Canon - imagePROGRAF PRO-300

I know you said Epson but will put in a plug for the Canon Image ProGraf 300 (now 310). It's $850 at BH photo. I bought it in May 2024 and now produce 8x10 loose/framed and 11x14 matted/framed landscapes at local shows. In five shows I grossed 5k that year which, minus printer, ink, frames, mats and paper still netted me 2500. Way better than I could ever do with a lab. Best was being able to reprint popular ones for 2-day events.

I have the ET8500 A4 printer and wish I had bought the A3 version for a £100 or so more.. I have just sold my Canon Pro 300 A3 plus printer. Basically the Epson printers are expensive and the ink is cheap. Epson make most of their money from the printer not the ink. For Canon the printers are quite expensive and the ink is VERY expensive. (see below) The prints from the Epson are very good especially as I do not use the top quality photo papers. Just Kolas Satin 250 g from Amazon that costs about £0.22 (UK) per sheet. Chat GPT estimates the ink cost of printing an A4 full colour photo as about £0.08 for the Epson and £2.00for the Canon. So I pay about £0.30 for each A4 print. I have a calibrated monitor and print from Photoshop. I have a action that adds brightness and a small colour correction to the file before printing. The results are usually a good match for the image on the screen. Occasionally I have to tweak the colour a bit and print another copy but at about £0.30 I do not mind. People at my camera club are impressed with the quality of the prints I produce and say they compare well against those from a top end printer like the Canon.

Canon and Epson are probably going to be your best to brands to pick from if you want true professional print quality at home. Canon makes their Pro line of printers (pro 200/300/1000) and Epson has the P700 and P900. Each will have their pros and cons, but overall you'd be happy with any of them most likely. These are not your regular inkjet printers you'd buy at an electronics/office store. They are proper professional photo printers. Canon Pro 200 will print up to 13" wide, so it would work for you very well. I think it's about $600 USD. The real question is, is buying a pro printer worth it for you? It's a combination of cost/savings vs a print shop and then the control you'll have over your prints. If this is for just printing your photos for personal use, then it's probably not going to be worth the cost. Printing A4 prints at print shops isn't THAT expensive. But buying a $600 printer and then spending a bunch of money on ink refills and potential wasted paper/ink, probably won't be a cost effective option for you if that's the goal. You'd either need to print a lot to hit a break even point for personal use, or just be that demanding in regards to your prints to want more direct control over how they come out, to make buying a pro printer worth it.

Exactly as mentioned above; - CP1500 is perfect for 10x15 prints and it is cheap to run. approx 0.33€/print - G550 or G650 are a great option if you don’t want to deal with any cartridge printers as they both work work bottled ink - PRO-1100 seems overkill in this scenario, it prints up to A2 - PRO-200S or PRO-310 are better option as they give you more control over your prints with more colors to work with. Or if you find a PRO-300 on the cheap. Go for that. They are both cartridge printers. The cost of running is higher the a G650 but you do get better color reproduction. I hope this helps!

Dye based inks versus pigment inks. Pigment inks are the way to go for longevity and archival. BUT where and how the prints are stored and displayed is a factor for all prints. Fumes from a newly varnished floor and such can turn images yellow and contribute to their fading. Pricing between printers and inks is noticeable. BUT, for me, it's not a photograph till you do print it. I use a Canon PRO-300 and am very pleased with it. Regardless, good luck and most important...have fun.

Well it will be expensive for sure (printer, inks, you have to print let's say every month or it will dry out) For many people ordering prints is better option But if you want your own photo printer then there are few good options - Canon pro-200 (dye based inks, but long lasting) - Canon pro-300 (pigment based inks so if paper survive the photo will be still good) - Canon pro-310 (upgrade to pro-300, more inks for better color reproduction) - Epson ET-8550 (it's eco tank so cheap inks and easier to use non-OEM inks - but not sure how long lasting OEM inks are, on the other hand have friends that are using non-OEM pigment inks and it works [well, needed some color calibration])

Yeah, that’s the worst.. **** TO THE OP **** Did you check to make sure that the print head is in the printer????? Because I’m nosy - I looked this up for you… I really hope that the printhead is in there for your sake, but now I’m thinking $80 is too good to be true. I certainly don’t wanna rain on your parade, but $410 for a printhead plus $80 for what you paid for the printer is the actual price of a brand new: imagePROgraph PRO – 300- If you think about it, it all adds up to almost the exact price of that same printer. AMAZON: 409$ MODEL # 2352coo1 ASIN # b078866tqr I’m fully invested in the outcome of this. On one hand, I’m super super super excited for you on the other hand. My brain is telling me it’s too good to be true. If you haven’t set it up yet and then your test prints I would check to make sure the print head is in there. Did it come with all of the directions for installation? Did it include the diagram where it shows what part is what?

Clogged print on your Canon image PROGRAPH printer first print a nozzle check pattern if you see missing lines run the head clean function if that doesn’t work try a deep clean these steps usually help resolve issues If the cleaning and cleaning don’t work, you can try cleaning, which is a more thorough process that uses a larger amount of ink however, if the system cleaning doesn’t improve the quality, the printhead may need to be replaced in some cases manually cleaning the printhead by soaking it in a mixture of ammonia and distilled water can help dissolve dry ink. There’s also another really cool website that’s been around forever called IfixitDOTcom… His website is absolutely killer and has come in in a clutch several times for me over the past I don’t know maybe decade ? The reason why I didn’t include a clickable link is due to the fact that I don’t know the rules on including links so I just spelled out the website for U in case you were wondering . No, I don’t work for Canon. No, I don’t work for I fix it. No, I am not sponsored by them. No, I do not make any money. I just wanted to give the information to you all because that’s the beauty of Reddit. Sometimes you can find people who actually know what they’re talking about and want to help you Instead of being mocked and roasted, and talked down to and basically just general overall rudeness. Signed respectfully , A camera gear and all of the trimmings, including of course, printers and all other things that are shiny and new in the Photography world …. Of course, up to an including laptops, iPads, Desktop PCs, photo editing quality monitors, cameras, lenses, external storage you know the old saying: A fool and their money doth part😬 - am I truly a fool if my addiction of all the above since it, truly brings me, happiness and creative joy - not to mention it keeps me out of prison because the whole idle hands saying I think not..❗️❗️❗️

I started out with the Canon Selphy just printing 4x6 photos. I recommend getting this first. It has a low cost of entry and it'll get your feet wet. I still use it whenever I want to print 4x6 photos. The quality is great. Then I got a Canon Pro 300. It's a great printer. I low-key wish I sprung for the Canon pro 1000 though. 13x19 photos sound huge, but when you mount them on the wall they don't look that big. Adding a matte definitely helps though.

I'm with you 1000%. Huge score. So excited, I've had this on my list for a couple years actually. I've yearned for the ability to print my own photos for a while, especially after I bought a mirrorless camera and a nice lens this time last year. I'll use it often I'm certain. Quick question! Is Hahnemuhle a quality source for paper? I saw someone mention exhibition paper too. I haven't even dipped my toes in this world yet, I'm totally green.

it's working! printing great. wish I had bought more paper to go with it. I had a Halloween party to attend this evening and brought a family member a print of them and their kiddo from the holidays last year. I'm so impressed with this printer already. I can't imagine what nicer paper is gonna look like.

The eBay ad so y'all know I'm not fooling around. [eBay imagePROgraf PRO-300](https://www.ebay.com/itm/277261116228)

Get the lawyer a laser printer. For your photography, a dedicated A3+ photo printer is a beautiful thing. I used a Canon Pro-100 dye based printer for years. Great output. I think the pro-200 is its successor. Recently I jumped to the Pro-1100 17” pigment based printer. Excellent again plus even better, to my eye, on matte and art papers with the pigment inks. The Pro-300 also uses pigment inks but is cheaper being a 13” model.