Paul Tauger |
October 1st, 2003 04:46 PM |
Quote:
Also, has anyone estimated what it costs to print a single picture on a home printer, taking into account the cost of paper and ink?
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There's not a simple answer to that, as it depends on the quality of print and paper that you want to use. I just disposed of my chemical darkroom, and have gone all digital. I bought a Canon i9100 printer, which will make high-quality prints up to 13x19 inches. A set of ink cartridges costs about $70, and appears to be good for 25-40 13x19 prints. The paper itself runs about 75 cents to $1 a sheet This well under what I spent printing 16x20 color prints in my darkroom and, when you consider the costs saved by not having to reprint to compensate for poor exposure or chemical contamination, I'm way ahead. The quality of print that I get from this machine equals or betters what I could do in my darkroom.
The other high-quality wide-carriage printer commonly used for photo printing is the Epson 2200. The Epson uses pigment-based inks, instead of the dyes used by most other printer manufacturers. The advantage is they are less prone to fading --
Epson claims archival life up to 75 years. The disadvantage is, they are considerably more expensive. Also, the 2200 can only produce 15-20 13 x 19 inch prints from a set of cartridges. I also understand that Epson paper, while very high quality, tends to be more expensive as well.
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