dapaulio Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 Looking for suggestions for any A3 network printers (preferably Ethernet port rather than wifi) at a good price that would be sufficient for our photography students. Photography teacher is a stickler for quality printouts and has offered me a £500 budget. Requirements Ethernet port Supports 2008/2012 r2 server and windows 7/10 x64 drivers Photograph quality printouts
3s-gtech Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 (edited) Does that £500 cover running costs?! A3 photo prints (if that is what will be done) can empty a pair of ink cartridges in just a few sheets. Of course, toner is cheaper but if quality comes first that means inkjet and photo paper (without using commercial services). Not used them myself, but these look lovely Professional A3 Photo Printers - Canon UK (bear in mind the price is RRP and inc VAT). Most come within budget Edited January 5, 2017 by 3s-gtech
dapaulio Posted January 5, 2017 Author Posted January 5, 2017 Does that £500 cover running costs?! A3 photo prints (if that is what will be done) can empty a pair of ink cartridges in just a few sheets. Of course, toner is cheaper but if quality comes first that means inkjet and photo paper (without using commercial services). Not used them myself, but these look lovely https://store.canon.co.uk/canon-pixma-pro-1/4786B008/?WT.tsrc=NSO-Site&_ga=1.244882565.1697994206.1483628933 (bear in mind the price is RRP and inc VAT). exc running costs and VAT. he is looking to subsidise the running cost through our print credit management Quality is a huge factor in this teachers eyes Had a look at the Canon Pix pro 1 but it doesn't support server 2008/2012 OS drivers confirmed by no drivers listed on the canon website. Also looked at an Epson sc-p600 which i ran in to the same driver support issues
dapaulio Posted January 5, 2017 Author Posted January 5, 2017 Any suggestions that cost more than £500 are also welcome
Bezwick Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 Have a word with these guys. We have a Kyocera TasKalfa 3051ci which is fantastic and it cost us nothing but the price of the Toner. Laserlife - Managed Print Solutions 1
timbo343 Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 We have the Canon Pixma Pro-100S A3 printer. Our Art department are very very happy with it and it doesn't cause us any problems. Drivers listed on their site: PIXMA PRO-100 Support ? Download drivers, software & manuals 1
dapaulio Posted January 5, 2017 Author Posted January 5, 2017 (edited) Have a word with these guys. We have a Kyocera TasKalfa 3051ci which is fantastic and it cost us nothing but the price of the Toner. Laserlife - Managed Print Solutions We have considered a managed solution as our preferred option however we are currently under contract with someone who we are looking to part company with once our term is up in 2 and half years and don't wish to add anything that will extend the contract we already have Thanks. Edited January 5, 2017 by dapaulio
dapaulio Posted January 5, 2017 Author Posted January 5, 2017 We have the Canon Pixma Pro-100S A3 printer. Our Art department are very very happy with it and it doesn't cause us any problems. Drivers listed on their site: PIXMA PRO-100 Support ? Download drivers, software & manuals Can you confirm that you have this installed on a server operating system and shared out to your windows clients? the pro 100 on the canon website also claims no support for server os's thanks all
timbo343 Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 Im going to be honest, we have it setup locally on the teacher's machine however after seeing they have the Windows 10 X64 drivers available for the PRO-100S, im going to try it on our print server tomorrrow. When we moved over to server2012 back in April 2015 we struggled to get the drivers to work but now canon have released drivers for windows 10, ive just set the printer up on the server ready for the printer tomorrow. The driver has gone on without any problems so at the moment, im feeling quietly confident but time will tell. 1
timbo343 Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 We have considered a managed solution as our preferred option however we are currently under contract with someone who we are looking to part company with once our term is up in 2 and half years and don't wish to add anything that will extend the contract we already have Thanks. Alternately we have a managed contract at the moment with Arena group and the toshiba MFDs. Staff and students both use these for photo prints however the final pieces of photography work is done on the Canon Pixma PRO100S. Not once has the ink dried up on the Canon printer. Even when it's been stood for weeks upon weeks. 1
dapaulio Posted January 5, 2017 Author Posted January 5, 2017 Im going to be honest, we have it setup locally on the teacher's machine however after seeing they have the Windows 10 X64 drivers available for the PRO-100S, im going to try it on our print server tomorrrow. When we moved over to server2012 back in April 2015 we struggled to get the drivers to work but now canon have released drivers for windows 10, ive just set the printer up on the server ready for the printer tomorrow. The driver has gone on without any problems so at the moment, im feeling quietly confident but time will tell. I would appreciate if you let me know how you get on. I suspect it will be ok also but with canon specifically not including server support, I am looking for someone who has done it before I buy. I have priced up an ImageProGraf Pro 1000 which is £900 A2 model that does specifically list support for server os.
3s-gtech Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 Had a look at the Canon Pix pro 1 but it doesn't support server 2008/2012 OS drivers confirmed by no drivers listed on the canon website. That just means they haven't tested it. The printer stack is the same between server and desktop OSs, to a point, and compatibility is based on the underlying kernel. YMMV. I don't think I've ever used the right specific driver for a server - I just chose the newest 32 or 64 bit one which worked.
DalekSec Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 We have a couple of these https://www.epson.co.uk/products/printers/inkjet-printers/photo/surecolor-sc-p600 Around 2 years we've had these and no problems yet *touches wood* Had R2000's before and had troubles all over the shop!
MatthewL Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 I would be looking at something from Canon, not sure weather you will get it for £500. The Canon ipf670 (large format plotter type machine) has network and is a good machine but its a lot bigger than you wanted.
timbo343 Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 Some schools cant buy off ebay but if you can... the canon pixma pro-100s http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122030419582
Bezwick Posted January 6, 2017 Posted January 6, 2017 Forgot to mention. Laserlife are contractless. No min term no cost per print. Just the price of the toner (which are very reasonable). If you don't want the printer just finish using the toner you have bought and send it back. We have considered a managed solution as our preferred option however we are currently under contract with someone who we are looking to part company with once our term is up in 2 and half years and don't wish to add anything that will extend the contract we already have Thanks.
timbo343 Posted January 6, 2017 Posted January 6, 2017 To confirm the printer driver on the server. We have the latest Canon Pixma Pro-100S Windows 10 (x64) driver running on the Windows 2012R2 server without any problems and tested print outs from our server. Within the download from Canon you will see 4 folders.. Driver, DrvSetup, LAN and LANUTIL. Install SETUP64.exe from folder DrvSetup on the print server as this sets up the canon port (not a standard IP Port, as this doesn't work). The EXE will search for the printer once installed and you will be able to configure it. Once the printer driver has been installed, jump into LANUTIL > NWTOOL and run SETUP.EXE. This will install the Canon network tool which allows you to configure the printers. Hope this helps.
Fazza Posted January 6, 2017 Posted January 6, 2017 Have a word with these guys. We have a Kyocera TasKalfa 3051ci which is fantastic and it cost us nothing but the price of the Toner. Laserlife - Managed Print Solutions We have a 'free' printer from them that is basically an A3 MFD. We got them to disable the scanner so they cant use it as a photocopier and our DT department have been fine with it. The only catch is the contract you sign with them is that the printer is free (and so is support and maintenance on the devices) as long as you only purchase the genuine toners from LaserLife themselves.
RobbieChalk Posted January 11, 2017 Posted January 11, 2017 (edited) LaserLife's hardware solution - no hardware cost, just pay for the usage. No long term contract so we can return the machine anytime.. Ask for Robert Chalkwright Edited January 11, 2017 by RobbieChalk
ITGURU Posted January 11, 2017 Posted January 11, 2017 I'm a pro photographer aswell as working in IT. I would definitely recommend inkjets for photography prints specifically cannon or Epson. Even with Laser printers that I've tested with (and at home), you just don't get the same photographic quality prints from them, and I still have an inkjet for when I want to print photos.
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