Originally posted by JohnMc Question for you. Did you ever apply that same formula to your camera and lenses? Printing can be/is more than the simple mechanical reproduction of a negative or file, offering a whole different immediacy to the the process of arriving at a final print, and for some that is as important as for example, having multiple choice of bodies to shoot with. I mean, you could just send off the exposed memory card and eliminate the expense of your computer too, saving even more.
In digital, there is usually no big surprise between what we see on display and how the prints come out, at least once we have some experience, so I don't expect that printing with a digital inkjet printer make a creative difference on the prints. And I'm not looking for immediacy with prints, because large prints cost money (outsourced or not, ink typically cost $1/A4 area and paper also cost $1 per A4 area), for A1 that's $16 a print, A0 $32 a print for the basic costs, framing under glass cost even more money $100/unit at least, especially large format framing which require sturdy frames. Instead of printing immediately, I let one or two years pass, and then stand back in order to rank past images in terms of their "print" value, I make a first selection, then I review the selection again because I have a more or less a fixed yearly cost budget allocated to prints, each image compete against other to be elected to become a print. I only print the very best images (in my mind's eye / aesthetically pleasing or concept), and I can't know which image is the best until I have let enough time elapse to stand back and make a selection. Once I have decided on a list of images elected for prints, I start to post-process each file for printing, which includes color or b&w, aspect ratio, global adjustments, local adjustments, cloning out unwanted parts, up-sizing and sharpening, it's several hours of post processing per image elected to print (not immediate), a few days of post processing works before sending a batch of images to a print lab. I do this once per year. If I owned a large format inkjet printer, it would require to print a regular basis to avoid print head clogging and have to replace print heads (very costly), and it wouldn't really fit my process of selection, unless I would select and post-process a batch on images and then print one image every other week to keep the printer running, not a great option.
But, I also thought about photographing only certain times of the year and rent equipment at those times (events and seasons). For events, we know the dates, so it's possible to plan rental equipment. For landscape photography, only a couple months each year yield the best results due to combination of light, colors and weather, so having camera equipment the whole year around is not really necessary.