Color printer options (for personal use)

[-Tom-]

I decided to take some of my photos and put them all over the walls in my home. I'm contemplating between going to the shop (people tend to charge a lot in my area) or buy some decent, mid level color printer.

I didn't use a color printer for years, the last one I've owned was HP Deskjet 720

Are there any solid A3 color printers on the market, or are they not viable ($) for home user like me?

[Daedalus256]

Epson has a couple Artisans that are about $150-$250 that may fulfill that need (Artisan 730 and Artisan 1430). I did a job for a company around here on a couple Artisan 730s with some luster paper (Photo shoot) and was surprised as the results.

[bill t.]

It's a good day when I can prepare a printing file that can challenge the image quality of most of the $200+ desktop printers now available.  To a guy who spent way too much time in darkrooms, it's just amazing.  You can hardly go wrong.

[iluvmycam]

Artisans produce nice prints...but they have small ink cells that have to be replaced often. Epson R2000 has a nice balance of cell size, cost and IQ. (if the 3880 is too much for you.)

[kikashi]

I have an Epson 3800. I'm delighted with it. It does A2 prints, it's light enough that I can move it on my own, it's small enough to be reasonably unobtrusive on its little table, it uses reasonably-priced 80ml cartridges, I've had no (yes, no) problems with head clogs and the quality of the output is fantastic. It doesn't do rolls or canvas, but I can live with that. I imagine the 3880 is even better (though, I suspect, not much). When you bear in mind the value of the ink that comes with it, I'm slightly puzzled that anyone would buy a 13" Epson.

Jeremy