Best monitor and A4 printer for photography

[paolo]

Some time back I did some research into A4 photo printers, and Canon came out top. That was based on seperate cartridges (less wasted ink), speed (massively faster than Epsoms, at the time) and quality. The one I have has 8 cartridges, so tricky colours like green and red have dedicated inks. However, Canon ink is eye poppingly expensive, so I have to use 3rd party carts. And being individual, you have to sort of stockpile so you don't get caught short when one runs out before the rest.

But if you have a little patience, you'll get better results from using a service. Photobox for example images onto photographic paper. No fadeing issues, and lovely quality. Probably the same price or maybe even less than home printing.

 

[Sunray]

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/230157/canon-pixma-ip4600.html

 

[Pie 1]

Apple Cinema Displays are hit and miss. In general, you get what you pay for. Only the larger ones have good colour, the smaller ones are purely consumer models. There was a huge outpouring of rage a while back when people realized that only the largest iMac came with a good screen and the smaller two were shit.

Cinema displays & iMac screens are two different things.

 

[Herbsman.]

Come on now mate dont let your professional experience get in the way.

 

[Pie 1]

Come on now mate dont let your professional experience get in the way.

I know, sorry.
Let the conjecture continue

 

[ViolentPanda]

Bloody Lomography!! Grrr

 

[ViolentPanda]

I'm still struggling with Daguerrotypes

At least that explains why you occasionally come across as a bit loopy.

Try using a fume cupboard next time you develop one, eh?

 

[mincepie]

If you are serious, also consider monitor calibration too
such as http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=417R
or http://shop.colourconfidence.com/section.php?xSec=10210&jssCart=c9d919c50b51c2d2ac5935736db630b9
With apoligies if you have already thought of that. It's not *that* expensive - from ~£60 or so - more if you want printer calibration too.

 

[Herbsman.]

At least that explains why you occasionally come across as a bit loopy.

Try using a fume cupboard next time you develop one, eh?

Reminds me, when I used to work for a well-known water company, one of the fume cupboards in the lab didn't work. I was on the task of extracting Non-Volatile Materials, using petroleum ether. I think you can guess the rest.

If you are serious, also consider monitor calibration...

I would have said

If you are serious, monitor calibration is essential, don't just consider it, just do it

Says herbsman sat at an old laptop with an uncalibratable monitor due to shite graphics card lol

 

[Chz]

Cinema displays & iMac screens are two different things.

I'm aware of that, but the points stands that the low-end cinema screens and the low end iMac screens both suck badly compared to their more expensive bretheren. Apple occasionally tries to make people believe that size is the only difference you're paying for.

 

[Pie 1]

the points stands that the low-end cinema screens and the low end iMac screens both suck badly compared to their more expensive bretheren. Apple occasionally tries to make people believe that size is the only difference you're paying for.

"low end cinema screens" - What are you on about?
There are only three - 20", 23" & 30".

I have the 20" & the 23" & as a professional user of them for the past 3 yrs, I've not found any evidence of this 'sucking badly' that you claim - more to the point, neither have my clients or their printers - I haven't had a single colour related issue from my end of the workflow. Nor has my retoucher who's on 2 x 23" apple's & he does much more critical work than I do, day in day out.

To say they 'suck badly' - even compared to Eizo's or LaCie's - is just horseshit I'm afraid. So no, your point doesn't stand.

(Christ, even the iMac screens are far from 'sucking badly' in the grand scheme of things)

Annnyway.....

 

[Chz]

Old screens and new screens are not identical - I'd have thought that was obvious. You don't have to look very far to see some photographers and printers who are upset with the quality of the newer 20" screens. The 24 (the 23 is EOL) and 30 still seem good, but there's no question that they're not of the same quality as the older screens. (If yours are 3 years old, they're great screens - hold on to them)

The 24" iMac is great. The smaller ones do suck, insofar as they're TN-screens and utterly useless for colour work. There is a lawsuit against Apple for it.

It's all down to how fussy you are though. I've seen people do professional CMYK print work on a dusty old CRT that had never seen a colour calibrater in its life, and the end results were still satisfactory.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Reminds me, when I used to work for a well-known water company, one of the fume cupboards in the lab didn't work. I was on the task of extracting Non-Volatile Materials, using petroleum ether. I think you can guess the rest.

I suspect it involved you walking around with a big grin on your face and then falling over?

 

[Cid]

I use the R2400 which is fantastic, an awful lot of functionality in one printer (you can use it for giclee and stuff like that too). Been replaced by the R2880 now, which I imagine is brilliant. My mum has an R800 which is sort of the little brother of the R1900 (a model down from the R2880/2400). That's an 8 ink system which uses a gloss optimiser (the R2400 has an extra black and an interchangeable black ink; which can actually be a bit of a hassle if you use both matte and gloss papers as you need to switch them over). Basically the advantages of the R2400/R2880 come in the form of exceptional B&W printing and the ability to use thick media and rolls. From what I've seen the competition just doesn't quite get up to that standard, although it was a few years ago I bought it and things may have changed.

Initially i had the problem that there just weren't many papers available for pigment inks (except obviously the Epson ones), but Ilford and Harman certainly do some now. Prob some others too, haven't needed to stock up for a while as (printed) photography has had to take a back seat to cabinet-making.