Share article:
Share article:

The three main cost categories are: (1) the machine, (2) ink and (3) paper. This data is in Canadian dollars (CAD). Multiply by about 0.8 for US dollar equivalent. (1) The machine Five factors determine the cost per print of the printer: (i) purchase price including taxes, (ii) retention period, (iii) rate of return, (iv) throughput and (v) estimated disposal value. My 4000 all-in cost including the CAD 200 of ink consumed in the initial charge-up was CAD 2903. I am assuming a 24 month retention period, 6% annual rate of return (a conservative return on alternative "safe" investments) or 0.5% per month and a disposal value of CAD 700 at the end of 24 months. Using an Excel function for calcu...

Read this story and all the best stories on The Luminous Landscape

The author has made this story available to Luminous Landscape members only. Upgrade to get instant access to this story and other benefits available only to members.

Why choose us?

Luminous-Landscape is a membership site. Our website contains over 5300 articles on almost every topic, camera, lens and printer you can imagine. Our membership model is simple, just $2 a month ($24.00 USD a year). This $24 gains you access to a wealth of information including all our past and future video tutorials on such topics as Lightroom, Capture One, Printing, file management and dozens of interviews and travel videos.

  • New Articles every few days
  • All original content found nowhere else on the web
  • No Pop Up Google Sense ads – Our advertisers are photo related
  • Download/stream video to any device
  • NEW videos monthly
  • Top well-known photographer contributors
  • Posts from industry leaders
  • Speciality Photography Workshops
  • Mobile device scalable
  • Exclusive video interviews
  • Special vendor offers for members
  • Hands On Product reviews
  • FREE – User Forum. One of the most read user forums on the internet
  • Access to our community Buy and Sell pages; for members only.
Share article:
Mark Segal
Mark Segal
See all articles by this author
Mark has been making photographs for the past six decades and started adopting a digital workflow in 1999 first with scanning film, then going fully digital in 2004. He has worked with a considerable range of software, equipment and techniques over the years, accumulated substantial experience as an author, educator and communicator in several fields and is a frequent contributor to the Luminous-Landscape website. Mark developed a particular interest in film scanning and authored the ebook “Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8, SilverFast HDR, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop” available on the SilverFast website. In his “other life” (the one that pays for the photography), Mark is a retiree from the World Bank Group and now a consultant in electric power development.
See all articles by this author

You may also like

image
Techniques

Learning to See: The Artist's Eye

Visual acuity gets you a sharp image and visual awareness gets you a great image. Good news - we can train our brain to be more aware.
Team Lula

Team Lula

·

July 22, 2026

·

14 minutes read

image
Landscape & Environment

Travel Photography - Capturing the Essence of Lisbon

Whenever I travel, I always wage an internal battle: how much effort do I devote to capturing the tourist attractions versus the place versus the...
Terry McDonald

Terry McDonald

·

July 9, 2026

·

10 minutes read