New venture into Canvas perhaps?

[TonyM]

The printer is either an Encad or a Chinese copy of an Encad.

Is that good or bad?
What really attracts me is it is all set up and ready to go and you get the training.
When I bought my plotter from Xpress I had a day training there too, and it was invaluable to me.
On that occasion i was able to take my own computer. I took my laptap and it was all installed and running before I got home. Good job too because it looked like a mission and the technician struggled. When I got home i transferred all the settings to my desktop. So I have 2 copies of the software now.
In this package one gets a computer. That to me is an unnecessary expense as we already have 2 very good ones and a very good laptop. We even have tablets and I pads. I really dont need another computer.
I may ask for a price that omits the computer.
What do people think of the overall package?
There are lots of large format printers on ebay just now ranging from very cheap (too cheap) to many thousands.
I am looking at spending around a thousand pounds for a printer. I would like refurbished as i cannot really afford new with some kind of warranty something like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-DESIGNJET- ... 5898d500ec
or perhaps this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-DESIGNJET- ... 27c9444477.
Any recomendations, thoughts or advice greatly appreciated.

[neilb]

Encad were made by Kodak but are no longer made, They're not a bad printer for the money they go for although not up there with the latest Epsons HP's etc. We still have an 850 as a backup.

Having looked closer at the pictures it's obviously a clone, as to the quality of those I couldn't comment.

[iomgraphix]

I am looking at moving into the canvas/photo printing and have been looking at a HP Z2100 24".

Can anyone shed any light on the quality of it? The reviews are very good, but I don't fancy shelling out money for bad stuff.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160914453319? ... 1423.l2649

Many Thanks

Mark

[Hyraxx]

The HP Z2100 is a good printer but being 24" you are limited really you need 36 inch and above as you can cater to a much larger market some of the HP 500 seriers are good work horses

[TjCanvas]

The Hp Z series printers are great, they are easy to use, have a great ink consumption and parts such as print heads are widely available at very reasonable prices. Also it can create it's own profiles for any media you use as it has a built in Spectrophotometer.

We have a z3100 24" and a Z2100 44". Yes you are limited to sizes with a 24" printer but you can still do a large range of sizes up to a 20"x30" on a 38mm frame or 22" width on 18mm. When we started we only had a 24" printer and only very rarely had larger sizes requested but when we did we took the order and outsourced the job which would be sent direct to our customer, within a year of trading we were then in a position to buy a second printer, and stayed HP due to the consistently high quality these printers give.