A Printer challenge - which ?

[Panjo]

G'day folks
I wonder if you could help, I've been invited to cover some events in the coming year and as part of this I would like the opportunity to print and give each customer a photograph. So I anticipate probably one customer at my area every 15 minutes, and at the end of this mini photo shoot I would like to give them a good quality Photograph of no more that A4 in size, and in turn I hope they would order more and hopefully bigger ones. (I hope all that makes sense). What I’m asking is for your recommendations in terms of Printers as speed & quality is of the essence here.

I was looking at SUB dye printers but there so expensive, but not sure about Ink Jet and what they have to offer (Printers are not my forte I must add if you haven’t already guessed) can you recommend a printer for this type of occasion were I’m going to be able to pump good quality, reasonable size prints out that look and feel professional as well as not costing the earth, is that a tall order?
Cheers
Mark

[kiwi]

More details - how many photos are you talking ?

what's to stop them taking your free A4 and scanning it and printing it at Harvey Norman ?

[Panjo]

HI Darren,

Could be 10 a day could be 30 not sure of the volume yet, but essentailly its a mini photoshoot of not more than 10-15 mins max. I agree with the scanning bit, what are your thoughts - I want them to order a bunch of stuff this would be like a taster if you like ?

Cheers
Mark

[ricktas]

Cost wise, if this is a one off, you are better getting a professional printer to do it. Home printer work out quite expensive (per print) when you factor in printer, ink and paper costs. Getting them done professionally, means a more accurate result and is cheaper in most cases, if you work out the specific costs per print.

[kiwi]

Look at the canon selphy or similar to give out sample 4x6's, easy, good quality and not bad at cost per print

I agree, any volume printing its better to use a lab

Most event guys will use expensive dye sub printers for bulk A4's (ie 100+ per event)

[Panjo]

Agree Rick its cost - thats what Im trying to avoid and this event would be 2-4 times per month... I want to give the customer somehting as a bit of a teaser to take away and want to purchase more...

[Panjo]

Yep the Canon Selphy was looking at them as a possability... may go down that road to start off with.. Cheers Darren.

[kiwi]

That's the wrong approach - what you want to do is get people to buy then and there, or else drive them to your website - IF you give them a sample youll find it might be all they want

[Panjo]

Mmm good point... needs a little more thought me thinks..

[Bercy]

Most commercial event photographers will have a mini-lab to go home to, and be back with the shots in a couple of hours. It sounds like you want to make prints on site, so portable printing is a realistic option, but I tend to agree, if you want to get some reward, then the shots have to make the recipient look a whole lot better than might be possible with the small printers. Frankly, you can show people the capture image on the back of the camera. I'd give them a very nice card with a password on it, so they can look up your very exclusive site and look at the watermarked photos. If they really like them you can knock out a high quality A4 or A3 or get the lab to do it and charge appropriately. The other thing about giving the card is that it ensures they know you are a professional and not a wannabe like me that is happy to give it away!