Is it a bad idea for me to get a Photo Printer? (irregular use)

[Camrarat]

I have been thinking of getting a photo printer. The issue is, I have read horror stories about the printer breaking or the nozzles clogging up etc if you go too long between prints.

I am not a professional photographer and would be printing just for my own enjoyment, sharing my best pics with friends/family etc. This means that I will not be printing on a regular basis. Some months in the summer when there are lots of birds and when I get a lot of keepers (and have time) I may print a lot. But other times I will likely go months without printing at all, when I’m busy with other things.

I like the idea of having a photo printer at my disposal as opposed to having to use a service, because if there is something I don’t like about a print, I can tweak it instantly, change the size or color etc myself. But I will go for long periods without printing, too..

Will this cause trouble?

Is this worry overblown? I would get one of the wirecutter picks for a Photo printer, and would use manufacturer pigment only. (so canon pixma or epson surecolor)

If some maintenance test printing is required to keep the printer in shape, does that use a lot of pigment/ink? Can these printers be programmed to run this maintenance automatically so I don’t have to think about it? (If I am in charge…I am likely to forget!)

Will that be enough? Or am I totally overthinking this?

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

The above limitations you mention are not a deal killer if you accept that you MUST print once a week as a rule.

You've said that repeatedly. It is absolutely false regarding any modern Canon photo-oriented inkjet printer kept in a reasonable environment. Please stop saying it.

With any modern Canon kept in a reasonable environment, you can go a month without printing and incur almost no risk of serious problems. With a dye-ink Canon you can very likely go at least two or three months without printing with virtually no risk of serious problems. And anecdotally, there are more than a few reports of even Canon pigment-ink printers like the Pro-1000 going four months, six months, or even longer without printing and then running fine.

And even Epsons are far better than they used to be. IMO / IME, Epsons using Claria dye inks, kept in a reasonable environment, can certainly go a month without printing and incur almost no risk of serious problems. A nozzle check might show some minor problems, but a basic user-initiated self-cleaning or two will almost always clear them.

I do respect your opinion, however, I still say to the OP that leaving a printer unused for months is going to be a problem. I may have been too conservative in 'once a week' printout but to the OP, why not just take good advice? Why not just just either remember to do an occasional printout or have Q-Image do it automatically? It costs less in ink use than flushing out clogged nozzles. Then you have 'on demand' printing. From personal experience with printers and my neighbors leaving a printer unused for a long time. (it is a doorstop not a functional printer) It is also deceptive to think it is at no cost even for the Pro printers such as the Pro 1000. When the nozzles become clogged, the printer has redundant nozzles that take their place but in a period of time there are no more redundant nozzles to take their place and the user has to replace the printhead at some cost. Epsons are a better choice for an infrequent user because of less or no ink in cleaning cycles use in automatic printouts. I respect you are of the belief that modern printers are of no concern to for infrequent users but can you do some investigation on this and let me know.

By claiming that one needs to print once a week to keep a modern inkjet photo printer--any Canon, or a Claria-ink Epson--reasonably safe, you're needlessly scaring people away from owning them. You may say that printing once a week is easy, but clearly there are more than a few people who can't (e.g., extended travels), or at least think they won't. With Canon ChromaLife 100+ dye inks, Canon Lucia pigment inks, or Epson Claria dye inks, the chance of a serious problem after only a month is very low.

The two specific links you provided are NOT to Lucia or ChromaLife 100+ printers:

https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Desktop-Inkjet-Printers/PIXMA-G7020-clogged-ink-lines/m-p/397967

https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/...-black-ink-always-clogging/td-p/260140/page/2

The problems today are more the low-end models that typically have head-ink cartridge combination systems and/or lower-end inks, often pigment black plus cyan, magenta, and yellow dyes, such as the G7020 and G3200 addressed above. The other two links are somebody's hot take that is--if they take your position--seriously outdated related to printers using the top-level photo inks.

https://www.wikihow.com/Clean-Print-Heads

https://lifehacks.stackexchange.com...ket-printer-from-clogging-up-from-lack-of-use

Read the threads in this forum. In the last five years, or even ten years, how many reports are there of serious problems with genuine Canon ChromaLife 100+ dye inks, Canon Lucia pigment inks, or Epson Claria dye inks, where the printer was not left for substantially more than a month?

At work, for more than seven years, we've had a Canon Pro-100 using Canon ChromaLife 100+ dye inks. It has gone at least six weeks between prints, and on many occasions a month. We have detected zero clogs or similar--none. Never in a print, never in a nozzle check.

At home I have an older Epson using Claria dye inks. The longest times it's gone without printing are 19, 17, 16, 14, 13, and 11 weeks, and in none of those instances was there any clog or similar. In the last seven years, I've had 6 clogs. Of those, 4 cleared with a single user-initiated head-cleaning, and 2 requires 2 user-initiated head-cleanings. In other words, not a real problem.

 

[UpAndPrinting]

I highly recommend a Canon Pixma Pro-100 printer. If you can find one used or new, at this point it's a good buy. They're incredibly easy to maintain and a handful of companies offer CISS kits for it that are easy to do to keep the cost of prints when the time comes.

--
https://www.upandprinting.com

 

[gipper51]

For some reason people/photographers have a real phobia against one of the most rewarding parts of photography which is printing! I have always loved printing, even since darkroom days when I used to print.

MANY photographers own tens of thousands of dollars worth of cameras and lenses etc. but a $1000 printer suddenly is a huge waste of money because it can't pay for itself. Spoiler alert, neither can their cameras! Most photographers don't make a penny with their photography, unless they sell a lens!

There is nothing wrong with spending a $1000 on a printer and buying the most beautiful paper you can find and putting your best photos on it. Put them on your walls, give them to friends or donate them for raffles, it doesn't matter, printing is just as fun as taking pics!

Is it my goal to make money and paying for the printer, no the goal has always been making beautiful prints! Are my walls covered in photos, no!

If one can't justify buying a printer then they likely can't justify buying cameras and lenses either!

John

Concur 100%

I've had a printer of some kind for almost as long as I've been into the hobby, which is over 20 years now. I've owned many nice printers, but nothing over 13x19. That will quite possibly change in the near future.

For some reason it just 'feels right' as a photographer to have the ability at home to produce the end result of photography (IMHO)... the print. The print is the ultimate because it is a tangible piece of art you can hold in your hand. Images displayed on even the best monitors just are not the same. Both have their merits, but I enjoy viewing my favorite images in print far more.

And I'll add...the print is the ultimate because they will likely survive the mythical zombie apocalypse for surviving future generations to find. They may become treasured artifacts of history some day, at least the ones that haven't faded to oblivion. The digital files will all be toast

And please, nobody take that last paragraph seriously lol. It was intended as humor to illustrate the point

 

[Kaj E]

I bought an Epson R2280 pigment inkjet printer about 15 years ago, and it is still going strong. Print very irregularly. It sits without printing at times 3-6 months. I have never experienced anything that a nozzle clean cycle would not have resolved, I run a nozzle check if the printer has been sitting for months without use, If necessary I then run a nozzle clean.

I have frequently on these forums read the complaints about nozzle clogging with Epson printers. If these posts are to be believed, I think that my experience must be attributed to the regulated relative humidity. In my home. I keep the relative humidity at about 45 -50 % throughout the year. It is the most healthy and comfortable environment.

I can understand that the ink may dry on any printer during the winter in cold climates or if you live in a very dry climate like Arizona, and do not regulate temperature and humidity.

--
Kind regards
Kaj
http://www.pbase.com/kaj_e
WSSA member #13
It's about time we started to take photography seriously and treat it as a hobby.- Elliott Erwitt

 

[JosephScha]

I have a Canon TS9120. They don't make that model anymore, but they have a more modern model. The idea is the same: A large Pigment Black cartridge for printing documents, and Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (CMYK) and photo blue. Helps with blue skies.

I think the prints come out fine. When I want bigger than an 8"x10" print I order it either from SmugMug or from PerfectPosters.com.

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

I have a Canon TS9120. They don't make that model anymore, but they have a more modern model.

In Europe they do, the TS8750, but in the U.S. they have not had a similar model in years.

The idea is the same: A large Pigment Black cartridge for printing documents, and Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (CMYK) and photo blue. Helps with blue skies.

Many thought that going from gray in the TS9020 to blue in the TS9120 for the fifth color was a mistake, and Canon has gone back to gray: the TS8750's fifth color is gray not blue.

I think the prints come out fine.

Lots of people find these five-color Canons can produce photo prints that come out fine. Unfortunately, there's no TS8720 in the U.S.

 

[DirkPeh]

I have a Canon TS9120. They don't make that model anymore, but they have a more modern model.

In Europe they do, the TS8750, but in the U.S. they have not had a similar model in years.

The idea is the same: A large Pigment Black cartridge for printing documents, and Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (CMYK) and photo blue. Helps with blue skies.

Many thought that going from gray in the TS9020 to blue in the TS9120 for the fifth color was a mistake, and Canon has gone back to gray: the TS8750's fifth color is gray not blue.

I think the prints come out fine.

Lots of people find these five-color Canons can produce photo prints that come out fine. Unfortunately, there's no TS8720 in the U.S.

But isn’t a G550 tank printer that is roughly the same price (in Europe 270,- vs. 260,-) with 6 inks the better choice for photo printing?

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

I have a Canon TS9120. They don't make that model anymore, but they have a more modern model.

In Europe they do, the TS8750, but in the U.S. they have not had a similar model in years.

The idea is the same: A large Pigment Black cartridge for printing documents, and Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (CMYK) and photo blue. Helps with blue skies.

Many thought that going from gray in the TS9020 to blue in the TS9120 for the fifth color was a mistake, and Canon has gone back to gray: the TS8750's fifth color is gray not blue.

I think the prints come out fine.

Lots of people find these five-color Canons can produce photo prints that come out fine. Unfortunately, there's no TS8720 in the U.S.

But isn’t a G550 tank printer that is roughly the same price (in Europe 270,- vs. 260,-) with 6 inks the better choice for photo printing?

IMO there's an important, unresolved question / unknown fact hanging over the Canon G550 printer and G620 / G650 all-in-one: is the ink actually the older, much more fade-prone ChromaLife 100 type, or the newer, much more fade-resistant ChromaLife 100+ type? Canon calls it simply ChromaLife 100. On one hand, Canon calls simply ChromaLife 100 some AIO inks that I'm 92% confident are actually ChromaLife 100+. On the other hand, there's a long history of 'tank' inks typically being cheaper / lower-quality than the corresponding cartridge inks. I think either situation is very plausible here. Shame on Canon marketing for obscuring the truth here.

 

[Camrarat]

I have a Canon TS9120. They don't make that model anymore, but they have a more modern model.

In Europe they do, the TS8750, but in the U.S. they have not had a similar model in years.

The idea is the same: A large Pigment Black cartridge for printing documents, and Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (CMYK) and photo blue. Helps with blue skies.

Many thought that going from gray in the TS9020 to blue in the TS9120 for the fifth color was a mistake, and Canon has gone back to gray: the TS8750's fifth color is gray not blue.

I think the prints come out fine.

Lots of people find these five-color Canons can produce photo prints that come out fine. Unfortunately, there's no TS8720 in the U.S.

I currently have a Canon MP600…would I see better results from these other printers?

 

[DirkPeh]

I have a Canon TS9120. They don't make that model anymore, but they have a more modern model.

In Europe they do, the TS8750, but in the U.S. they have not had a similar model in years.

The idea is the same: A large Pigment Black cartridge for printing documents, and Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (CMYK) and photo blue. Helps with blue skies.

Many thought that going from gray in the TS9020 to blue in the TS9120 for the fifth color was a mistake, and Canon has gone back to gray: the TS8750's fifth color is gray not blue.

I think the prints come out fine.

Lots of people find these five-color Canons can produce photo prints that come out fine. Unfortunately, there's no TS8720 in the U.S.

I currently have a Canon MP600…would I see better results from these other printers?

I don’t have a clue. You own a ink printer from 2006 that still runs?

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

I have a Canon TS9120. They don't make that model anymore, but they have a more modern model.

In Europe they do, the TS8750, but in the U.S. they have not had a similar model in years.

The idea is the same: A large Pigment Black cartridge for printing documents, and Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (CMYK) and photo blue. Helps with blue skies.

Many thought that going from gray in the TS9020 to blue in the TS9120 for the fifth color was a mistake, and Canon has gone back to gray: the TS8750's fifth color is gray not blue.

I think the prints come out fine.

Lots of people find these five-color Canons can produce photo prints that come out fine. Unfortunately, there's no TS8720 in the U.S.

I currently have a Canon MP600…would I see better results from these other printers?

I think the MP600 is a four-color printer using the older-type ChromaLife 100 (not ChromaLife 100+) inks. I think that a TS8750 could produce both higher-quality prints (because it has the extra gray ink) and more fade-resistant prints (because I think that, notwithstanding the confusing Canon marketing, in fact it uses ChromaLife 100+ inks).

But whether you would see better results depends on at least two things, how well you operate the printer and how picky you are about print quality. More than a few people are not happy with the quality of the photos they print at home for reasons other than the printer's abilities; and it constantly amazes me what other people do or do not think looks better.

 

[JohnSil]

I have a Canon TS9120. They don't make that model anymore, but they have a more modern model.

In Europe they do, the TS8750, but in the U.S. they have not had a similar model in years.

The idea is the same: A large Pigment Black cartridge for printing documents, and Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (CMYK) and photo blue. Helps with blue skies.

Many thought that going from gray in the TS9020 to blue in the TS9120 for the fifth color was a mistake, and Canon has gone back to gray: the TS8750's fifth color is gray not blue.

I think the prints come out fine.

Lots of people find these five-color Canons can produce photo prints that come out fine. Unfortunately, there's no TS8720 in the U.S.

I currently have a Canon MP600…would I see better results from these other printers?

I don’t have a clue. You own a ink printer from 2006 that still runs?

I'm surprised he can still get ink?!?

John

 

[DirkPeh]

I have a Canon TS9120. They don't make that model anymore, but they have a more modern model.

In Europe they do, the TS8750, but in the U.S. they have not had a similar model in years.

The idea is the same: A large Pigment Black cartridge for printing documents, and Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (CMYK) and photo blue. Helps with blue skies.

Many thought that going from gray in the TS9020 to blue in the TS9120 for the fifth color was a mistake, and Canon has gone back to gray: the TS8750's fifth color is gray not blue.

I think the prints come out fine.

Lots of people find these five-color Canons can produce photo prints that come out fine. Unfortunately, there's no TS8720 in the U.S.

I currently have a Canon MP600…would I see better results from these other printers?

I don’t have a clue. You own a ink printer from 2006 that still runs?

I'm surprised he can still get ink?!?

John

I am not: platinum, gold, silver, printer-ink… There’s too much money to be made to stop offering it.

 

[JohnSil]

I have a Canon TS9120. They don't make that model anymore, but they have a more modern model.

In Europe they do, the TS8750, but in the U.S. they have not had a similar model in years.

The idea is the same: A large Pigment Black cartridge for printing documents, and Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (CMYK) and photo blue. Helps with blue skies.

Many thought that going from gray in the TS9020 to blue in the TS9120 for the fifth color was a mistake, and Canon has gone back to gray: the TS8750's fifth color is gray not blue.

I think the prints come out fine.

Lots of people find these five-color Canons can produce photo prints that come out fine. Unfortunately, there's no TS8720 in the U.S.

I currently have a Canon MP600…would I see better results from these other printers?

I don’t have a clue. You own a ink printer from 2006 that still runs?

I'm surprised he can still get ink?!?

John

I am not: platinum, gold, silver, printer-ink… There’s too much money to be made to stop offering it.

You're right about the money but that's for more current printers!

How much ink is being sold for a printer from 06? Enough to justify making it?

I'm not aware that any two models of printer even share the same ink carts?!!

John

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

I currently have a Canon MP600…would I see better results from these other printers?

I don’t have a clue. You own a ink printer from 2006 that still runs?

I'm surprised he can still get ink?!?

The MP600 uses CLI-8 ink cartridges, same as the Pro 9000, Pro 9000 Mk. II, iP6600D, iP6700D, and a bunch of others. The ink cartridges seem readily available; B&H says it has all of them in stock.