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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

mobile printing - questions/solutions needed

J. Schiavo

New member
I met a photographer at a motorsports event we were shooting on Sunday. He said that selling/printing on site would make us a lot of money, more than selling through our website.

We’ve got a laptop with a monitor that’s not too terribly bright in the AZ bright light situations… but we have been printing by contractor in order to save time/get matte finish for less $/print. Looks like things are about to change. i have questions...

i don't think that printing a 20x30 on site would be necessary, however, i'd like to be able to print Matte or Luster, IF POSSIBLE... if not, that's fine.

for motorsports VIVID colors, speed, accuracy and efficient cost per print, which model(s) should i research?

i am sorry for posting the "which Printer to buy" question, however, i am extremely pressed for time editing 6000+ images, and need to have something by this coming weekend.

thank you in advance for all of your wonderful help.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
First, congratulations on getting going so fast with 6000 images to process!

Remember, you can start having just viewing monitors on site and taking orders.

There's nothing wrong with having some serivce doing the printing. Your job is to shoot and earn money!

I'd suggest that once you have this working you go to the next step of printing too.

Still, you can get going in one step if you have a good idea of the volume of pictures, the number of monitrs needed at any given time and the rate at which you'd need to print. If these are way out of synch, that's either too slow or more expensive than you need.

Remember, you need to actually man the ordering.

In additon to this thread, look here, where I previously raised this as a general issue.

http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=572

Asher
 

J. Schiavo

New member
Thank you Asher.

you can see a lot of our work at www.seeyourreflections.com

this is our business' web site. if you go to our "client login" you will be able to see some of the motorsport events we have shot and some "other" stuff... our Portfolio is bare right now... been VERY busy.

in the past 2 months, we have shot about 12000 images in total, had a high success rate and have also been experiencing an increase in business due to the AZ heat remitting.

i will read the other postings you listed. i think i may have to get a faster/better laptop and a couple of monitors to display photos and take orders. i suppose Printing can wait for a bit
 

Stephen_Pace

New member
Joe

I'm doing Digi tech work for an event shooter. We use the mitsubushi 9550 dyesub printer. Fast, but limited to 6x9" max size. There are some issues I have with regards to color and quality. It seems the registration for all the colors is always a little bit off. The images look soft relative to inkjet prints. I have no expierence with other dyesubs, but my feeling is there is no free lunch. Quality is slow. The new Canon 17' printer is one of the fastest inkjets available, the 5000 IIRC. 100 pounds so it is a bear to move. Top notch color and quality. If you have any more ??? PM me and I''d be happy to talk to you an the phone as you are pressed for time.

Stephen
 

J. Schiavo

New member
suggestions

all:

1. thank you again for your candid advice.

2. as for suggestions and things to change: we welcome ideas and suggestions. we take no offense to any constructive crticism or ideas to improve. feel free to elaborate in the spirit of giving ideas, and don't see it as impositions; or send us an e-mail as i don't think the post would be allowed in this particular forum. we really appreciate your commentary.

3. picked up a printer, Epson R1800, decent prints, quick for larger sizes, and all we could afford right now. i'd rather keep saving to pay off my Mac and grab a 3rd body (or a bigger lens!!!).

4. anyone out there in TV Land have an R1800 that can offer any advice on keeping it running well? this thing is awful nifty and i'd like it to stay that way.
 

Ray West

New member
r1800

Hi Joe,

The r1800 is a great printer, value for money. I have a third party cis - continuous ink system, which keeps the running costs down. I use, when I remember, Quimage as a print driver, and I icc profile the paper/ink with Profile Prism both from www.ddisoftware.com. These two items are also real value for money, and get more or less the best out of the printer. It allows me to print on most anything that will fit in the paper feed tray.

Now, in the name of science, I have not turned on the printer for about ten weeks. I will report back to this forum concerning how many hours/gallons of ink it requires to get it going! In other words, you may well need to print something at least once a week, to keep its juices flowing.

I have not looked at your www site, but if you want a real 'nit picking' review, then let me know, I'll see what I can find. In the days when I was involved in putting up sites for folks, I had other folk in different parts of the world who gave feedback, and I did the same for them, but that was in the days of raw html coding, though.

Best wishes,

Ray
 

Stephen_Pace

New member
As far as care and feeding of inkjet printers go, printing something every day is a good start. Even a test page or a nozzle check. A goolge on this topic will provide more than you will ever want to know.

For stubborn clogs, www.fixyourownprinter.com sell what they claim is the same waterbased ink solvent Epson uses (alcohol is reportedly not nice to the printhead). I've found it to work well. IIRC they also have service manuals available there also.

Joe,

Seems like a good choice for you. And if it dies on a job, you have a goood chance of finding one in a store somewhere. Try that with a $5k dyesub. And I won't even mention media and ink. I'd look at this as a fairly disposable unit as well. None of these sub $1000 machines are made for commercial use. Something to keep in mind when it croaks after you made $xxxx on yyyy # of prints.

Good luck and big profits

Stephen
 

J. Schiavo

New member
you guys SOOO rock. thank you... and i will. i am sure the equipment will pay for itself, just like cam and lenses have.

you guys rule... thank you...
 

Ray West

New member
er...

Hi Asher,

I dunno whether to laugh or cry

See Ray West's ideas on your website. He's really smart :)
I'd just added an edit line to my post to Joe, before I saw the above, so as I'm now gonna be both bad and ugly, so you and Mike must be half good.....

Thanks for the compliment, or the smoke...

Best wishes,

Ray
 
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