Printers

[jventer]

I am looking to buy a printer to do my own printing, I am confused about the Epson 4880 or the Canon Ipf5100? Does anyone here maybe own similar printers? Please I need to hear from people who own them, as most sites only have pro's and con's which do not help. I have noticed that one epson preferred sellers will bad mouth canon, and same with canon sellers.
For me to take my images in is difficult, I dont get the same quality then what I see.
All advice welcome please!!!

[Richard]

I used to have an Epson 1270 which I loved, but in an attempt to save money I bought 3rd party ink, which killed it.

I replaced it recently with a brother MFC 6490 CW A3 printer, which is maybe not as good quality in terms of print as Epson or Canon, but is cheaper, has an A3 Scanner and is wireless.

Part of getting consistently good prints at home is calibrating your screens to your printer.

Sorry I can't give my an actual opinion on those printer models, maybe someone else here can help more...

[russ]

Honestly a tough call but both of the printers you're looking at are certainly beyond my budget and range of experience. I did a comparison for my own purposes and I'm really leaning towards the Epson in the class of printers I'm looking at (Canon PP9000/PP9500 or Epson R1900/R2880) Since I'm not big into B&W images yet, I'm favouring the R1900 since it is supposed to use pigment based inks rather than dye based inks which apparently have a shorter lifespan. On the other hand, if I were to choose a printer that needs excellent B&W and pigment inks, it becomes more a matter of features that determines my choices. Features wise, the Epson has one thing that stands out for me, the ability to print 13x44" whereas the Canon appears to be limited to 13X19" format. Although, I'm not even sure I'll ever actually use the 13x44 feature, I think it's kind of like air conditioning on a car in Canada. I may never use it, but it will help me sell the printer when I upgrade. The people that buy the Pixma 9500 and the Epson R2880 tend to be loyal to their choices which IMO means you can't go wrong with either choice.

[jventer]

Thanks for the help, I am not going to be in a rush before I buy, as I mentioned yesterday to someone, I would need roll paper as I just love canvas prints and I am big on B&W images, but I will do alot more research before I just buy. These printers here in SA are expensive and I dont want to buy something that I will later regret.