archival inkjet photo printers

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Does anyone own one? I have been an avid photographer all my life, but in the film days was an avid user of Kodachrome. In the digital era, I have paid to have a few large-ish prints made, matted and framed for display in my house. My museum exhibits were done by the museums themselves at no cost to me.

I have been pondering getting a high quality photo inkjet printer in the $700-1000 range--probably an Epson or Canon. I prefer Canon due to the native 300 ppi print resolution. However, of course the problem is that the inks are brutally, palm-sweatingly expensive--as in more expensive than the most expensive vintage whiskys, wines, etc. I will likely only print once or so a week on average, but, from what I hear, unless you are printing constantly, your print heads will clog, and you'll need to run a lot, lot, lot of ink through them to clean them ($$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$). With seven or more ink cartridges in the better models, this gets damned expensive. I could write it off for tax purposes, and I like to tell myself I would/will sell some prints, but in the end I suspect it will become a huge money pit/source of frustration/boat anchor. Still, there is the satisfaction of making your own prints...

Do you own one? What would you recommend?

Other thoughts?

[Parsifal]

Does anyone own one? I have been an avid photographer all my life, but in the film days was an avid user of Kodachrome. In the digital era, I have paid to have a few large-ish prints made, matted and framed for display in my house. My museum exhibits were done by the museums themselves at no cost to me.

I have been pondering getting a high quality photo inkjet printer in the $700-1000 range--probably an Epson or Canon. I prefer Canon due to the native 300 ppi print resolution. However, of course the problem is that the inks are brutally, palm-sweatingly expensive--as in more expensive than the most expensive vintage whiskys, wines, etc. I will likely only print once or so a week on average, but, from what I hear, unless you are printing constantly, your print heads will clog, and you'll need to run a lot, lot, lot of ink through them to clean them ($$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$). With seven or more ink cartridges in the better models, this gets damned expensive. I could write it off for tax purposes, and I like to tell myself I would/will sell some prints, but in the end I suspect it will become a huge money pit/source of frustration/boat anchor. Still, there is the satisfaction of making your own prints...

Do you own one? What would you recommend?

Other thoughts?

My experience with an EPSON photo printer that I owned for about 10 years is that printing something once a week will keep the nozzles clear, even if it is only one or two prints. Letting it sit idle for months at a time will cause problems.