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I had a quality printer (Epson Pro 4000) for about five years and loved it.... 17" wide, using paper roll, Pigment 'inks'. But a new set of 8 cartridges from Epson would have set me back around 700 pounds! So I found alternatives (non-Epson inks) and reduced that figure to about 100 pounds. No detectable deterioration of quality for my purposes - though of course I couldn't have expected them to be as long lasting as the genuine article. Enough for me, though.
However, once I'd filled the house with about 30 quality prints of my work, entered competitions and exhibitions at my camera club and made many prints for other club members, the monster machine (which takes two people to lift) started to be used less and less. The lack of use meant a nozzle clean almost every time I started it up - very wasteful on both ink and paper. It was becoming expensive to run.
Eventually sold it.... getting a fraction of what I'd paid.
Conclusion.....
a. As much as I enjoyed the big printer, trying various papers (and paper profiles) and getting beautiful results, unless I were to be printing for other people (to help recover some of the costs) then it's just a very expensive, space stealing drain on my pocket. Once I move home (back to the UK) I'll be looking at high street printers or maybe online companies.
b. As other members of your camera club have CISS - maybe it's worth seeing if they'd do your printing for you, at just above the cost price - then you gain experience of the system (if you sit in on the printing jobs) and can make a more informed decision as to whether you want to go that route.
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