Large photo printer recommendation

[Madwand1]

I'm looking for recommendations for a home photo printer for the perspective of a demanding amateur. I'm not going to be printing a lot of volume or even regularly, but I want the ability to print some large images, small images more often, all in high-quality color with good fade resistance, and some measure of handling insensitivity. I'd also like to avoid dealing with clogging and long cleaning cycles and a lot of wasted ink when I use it after a hiatus.

In terms of color, my preferences would be towards the faithful, and pretty good out of the box with standard profiles and same-vendor or other standard media. Decent glossy handling is desirable. Lots of time and money on additional profiling not so much, although I might go to that eventually.

My budget would probably be less than $3000, and size goals would be at least 17" wide, and ideally higher, while meeting the other goals.

What's your advice?

Thanks.

 

[bobdole369]

My boss picked this up for about $1500. 42" wide and better photo quality than the minilabs. You can print on just about anything.

HP Designjet 5000PS

Otherwise I would go with Epson 1900 (first one that comes to mind)
or a more current printer would be the Epson Stylus Pro 3800 (can be had for about a thousand).

However the Epsons are known for clogging with their integrated print heads. (HP's are user replaceable) - might be a consideration.

 

[Madwand1]

Thanks for your reply. I'm leaning towards the Epson 3800 at the moment -- it seems to be a good mix of size, value, and performance. The clogging issue is an important one to me, but I hear some people reporting that it's been good from personal experience over time.

 

[virtuamike]

Ritz is selling their Epson 7800's for $500 + tax (at least that's what the ones in my area are going for). Check around.

 

[Madwand1]

http://www.northlight-images.c...rinters/epson3900.html

We're told that the Epson 3900 is due for announcement this summer.

I might wait for that instead.