Printing Costs And Printing Times

[tomlaronge]

Has anyone seen a reasonably accurate comparison of printing costs for different printers or ink systems and for different papers?
Has anyone seen a reasonably accurate comparison of the printing speed or time-to-print a standardized test image file for different printers?
Thank you for this information.
Regards,
Tom

[Jana]

TO tell you the truth
When is about pictures, I think its better to send to store where I pay $0,12 or bulk I pay sometimes $0,05 each pic then to spend 40$ in ink because pictures makes your ink go so fast.

[tomlaronge]

Jana,
I understand what you wrote, but I think most of us have different feelings about this issue. Some of us are only happy with our own prints and the excitement/thrill of the hobby or the individuality that results. In addition, sometimes even relatively small prints, say 5" X 7" or 8" X 10" prints consume quite a bit more than $.40 in just ink.
The hoped feedback on this thread was whether one dye ink costs much different than one pigment ink and what are the variations in printinking times using reasonably small ink-jet printers. I am trying to compile a comparison of various ink jet photographic printers as I am looking tomake a change from what I have been doing. Therefore, I was in search of input and experience.
Now, with that said, I am making some progress in looking at photographic printer differences. I am mainly confining my information gathering to first hand experience and not to published specifications and reviews. I am focusing on printers available from Canon and from Epson in as close to an unbiased manor as a human can focus.
What I am finding are major differences, but the ink usage cost differential is truly much lower than I thought or was previously led to believe. I am looking at 17" printers and at 13" printers. The biggest single differences in these printers shows up as the time to produce a print. I have been measuring time-to-print from the instant sheet paper begins to feed until the sheet is released from the printinter. For a single borderless 8" X 10" print at recommended printer resolution, printed centered on an8.5" X 11" sheet of premium glossy photographic paper, the printing times I have measured range from 1 minute 38 seconds to 4 minutes 10 seconds. This, to me is a major difference. The ink cost differentials were within 20%, probably for commercial reasons rather than technological differences. Another major difference lies in the amount of time spent to change ink cartridges when one uses small 8ml to 10ml cartridges versus 80ml or larger cartridges.
I find that both Canon and Epson manufacture photographic printers capable of yielding excellent finished images, but there are significant differences in these images and in how these are processed mechanically and electronically. The bottom line is that one really, most likely, cannot in today's photographic printer market purchase a printer that will do exactly as one might desire, but you can buy a printer that gives you great results subject to a few compromises on your part. I suppose this is no surprise.
My two cents rests on doing my own prints and enjoying both the stress and the stress relief that results therefrom.
Tom