Recommendation for photo printer
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Morning guys & gals, I'm thinking about buying myself a new photo printer, and am interested to hear what opinions there are on which would be a good one. My criteria are: - Got to produce a good print. This is probably my top priority. - The consumables should be reasonably cheap. I think I'd prefer to make a bigger initial outlay, and then pay less for the inks etc. than buying a cheaper printer and have to pay lots for consumables. - It would be nice, but not essential, to be able to print large photos, say, up to A4 size. - I'm a bit of a label-freak, and tend to be quite pro-Canon. Their PIXMA printers look cute... - I'd be desk bound, so wouldn't need ultra-portable printers. So, what do you think? Cheers, Jon
Let's see... we develop printers, but the last one[^] that we have developed at my group might be a little big for what you want. :laugh: This is BIG, A4 is the smallest paper size we support!!!! ;P Silver at last!!
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Let's see... we develop printers, but the last one[^] that we have developed at my group might be a little big for what you want. :laugh: This is BIG, A4 is the smallest paper size we support!!!! ;P Silver at last!!
Back in 1987 I was writing drivers for a Xerox printer that could handle a sheet of paper 4 feet wide. The CMYK was in large 'vats' underneath these large print heads that spanned the entire width of the paper. This monster could print out entire posters in seconds. This might be the closest they have today to what I used to work on: http://www.xerox.com/go/xrx/equipment/product_details.jsp?Xcntry=USA&Xlang=en_US&prodID=WF_8160&cat=Product+Taxonomy%2fWide+Format%2fColor[^]
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Morning guys & gals, I'm thinking about buying myself a new photo printer, and am interested to hear what opinions there are on which would be a good one. My criteria are: - Got to produce a good print. This is probably my top priority. - The consumables should be reasonably cheap. I think I'd prefer to make a bigger initial outlay, and then pay less for the inks etc. than buying a cheaper printer and have to pay lots for consumables. - It would be nice, but not essential, to be able to print large photos, say, up to A4 size. - I'm a bit of a label-freak, and tend to be quite pro-Canon. Their PIXMA printers look cute... - I'd be desk bound, so wouldn't need ultra-portable printers. So, what do you think? Cheers, Jon
I have the Epson CX6400 http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=36478885[^] and I like it pretty well. Decent enough photographs, but I don't really push it. I just toss in some photo paper and print what I can get. What I do like is four separate ink tanks (CMYK), so seasonally, like around December, when a lot of red and green stuff is printed, I don't use up the yellow, for example, and end up with an ink cartridge full of yellow and black ink I can no longer access.
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Morning guys & gals, I'm thinking about buying myself a new photo printer, and am interested to hear what opinions there are on which would be a good one. My criteria are: - Got to produce a good print. This is probably my top priority. - The consumables should be reasonably cheap. I think I'd prefer to make a bigger initial outlay, and then pay less for the inks etc. than buying a cheaper printer and have to pay lots for consumables. - It would be nice, but not essential, to be able to print large photos, say, up to A4 size. - I'm a bit of a label-freak, and tend to be quite pro-Canon. Their PIXMA printers look cute... - I'd be desk bound, so wouldn't need ultra-portable printers. So, what do you think? Cheers, Jon
I recently bought Cannon IP3000, which I purchased for $70 with $50 mail in reabtes - making the effective price to $20. The photo quality is excellent. It recieved execllent reviews from both pc magazine and consumer reports. I recommend any cannon printer in the IP series.
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Morning guys & gals, I'm thinking about buying myself a new photo printer, and am interested to hear what opinions there are on which would be a good one. My criteria are: - Got to produce a good print. This is probably my top priority. - The consumables should be reasonably cheap. I think I'd prefer to make a bigger initial outlay, and then pay less for the inks etc. than buying a cheaper printer and have to pay lots for consumables. - It would be nice, but not essential, to be able to print large photos, say, up to A4 size. - I'm a bit of a label-freak, and tend to be quite pro-Canon. Their PIXMA printers look cute... - I'd be desk bound, so wouldn't need ultra-portable printers. So, what do you think? Cheers, Jon
Epson R300 for me :) 6 ink cartridges so a full replacement set is £££ or $$$ but it is SO much faster than my previous 680 and the picture quality on photos is fantastic in my opinion. Takes many different memory card types, instant printing from card - dont need computer on and it will do CD labels (although I hav eno need to try that) As usual, it's different strokes for different folks. I still remember having to write your own code in FORTRAN rather than be a cut and paste merchant being pampered by colour coded Intellisense - ahh proper programming - those were the days :)
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Morning guys & gals, I'm thinking about buying myself a new photo printer, and am interested to hear what opinions there are on which would be a good one. My criteria are: - Got to produce a good print. This is probably my top priority. - The consumables should be reasonably cheap. I think I'd prefer to make a bigger initial outlay, and then pay less for the inks etc. than buying a cheaper printer and have to pay lots for consumables. - It would be nice, but not essential, to be able to print large photos, say, up to A4 size. - I'm a bit of a label-freak, and tend to be quite pro-Canon. Their PIXMA printers look cute... - I'd be desk bound, so wouldn't need ultra-portable printers. So, what do you think? Cheers, Jon
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Let's see... we develop printers, but the last one[^] that we have developed at my group might be a little big for what you want. :laugh: This is BIG, A4 is the smallest paper size we support!!!! ;P Silver at last!!
Heh heh! ;P
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Morning guys & gals, I'm thinking about buying myself a new photo printer, and am interested to hear what opinions there are on which would be a good one. My criteria are: - Got to produce a good print. This is probably my top priority. - The consumables should be reasonably cheap. I think I'd prefer to make a bigger initial outlay, and then pay less for the inks etc. than buying a cheaper printer and have to pay lots for consumables. - It would be nice, but not essential, to be able to print large photos, say, up to A4 size. - I'm a bit of a label-freak, and tend to be quite pro-Canon. Their PIXMA printers look cute... - I'd be desk bound, so wouldn't need ultra-portable printers. So, what do you think? Cheers, Jon
I have an epson 777i which is good, but any print that I really care about, I just go to the drug store or online and have it printed out. I don't have to mess with inks or printing errors and can print any size that I want.
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Morning guys & gals, I'm thinking about buying myself a new photo printer, and am interested to hear what opinions there are on which would be a good one. My criteria are: - Got to produce a good print. This is probably my top priority. - The consumables should be reasonably cheap. I think I'd prefer to make a bigger initial outlay, and then pay less for the inks etc. than buying a cheaper printer and have to pay lots for consumables. - It would be nice, but not essential, to be able to print large photos, say, up to A4 size. - I'm a bit of a label-freak, and tend to be quite pro-Canon. Their PIXMA printers look cute... - I'd be desk bound, so wouldn't need ultra-portable printers. So, what do you think? Cheers, Jon
Judging by your criteria, I'd say a Canon it is! I have a Pixma ip8500. I've had high end Epsons and HP's and frankly, the Canon is heads and tails above both of them (for photo printers at least). I gave up on the HP (Photosmart 7550) after a year - the ink was expensive and didn't last long. I resorted to refilling the cartridges myself but that was a hit and miss adventure (I ended up using about half of each cartridge through head cleaning to get them to work again). My mother, on the other hand, refills hers all the time and routinely gets 5 or 6 refills per cartridge so who knows, maybe it was just me! The Epson worked well but again, the ink was really expensive. My Pixma uses 8 seperate ink tanks, produces by far the best prints I've ever gotten out of an ink jet printer and man, is it fast! The HP would take about two minutes per 4x6 print. The pixma...30 seconds. I refill my own ink tanks (I buy the ink in large bottles from a place called Island Inkjet - they supply inks that match the manufacturers inks). The ink tanks are all seperate and transparent so it's really easy to refill them. The ink sensors indicate the proper level of ink when they are reinserted (unlike HP's). I print a LOT of pictures - probably in the order of a couple of hundred a month. My actual cost per photo so far (including paper and ink) is down to 12 cents (Canadian). With the HP and Epson it was in the order of 60 cents per print. In order to get this price, I buy photo paper from Costco, several packs at a time and have it cut down to 4x6 (3 per sheet) at a local print shop. They charge me $20 to have up to 500 sheets cut down, so I get 1500 4x6 sheets at a rate of just over 8 cents per page. The ink was $15 per bottle (8 bottles). Each one will do about 20 refills - sure beats the $18 each new ink tank costs! I guess the last thing I have to say is if you can afford it, get a printer with 8 colours - it makes a big difference. My 2c. Cheers, Drew.
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Morning guys & gals, I'm thinking about buying myself a new photo printer, and am interested to hear what opinions there are on which would be a good one. My criteria are: - Got to produce a good print. This is probably my top priority. - The consumables should be reasonably cheap. I think I'd prefer to make a bigger initial outlay, and then pay less for the inks etc. than buying a cheaper printer and have to pay lots for consumables. - It would be nice, but not essential, to be able to print large photos, say, up to A4 size. - I'm a bit of a label-freak, and tend to be quite pro-Canon. Their PIXMA printers look cute... - I'd be desk bound, so wouldn't need ultra-portable printers. So, what do you think? Cheers, Jon
Cannon IP Pixima range are excellent. I've got the 4000R which also has Lan and 802.11g in it!! They work brillianty having internal trays for ordinary paper. The ink tanks have optical sensors (and they are also clear - so you can see too) that tell you when they are really empty and not when the manufacurer would like more money. Also the ink tanks colours can be replaced individually. Finally Cannon own no patents on the printer head/ink in the same way Epson & HP do - to stop third party ink supplies and cornering the market, so you can get third party ink, but the stuff I've used was not as good as Cannons, so I went back to the Cannon ink for photos, which is still reasonably priced. Third party ink is fine for everything else, and is dirt cheap. I bought 5 complete refils - 25 catriges in all for £20! I've printed A4 photos and they come out a treat, usually getting about 60 A4 photos from a set of cartrages. It also prints right to the edge. The wireless is excellent. I've got the printer on top of a cuboard, with only the power going up to it, though you could just as easily plug it into a network, or USB. The 4000R is more pricey than the 4000, but thats the extra wireless. Finally the nice thing is the whole range use the same Ink, so no trouble getting it. With HP's and Epsoms you often have to get the all in one printer head/ink tank that is specific to that printer model. http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/54736/art/canon/pixma-ip4000r-printer.html[^] http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/54312/art/canon/pixma-ip4000-printer.html[^]
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Morning guys & gals, I'm thinking about buying myself a new photo printer, and am interested to hear what opinions there are on which would be a good one. My criteria are: - Got to produce a good print. This is probably my top priority. - The consumables should be reasonably cheap. I think I'd prefer to make a bigger initial outlay, and then pay less for the inks etc. than buying a cheaper printer and have to pay lots for consumables. - It would be nice, but not essential, to be able to print large photos, say, up to A4 size. - I'm a bit of a label-freak, and tend to be quite pro-Canon. Their PIXMA printers look cute... - I'd be desk bound, so wouldn't need ultra-portable printers. So, what do you think? Cheers, Jon
I had entertained the idea of buying one of these last year. The price per picture was 29 cents. However, it is now much cheaper for me to let walmart.com print them for only 19 cents. That's quite a savings, even for the semi-small quantity that I print. You might shop around and see if you have access to something like that in your area.
"One must learn from the bite of the fire to leave it alone." - Native American Proverb
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Epson R300 for me :) 6 ink cartridges so a full replacement set is £££ or $$$ but it is SO much faster than my previous 680 and the picture quality on photos is fantastic in my opinion. Takes many different memory card types, instant printing from card - dont need computer on and it will do CD labels (although I hav eno need to try that) As usual, it's different strokes for different folks. I still remember having to write your own code in FORTRAN rather than be a cut and paste merchant being pampered by colour coded Intellisense - ahh proper programming - those were the days :)
I have the little brother of R300 and I concur, it produces excellent quality photos. They are good enough on normal inkjet paper but if you use inkjet photo paper they are flawless.
Ðavid Wulff Audioscrobbler :: flickr Die Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen (QT)
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Judging by your criteria, I'd say a Canon it is! I have a Pixma ip8500. I've had high end Epsons and HP's and frankly, the Canon is heads and tails above both of them (for photo printers at least). I gave up on the HP (Photosmart 7550) after a year - the ink was expensive and didn't last long. I resorted to refilling the cartridges myself but that was a hit and miss adventure (I ended up using about half of each cartridge through head cleaning to get them to work again). My mother, on the other hand, refills hers all the time and routinely gets 5 or 6 refills per cartridge so who knows, maybe it was just me! The Epson worked well but again, the ink was really expensive. My Pixma uses 8 seperate ink tanks, produces by far the best prints I've ever gotten out of an ink jet printer and man, is it fast! The HP would take about two minutes per 4x6 print. The pixma...30 seconds. I refill my own ink tanks (I buy the ink in large bottles from a place called Island Inkjet - they supply inks that match the manufacturers inks). The ink tanks are all seperate and transparent so it's really easy to refill them. The ink sensors indicate the proper level of ink when they are reinserted (unlike HP's). I print a LOT of pictures - probably in the order of a couple of hundred a month. My actual cost per photo so far (including paper and ink) is down to 12 cents (Canadian). With the HP and Epson it was in the order of 60 cents per print. In order to get this price, I buy photo paper from Costco, several packs at a time and have it cut down to 4x6 (3 per sheet) at a local print shop. They charge me $20 to have up to 500 sheets cut down, so I get 1500 4x6 sheets at a rate of just over 8 cents per page. The ink was $15 per bottle (8 bottles). Each one will do about 20 refills - sure beats the $18 each new ink tank costs! I guess the last thing I have to say is if you can afford it, get a printer with 8 colours - it makes a big difference. My 2c. Cheers, Drew.
Drew, Thanks for your advice. Jon
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Cannon IP Pixima range are excellent. I've got the 4000R which also has Lan and 802.11g in it!! They work brillianty having internal trays for ordinary paper. The ink tanks have optical sensors (and they are also clear - so you can see too) that tell you when they are really empty and not when the manufacurer would like more money. Also the ink tanks colours can be replaced individually. Finally Cannon own no patents on the printer head/ink in the same way Epson & HP do - to stop third party ink supplies and cornering the market, so you can get third party ink, but the stuff I've used was not as good as Cannons, so I went back to the Cannon ink for photos, which is still reasonably priced. Third party ink is fine for everything else, and is dirt cheap. I bought 5 complete refils - 25 catriges in all for £20! I've printed A4 photos and they come out a treat, usually getting about 60 A4 photos from a set of cartrages. It also prints right to the edge. The wireless is excellent. I've got the printer on top of a cuboard, with only the power going up to it, though you could just as easily plug it into a network, or USB. The 4000R is more pricey than the 4000, but thats the extra wireless. Finally the nice thing is the whole range use the same Ink, so no trouble getting it. With HP's and Epsoms you often have to get the all in one printer head/ink tank that is specific to that printer model. http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/54736/art/canon/pixma-ip4000r-printer.html[^] http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/54312/art/canon/pixma-ip4000-printer.html[^]
Giles, Thanks for your advice, Jon
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I had entertained the idea of buying one of these last year. The price per picture was 29 cents. However, it is now much cheaper for me to let walmart.com print them for only 19 cents. That's quite a savings, even for the semi-small quantity that I print. You might shop around and see if you have access to something like that in your area.
"One must learn from the bite of the fire to leave it alone." - Native American Proverb
David, Yes, I hear you on that one! Thanks for your advice, JOn