I'm looking for recommendations for a home printer to make black and white prints of 35mm (some 120) contact sheets I made from v600 scans.
There are lots of photo printers out there that seem to be overkill for my application here, so I was hoping to get some practical advice from anyone with experience with home photo printers. I'm looking for something that will not break the bank but still provide enough quality for reviewing my film scans in the physical form.
Let's say my hypothetical budget is under $500, but I'd like to stay well below that tbh.
Any thoughts and recommendations are welcome. Thank you all!
Just get a used enlarger and make darkroom contact prints. With a inkjet, you’ll just going to end up with clogged nozzles making the occasional contact sheet. Also those tiny tanks go so fast. You’ll be swapping out the black every few contact prints. Maybe a high quality laser jet? That way there’s no clogging issues to worry about and cheaper ink toner.
Generally, pigment printers are better for B&W. Most sub-$500 printers use dye based inks. The one exception I know of is the Epson ET-8500 which uses color dyes but has one pigment black ink. The trick seems to be figuring out which paper profiles use the pigment black rather than the dye.
Look on B&H for Black Friday specials but the inks and dyes will ultimately eclipse the cost of the printer if you use it regularly, so take that into consideration. You may think you’ll just use it for contact sheets but you’ll succumb to the joy of printing and that’s when the credit card comes out…!
jorgegarcia wrote:
Just get a used enlarger and make darkroom contact prints. With a inkjet, you’ll just going to end up with clogged nozzles making the occasional contact sheet. Also those tiny tanks go so fast. You’ll be swapping out the black every few contact prints. Maybe a high quality laser jet? That way there’s no clogging issues to worry about and cheaper ink toner.
FWIW, no enlarger required for making B+W contact prints. You just need a hard, smooth surface, a sheet of glass larger than your page of negatives, photo paper, and a bare bulb hanging several feet above. Under red light, place a sheet of photo paper on hard surface, add page of negatives, then the sheet of glass. Reach up and turn on the bare light for hower long required. The latter instruction will require a couple test prints to nail, but once figured out, shouldn't need any adjustment for similar density negatives. Develop paper and enjoy result.
