Originally posted by Wolfeye The ink is so expensive they should give the printer away for free.
The ink for my Pro 100 is the same price as for my regular printer that I use for correspondence and not unusually high for high performance units. Granted, things can get very expensive if one has to make a lot of test prints or makes only a few prints at a time. Likewise, good paper is not cheap either. All things considered, the price per print is still a fraction of what it was costing me to do Cibachromes in the darkroom several decades ago or even B&W fine art darkroom prints. Still though, I am not one to waste money. This is my approach to keep costs under control:
- Keep test prints to a minimum
- Use the appropriate ICC profiles for ink/paper/printer
- Softproof and edit to the ICC profile
- Know in advance what to expect from your paper choice and the image, i.e. keep good records. I manage this by creating multiple virtual copies in Lightroom for image/paper combinations and adding comments to the metadata regarding special treatment.
- Don't start the printer up unless one is planning on doing a significant amount of printing. A lot of ink is wasted in start-up.
- Tailor dpi to the task at hand. Extra ink to paper is a waste of ink and results in an actual decrease in print resolution. Rare is the job that requires greater than 300 dpi.
- Use paper appropriate to the task. Yes, I do sometimes print to Moab fine art papers, but usually, it is to Canon or Red River for half the cost.
To be honest, I believe that my paper costs are about 2x - 3x per image what I spend on ink.
Originally posted by Wolfeye I could never afford/justify using the ink, when real silver color prints cost so little nowadays.
It sounds like doing your own printing may not be a good fit for you. If Costco or mail-order prints are satisfactory, that make perfect sense.
As for "real silver prints"...If I could get a custom silver print made from my K-3's output for less than what it costs me with the Pro 100, I would do it. If made from a film negative, the price for a 16x20 is $75 for a custom B&W darkroom print at Bluemoon Camera just across the river. I don't know anyone locally that makes custom "silver" color (wet darkroom) prints. Ink jet prints on so-called metallic papers on the other hand are readily available online and are just that. I have not been impressed. There is a guy here locally that does dye transfer onto sheet aluminum, but his prices are very, very high as is his quality. Costco charges $53 for a 16x20 on aluminum.
Steve
(...BTW...While I am not always wise in my purchases*, I don't consider my use of the Pro 100 as particularly "stupid"...)
* Yes, I own three Exakta film cameras. Is that dumb or what?