my basic office needs.  I also just got a new Epson flatbed (V600 Photo) scanner for scanning old film and prints and I totally love it.  The film scans are better than my old Nikon scanner.  But that is getting off topic of printers and printing at home.

I don’t print my images, either. I let someone else do that. But I do scan and print documents, and print things from accounts I get online. I don’t use my printer often, and it may set idle for months. Then the ink has dried up. That’s why I am interested in a laser printer. 
I actually scanned a few plant parts once and had them printed, then I framed them. They turned out really well. They were a fern, another leafy twig and a flower from some of my husband’s funeral arrangements. Special meaning, there.