I have been commissioned to cover a UFC match in the local area. I need to be able to produce 8x10 prints very quickly (hopefully a couple min.) so they can be signed by the flagship fighter. Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks!
OK, keep in mind that I know very little about printers, BUT my sister in law is into scrapbooking and archival quality prints, and she just bought an Epson R1800 . I think it was about $500 on amazon.com.
The prints that thing makes are quite remarkable. I've never been a fan of any prints I've ever seen from computer printers. I was impressed with this one.
All that to say that I was impressed with the Epson. I'm pretty sure there are more advanced models in the same series, you may want to check them out...
I am currently looking into getting an Epson R2400. Prints are dry as soon as they come out...but for an 8x10 it takes a good 5-6 min. I am hoping that a faster printer exists :-D
It's older and it's only 8x10, but you might want to look into the Olympus P-400 dye sublimation printer. Print time is supposed to be about 90 seconds and being a dye sublimation printer there's no ink to dry and picture quality should be excellent. The downside would be the cost per print since it will need proprietary paper and ribbons. I think it fiqures out to around $2 per print.
I've been using the Epson R1800 for about a year. The ink is really dry immediately and does not take anywhere near 4 minutes, a couple is all it needs. You will find on 8x10 or even 13x19 that you will not need to use the very top print quality, the 2nd step down is very photographic quality. Experiment with teh paper. That is the most important part of it. I use Kokac Proffesional Luster and it looks great and has never smeared. Other gloss papers tent to scratch to easily.
