Baltimore Camera Club

4. THE FINAL IMAGE - LESS THAN THREE BUCKS?

So how can you possibly afford to enter eight mounted images - four mono, four color - every single month during competition season?

Like this –

Printer – A three-year-old Epson 1280. The advantage is that this model has been out for a while, so reliable alternative technologies have become available for it – like –
Continuous Flow Systems– or Continuous Ink Systems, these consist of bottles of ink that sit by the side of the printer, connected to a dummy cartridge in the printer head by flexible plastic tubing. Ink is sucked from the bottles, up the tubes and into the cartridge to feed the nozzles.
In the past these systems have been finicky and prone to clogs, but nowadays they are very reliable. Start up costs are greater, you have to buy and install the system, but compared to using Epson OEM cartridges, running a CFS is incredibly cheap. The inks now offered can rival in all ways Epson’s original ink, at something like one tenth of the running cost. I estimate that the ink for a 13” x 17” print costs 15¢ using this system.
Paper - As long as you don’t expect 100-year archival museum quality prints, then there is a huge choice of inexpensive photo printing paper out there, which will give very satisfactory results for competition entry. The paper I use works out at about $1.20 for ‘B’ size (17” x 11”). Really, this is all you need. Save the expensive Museum Cotton Rag for your first gallery show!

Mattes – There appears to be a fairly good choice of Art & Craft stores in the Baltimore area. The club is (probably) getting a list together of popular local suppliers. I buy 40” x 30” matte boards, and have them cut into 4 x 20” x 16” mattes for a total of $6.00, or $1.50 per matte.

The Fixin’s - glue the print to the board using an applicator called a ‘Rollataq”, which puts a nice even layer of glue on the board. It remains positionable for about five minutes after application – this is where the pre-printed centering marks in the print borders come in handy! Put a paper towel over the face of the print, and use an ink roller to smooth it down. One application comes in at a big 5¢.

Totals – Per 15” x 10” Print, mounted.

The CIS system costs more initially.
To get the per-sheet price on paper you have to buy 100 sheets at once.
I mess up prints when glue gets on them.
I’m not counting test prints.
I’m not counting the initial capital costs of the printer and computer.
I’m not counting the large time investment to set it all up and the endless futzing around.
I didn’t mention the cost of the paper cutter.
And so on…