Sorting through foot acres of DVDs and CDs and filling up a 50 gallon trash can with them was cathartic. But in the process I also started looking at folders with personal/fun/art negatives and transparencies and I was struck by an instant desire to go back to printing the ones I consider to be most compelling and also sharable.
I am not a novice at inkjet printing; I've tossed enough money at the craft in the past equal to the amount needed to install a nice pool in the backyard or to at least buy a medium format Leica system. In the fog of the ancient past I had even converted an Epson 1280 printer completely to grayscale inks and actually got some good prints from it, in between clearing head clogs...
For some reason I can't remember right now I went out and bought an Epson 4000 printer that printed 17 inches wide by XXXXXX and, when it worked, the images coming out of it on nice paper were wonderful and delicious. But every single one of the half dozen Epson printers I bought and nursed had a fatal flaw. For every good print I got I gave away the same amount of ink in the next, routine head clog.
Didn't matter if I was using the printer everyday or just once a week. I tried raising the humidity in the office and lowering it. Nothing helped. I finally gave the Epson 4000 away to another photographer who seemed interested in martyrdom by ink cost. In truth I would have paid him to haul it away...
But I needed a printer for invoices (we now send them all out as email attached .pdfs) letters, and the occasional print-for-the-family. No client has requested anything printed in at least ten years. To fill the gap I bought a Canon Pro-100, 13 inch width capable printer and now, over seven years later, I have yet to experience my first head clog.
I have two issues with the Canon Pro-100; it uses dye based inks instead of pigment inks so the archival keeping is nothing like that of the pigmented prints. And....the black and white prints never come out as well as they did on that ancient Epson 4000. I'd like to buy a printer that does 13 inch wide prints, uses pigment inks and doesn't have more clogs in a year than bars have happy hours.
After a few days of research on the web (I'd been looking even before the big DVD purge...) I came across what seems to me to be the correct compromise. It's a Canon printer so my hope is that it will be equally clog resistant. It's the Canon Imagraf Pro-300. It uses Lucia pigmented inks and it's widely available for the cost of $899. It's even in stock at my local store so...no shipping costs.
I've read reviews and I've read specs but before I drop another $1K on what will most assuredly only be pertinent to my hobby side of photography I thought I should ask for whatever guidance you are willing to dole out to me. I'm not in a rush so write as slowly as you'd like.
Me? Right now? I'm going out for a walk (9:30 a.m.) before the day heats up and the sun blisters the graffiti right off the walls of the downtown buildings. It's going to be a week of scorching temperatures this week. Straight flush on +100°s with ample humidity tossed in to make it even cozier...
Kinda makes sense to spend time indoors this week futzing with printers and drivers and all that stuff.
Hope your week is off to a good start and wishing for all of you that the stock market recovers with vigor so we can use the proceeds to go out and buy more fun but ultimately useless stuff. I know I will.