The Personal Pick - Part Four - The Missing Link

If " Missing Link " sounds a little dramatic, consider the way that your work colleagues show you the pictures of the weddings, sports carnivals, and car shows that they attend.

They pull out a $ 1000 device with a sctratched or broken glass screen on the front and a little symbol of half a battery flashing on and off. They frantically tap away at it and then swipe their fingers left, right, up, and down trying to make a 3 1/2 inch by 5 inch picture appear. Like as not, if it actually is found, it will have enough Instagram filters on it to look like an 1880 cabinet card, but you may not be able to see this before the little battery symbol winks out and the screen goes black. Then you can watch your colleague sitting in their car for half an hour until the phone charges up again.

In the meantime, you can look at an album of prints...

I am suggesting that either you need to come on down to the Murray Street shop of Camera Electronic and get a set of prints made on the Fujifilm printing system...or steer down to the third island stand in the shop and look seriously at the Epson SureColor SC - P600 and P800 inkjet printers. They are two of the very best ways for a serious enthusiast to escape from the dungeon of the mobile screen.

Don't get me wrong - I thoroughly respect putting pictures on a computer screen. As this column is getting typed on an iPad, the main computer is burning off belly-dance discs from a recent show. I daresay few of them will end up as prints. That is the ephemeral nature of the dance shot. But if ever I take a doozey, that one deserves to be at least an A4 print. I rely upon the Epson A3+ printer in my studio to do it, and frequently it does a great deal more. Enough images and some good paper and you have an exhibition.

The P600 most closely corresponds to the Epson printer I use - the A3+ size. If I needed to go up to A2 it would be the P800. Both use the K3 Epson inks for the same result on the paper. The,smaller printer uses smaller ink cartridges, which means a higher price per ml for the ink, but also means that if I do not print as extensively, I am not risking larger quantities that may go stale or flat. This is a real thing and whichever printer one chooses, it is wise to cycle it through with at least one print per week.

Note on the sign that there is a cashback and roll paper adapter on offer as special inducements. I have used an adapter and can report it as a successful when you want long banners or odd sizes of print. Otherwise there are good supplies of Hähnemuele and Ilford papers to suit every taste.

These days there are very easy connections possible between the printers and the computers. I use a simple plugged cord for mine but could have chosen a wireless connection instead. Networking is also available, if you don't mind someone else using up all your ink and paper.

I lock mine away.