So the Bambu labs A1 looks like the perfect starting point.
One problem, it uses proprietary firmware and software, I’m a big advocate for owning the things you buy, and not supporting companies that don’t allow you to do that as much as I reasonably can. So yea I can’t buy Bambu.
The Creality SparkX i7 seems nice, it looks like a straight up clone of the A1
https://store.creality.com/eu/products/sparkx-i7-3d-printer
I’ve heard a lot of people complain about Creality though, so unsure. I’m a bit stuck and getting decision fatigue.
My budget is ~500 Euro.
Help.
If you’re wanting to learn, just get the cheapest Ender3. No they’re not good printers, but they’re open and you can add on parts as you figure out they’re needed. They take tuning to adjustment to get a halfway decent print, meaning you’re going to learn how to do that. And once you’ve done that, you’re going to have very solid opinions about what you need in your next printer.
ender 3s aren’t that bad.
My Ender 3 Pro can get really high quality prints when I swap to a 0.2mm nozzle. As in, competes with (though doesn’t beat) SLA printers for D&D minis
They’re not horrible, but they’re very basic. If you want bed leveling, filament sensing, or network connectivity, then you’re going to have to upgrade the basic machine, and you can. Top that off with figuring out what modeling to slicing pipeline you want to use and you end up touching every step of 3d printing for a very modest price. At which point, if you do want to drop some money on a printer with everything you want already in it, you know exactly what you’re looking for.
easy to install bed leveling on it, after you figure out you need it.
a bit superfluous for a first printer to learn on.
that’s a positive not a negative, especially considering OP wants to learn.
basic simplicity and reliability are actually big pluses. ender 3s are fine as a first printer for good quality prints at rock bottom price for what you get.
I have one of the newer Ender 3 V3 SE models. It’s pretty good actually! Very rarely have to tinker with it unlike on the older models like my Ender 3 Pro
You can always spend more to get more. The great thing about the Ender series is that you can get the very base model for super cheap, and parts/upgrades are also dirt cheap. So you can learn, tinker, and get into things easily.