WHICH Printer? Not excited about the Epson 7500

The criteria is:

*Less than $3 sq. ft for prints.
*Long print life. 25 years just won't cut it.
*Compatable w/ aftermarket inks and papers
*Canvas prints
*Image quality rivals print film & photo paper
*Need 12" minimum width
*prefer less than $10,000
*total reliability

Maybe I'm dreaming.

The Epson 7500 sounds nice, but too many gremlins for my taste.

Anyone?

-Rick

 

k
Epson 7600 with UltraChrome inks. Print costs will run about $1.10 per sq
foot, but I for one would *not* use anything but Epson inks in the printer.

 

From: (Sbtypesetter)

The Epson 7600 sells for about $3,000 and prints 24" wide. This printer (and
it's larger sibling the 9600) is extremely popular with professional
photographers. Meets/exceeds all your criteria except possibly the
"aftermarket inks" ... works fine with quality non-Epson papers if you can
generate a proper ICM profile. For a lot of detailed info
....http://www.inkjetart.com/pro/7600_9600/

It's much better than the Epson 7500 you mentioned.

The Epson 2200 sells for around $650 and prints 13" wide. It's a
consumer-grade printer instead of a professional grade (Epson's definition) but
uses the same inks as the 7600 and the prints are excellent. It meets all your
requirements except the "aftermarket inks" and maybe the "Canvas prints",
though I just saw a blurb about a new canvas 'paper' for the 2200 so maybe that
will work out too.

http://www.inkjetart.com/canvas/fast-dry-gloss.html for the canvas link

Bill

 

Actually there are a few more on the market, IIRC, Ilford has one out
and Tetenal surely has (looks quite good printed), Hahnemühle and
Römerturm also provide some Canvas and structured Fine Art papers (I
don't know which US firm sells them under which names, but I know that
you can get them in the US).