Thanks for the printing and R1800 advice

[anorcross]

I want to thank the members of this forum for two pieces of printing-related advice. First, I got the recommendation here to use El-Co Color labs for poster printing. I had two 20X30 posters made from Digital Rebel files, and they are superb. I enhanced the pictures myself, included sharpening, but didn't upsize them (their website recommends that you leave the upsizing to them), and ordered them printed on luster paper. These are pictures I took last Christmas in England, when we were staying with my parents in their cottage in a little village in the middle of the country (between Oxford and Stratford). My parents came to us in Houston this Christmas, so I wanted to make them a couple of posters as a present. They love them, and my wife liked them so much that we ordered copies for ourselves too (they should arrive today). The price was $9.95 each plus shipping and handling, so we paid just over $30 for two. Here's the link to get that price:
http://www.elcocolor.com/hot_internet_only_specials.htm
My second thank you is to those of you who recommended the Epson R1800 photo printer, and especially to whomover it was who posted the link to get the 15% off deal from Epson (the deal ran through Dec. 31). I got the printer and spare ink tanks for all 8 inks for $563.45 with free shipping. The 15% off deal saved me $99.47. The printer arrived yesterday, and I love it. I've so far printed a borderless 4X6, a borderless 8.5X11, and a borderless 8.5X11 B&W. I have the Epson 1280, which I will soon be looking to sell, which has always given me great results, but these are even better. I am especially pleased with the B&W, because conventional wisdom seems to be that you need the more expensive R2400 for B&W, but that the R1800 is actually better for color, at least on glossy paper. In fact, the B&W I got from the R1800 is excellent. I did, of course, convert my file to grayscale and back again to RGB, before printing. So far I've only printed on Epson's premium glossy photo paper, but I'm looking forward to trying a luster paper, either Epson or Ilford probably.
So, once again, thank you to this forum, a great photographic resource (and Happy New Year).

[d2creative]

Originally Posted by anorcross

My second thank you is to those of you who recommended the Epson R1800 photo printer, and especially to whomover it was who posted the link to get the 15% off deal from Epson (the deal ran through Dec. 31). I got the printer and spare ink tanks for all 8 inks for $563.45 with free shipping. The 15% off deal saved me $99.47. The printer arrived yesterday, and I love it. I've so far printed a borderless 4X6, a borderless 8.5X11, and a borderless 8.5X11 B&W.

So, once again, thank you to this forum, a great photographic resource (and Happy New Year).

MY SENTIMENTS, EXACTLY!
From the epson printer, to the savings deal, to the extra inks.... the only diff is I got the 2400.
Got it hooked up to my mac and started printing gorgeous prints immediately!
Now I just need to pic up some paper bigger than 8.5x11...
Thanks all!

[krodgers]

toss an oder with red river paper on their sample package. (one of their packages is for 13x19 samples) it gives you alot of different types of paper they carry. seem to be really fast on shipping it to you also.