Epson 3800 pro printer

[Marc Levy]

Ok So I have this giant epson 3800 large format printer that i bought earlier this year. I have a screen calibrator (hardware). I just cannot seem to print anything good. The colors look good on the screen, I have invested in good paper but for the life of me when i print it looks horrible. I am ready to sell the printer and just send my photos out to be professionally printed. Does anyone have any experience with printer , paper profiling. At almost $500.00 for a set of inks i really cant afford to keep making so many bad prints. I really wish there were classes or tutorials for this printer with a specific paper and profiles and at least that would be a starting point to learning. ok that is my complaint for the day

[Steve Batson]

Originally Posted by Marc Levy

Ok So I have this giant epson 3800 large format printer that i bought earlier this year. I have a screen calibrator (hardware). I just cannot seem to print anything good. The colors look good on the screen, I have invested in good paper but for the life of me when i print it looks horrible. I am ready to sell the printer and just send my photos out to be professionally printed. Does anyone have any experience with printer , paper profiling. At almost $500.00 for a set of inks i really cant afford to keep making so many bad prints. I really wish there were classes or tutorials for this printer with a specific paper and profiles and at least that would be a starting point to learning. ok that is my complaint for the day

Hey Marc,

I figured out a long time ago, that from a cost perspective, it's much cheaper to send your prints out and get them on real photographic paper. The key is to use a decent lab. I have fantastic results from Mpix.com and they are consumer lab. The downside to Mpix is that they charge $4.95 for shipping. So you don't want to do a small number of prints. But the upside is, it's always $4.95 no matter how much you order, so it's best to load up your order.

They look at and adjust each print, so you get back great images if you send them a good quality image file.

Adoramapix.com isn't bad either, but MPix has much better packaging and quality control.

I don't have any advice for you on you printer, I just know it's more expensive no matter what printer you have after factoring in ink & paper costs.

I just have a cheap epson all-in-one printer that has photo printing capability and only print photos on it occasionally just to get an idea of what something looks like.

[Marc Levy]

I dont know what i was thinking when i bought that printer last year. I saw this guy using it at a leica workshop and the prints were amazing so i figured i would learn to do it myself.. ya not that easy to do. I was just looking at mpix.com I really have never looked into having someone print my photos but I think i am going to sell the 3800 and then order my prints from mpix. So do you send them jpg or raw files ?
if they do color correction that is awesome as i am not very good with that stuff.. I cannot believe how expensive it is to print from home. Decent paper can cost you over 1.50 a sheet or more depending on the size and so every time you screw up and have to print again the price just keeps going up when you can have it done for 99cents from mpix..

Thanks for the advice i am really excited to try out mpix service. I am going to stay away from adorama. I've dealt with them through my camera business and i don't have very good things to say about there business practice or attitude.

I would be interested to hear what others do for printing. Do you use a service or print from home ?

Originally Posted by Steve Batson

Hey Marc,

I figured out a long time ago, that from a cost perspective, it's much cheaper to send your prints out and get them on real photographic paper. The key is to use a decent lab. I have fantastic results from Mpix.com and they are consumer lab. The downside to Mpix is that they charge $4.95 for shipping. So you don't want to do a small number of prints. But the upside is, it's always $4.95 no matter how much you order, so it's best to load up your order.

They look at and adjust each print, so you get back great images if you send them a good quality image file.

Adoramapix.com isn't bad either, but MPix has much better packaging and quality control.

I don't have any advice for you on you printer, I just know it's more expensive no matter what printer you have after factoring in ink & paper costs.

I just have a cheap epson all-in-one printer that has photo printing capability and only print photos on it occasionally just to get an idea of what something looks like.

[Steve Batson]

Marc,

Mpix is great! The do color correction on each image. The print from JPEGs. The best practice is to get your images right in the camera. Then do as little as necessary in photoshop. It's ok to do a little sharpening if the image needs it or remove blemishes and spots. But they will do typical adjustments a lab would do with film on color, brightness and contrast, so you shouldn't have to mess with that.

Like I said before, I don't know why anyone would do most of their own printing when it's cheaper to have a lab do it with or without corrections on professional grade photographic paper and processes (the same they use for film prints). I don't care what they say, ink fades. At least on the lower end printers. Mpix has a protective coating you can have applied which makes them resistant to moisture and fading and I think it makes them look even better.

[Chris Callanan]

I do most of my printing at home actually - but its typically just 4x6 snaps to hang in my office (have a virtual gallery in there!!) If I'm doing something to hang, or present, I send it out - of course, this isn't very often - most of my pics stay digital. The 2 prints I have on my wall were done by Shutterfly. They did a good job, but I think they are more like your local Walmart as a print service, not a lot of correction, just batch jobs. Typically I just use Sams Club for bulk printing - last year my wife wanted ~1000 shots printed for her scrapbooking - cost us a ton

[Marc Levy]

I agree for 4x6 prints a home printer is ok but I like the big prints and thats where it becomes expensive to try doing it from home. I am going to put the 3800 on ebay this week.. Its like brand new i probably have about 15 prints from it since i bought it last march or April.

Originally Posted by Chris Callanan

I do most of my printing at home actually - but its typically just 4x6 snaps to hang in my office (have a virtual gallery in there!!) If I'm doing something to hang, or present, I send it out - of course, this isn't very often - most of my pics stay digital. The 2 prints I have on my wall were done by Shutterfly. They did a good job, but I think they are more like your local Walmart as a print service, not a lot of correction, just batch jobs. Typically I just use Sams Club for bulk printing - last year my wife wanted ~1000 shots printed for her scrapbooking - cost us a ton

[Steve Batson]

Originally Posted by Marc Levy

I agree for 4x6 prints a home printer is ok but I like the big prints and thats where it becomes expensive to try doing it from home. I am going to put the 3800 on ebay this week.. Its like brand new i probably have about 15 prints from it since i bought it last march or April.

While I do occasional prints from 4x6 to 8x10, it's still cheaper to have them printed due to paper and ink costs. 4x6 prints from Sam's and several other places are only about 19 cents each.

I like the idea of having a photo printer I can print stuff out if I want to, but most of my stuff still gets sent to the lab.