Decisions

Today was a day of bigger decisions.  All the decisions in question focused around the new business.

• The official business name for the state of Arizona.
• Incorporating in Arizona.
• Setting up paperwork with a local business agent.
• Deciding on a new system for printing.
• Deciding on a new wide format printer……..

Ok, that last decision isn’t set in stone yet.  I’m 90% of the way there.  I still have a small amount of wiggle room that should be dealt with soon.

I’ve thoroughly investigated Canon, Espon, and HP for wide format printers.  Back in New England I had an Epson and Canon wide format (actually 2 Canon wide formats).  Map making back then, and photo prints too.  But mostly the printers were for maps.  A totally different realm compared to fine art printing.  If colors were off on a batch of maps, so what!  They’re maps, and the colors looked good enough.

Not so for doing prints for galleries!  The color needs to be spot on.  The images need to be crisp, they need to pop!

I’ve been looking at 3 very specific printers, and I believe I have the winner for my purposes.  After reviewing and comparing the Canon IPF 8100, the Epson 9800, and the HP Z3100 I seem to be leaning toward HP.  Pretty surprising.  I went into this thinking the Epson would be my sure fire winner.

What I’ve found after tons of research, reading reviews, and reading direct product comparisons leads me to believe that the first printer for the business should be the HP.  Coming in at more than $1000 over the others, it offers more bang for the buck.

So, why am I still not totally decided?  An acquaintance I have owns one of the Canons.  He’s offered to show me the prints he’s made with his on his Macintosh.  And he’s offered a demo of the printer.  Can’t turn that down at all.  We’ll be making plans for this week.  If the demo doesn’t sway me then it will be the HP Z3100.

Whatever printer I settle on I’ll make sure to document it here for others to read.  I’ve had a heck of a time in the decision process, and I think what’s needed is a simplified perspective.  I’m willing to bet I could bring such a perspective to the subject.  We’ll see.

There’s the wrap on the business progress.  Oh, and the business name?  RL Charpentier Photography.  Pretty simple, straightforward, and it will be easy on the banking side!  🙂

The only other big decision today was regarding the Mantis you see here.  How long do you watch a Mantis before it starts feeling self concious?  This poor little bug endured me shooting photo after photo.  It was a good distraction from printer reviews, forum questions, and calls to printer manufacturers.