Photo Printer Advice needed

I have a HP Designjet Z2100 Photo, a great machine but not cheap.

If you are serious about getting good quality images, then I would recommend going for a colour laser printer.

The Hewlett Packard HP Laserjet 1600 can be had for less than £100 (including startup cartridges), and you are quite likely to get much better colour coverage than with any inkjet.

Of course they still make their money not on the printer, but on the cartridges, so check that you are getting a good balance of prices – rather than buying the cheapest printer with the most expensive cartridges.

You will need several cartridges – at about £45 each for about 2,500 pages of each colour – so simply printing letters in black won’t burn up all your colour cartridges prematurely.

Lasers don’t clog up if left unused for any period of time, whereas inkjets have to be used regularly or you use most of the ink unclogging the jets, running the cleaning functions.

Obviously, this is a serious change of thinking since my original 2005 replies to this thread. But lasers have plummeted in price in the interim.

Given how little I print in colour vs black only, the 1600 is certainly the way I would go, because the colour cartridges would probably never need replacing, before it’s time to replace the printer!

I just came across this post.

I’ve always had Epson printers, right from the old Stylus 440 series.

I’ve currently got an R300 and it’s an excellent printer. You can print on CD and DVD disks and the photo quality is amazing.

Ink is cheap to buy too at only £3.98 for a full set from here

The Epson Stylus CX3650 does all I want costs about £80..Ink is cheap if bought from Choice stationary supplies 0800 0939040 8 inks for £17 95…(no connection with them)

I’ve been using an Epson R200 for 12 months or so with great results up to A4 size using 3rd party inks and paper but have recently bought a Canon iP5000 printer (£140) and due to the higher resolution have to say that the Canon is very noticeably better in quality than the Epson.

I bought an Epson stylus R300 photo about 6 months ago and it is a fantastic all-rounder. Photo quality is excellent.

Personally tho i take most of my stuff for printing to a local mini-lab that can handle digital and the results are far better AND cheaper than the Epson. I process the shots in Photoshop on my PC and then drag n drop copies of the ones i want printing onto a spare memory card and just take it to the lab.

They read the card, copy the images and the prints are ready next day – fully colour balanced and beutifully sharp.

I have decided to hold out on buying a Printer for awhile, But think will buy a Epson one when i do buy one.

I got some HP Deskjet model for around $150 USD. It’s a fax/color scanner/color printer all-in-one deal, and it prints photos in great quality so far. Haven’t tried anything bigger than 5×7 yet though.

Get a cheap printer for text etc, take your card/disc to a lab. Jessops, Asda, Boots and Persil Services (who I leave on Thursday) print pukka photos from these for peanuts. Far better, archival, and cheaper in the long run. Persil (in some Sainsbury’s) are currently doing 50 6×4 or 7×5 prints in an hour for a fiver. EASY!

Darren

Can I just say that I use a Canon i9950 A3 printer. I use Canon Photo Pro Paper up to A3+.

But most of the ink I use comes from Cartridge World.

Cartridge World uses ‘Original Ink’.. Did you know that Epson use 7 different blacks inks in their cartridges?!

I have not yet come across a refilled cartridge that does not match an original.

I will occassionally use Canon cartridges just to check, but cannot tell the difference.

This is my experience. Some people may have had negative experience.
But when I am saving almost 70% off the price of a Canon cartridge, I would recomend you try them…

Darren, I would be interested in your results from this company?

Oh, and you can get inks from other sources, which are much cheaper. I haven’t had any problems with 3rd party inks. I use KC-Inks.

For true photographic quality I would not recomend third party inks. Yes they are cheaper, and yes than can give average quality, but they can also block nozzels. I have done many tests over the last year of various inks under strick test conditions for reviews in my magazine, and the brand inks ALWAYS come out best.

I have to agree with Rob that cheap printers do not give good results. For £130, however (or cheaper if you shop around) you can get the Epson R320 which is very capable for the price, and will give photographic quality A4 prints (providing the camera quality is 5-Mp or higher at full resolution). Paper and ink is however not cheap. Photobox are one of the best on-line printers, but the results are sometimes disapointing when compared to a good inkjet print. One advantage of the on-line services, is that you do not have to worry about getting the print settings correct.

I can vouch for the Epson Stylus Photo range – some have the added bonus of being able to print directly on to specially prepared (printable) CDs & DVDs, which are only pennies more expensive than ordinary blanks.

Oh, and you can get inks from other sources, which are much cheaper. I haven’t had any problems with 3rd party inks. I use KC-Inks.

I have a Canon Pixma iP6000d, which I note in the latest PC Format is less than half the price that I paid for it last year. At £150, it is a really good printer.

Bruce

For cheap, good quality photo printing you’re better off going to Photobox or other similar services. Cheap inkjet printers won’t match the quality of photobox and will consume ink at a rate of knots.

Rob

I have to agree with Rob that cheap printers do not give good results. For £130, however (or cheaper if you shop around) you can get the Epson R320 which is very capable for the price, and will give photographic quality A4 prints (providing the camera quality is 5-Mp or higher at full resolution). Paper and ink is however not cheap. Photobox are one of the best on-line printers, but the results are sometimes disapointing when compared to a good inkjet print. One advantage of the on-line services, is that you do not have to worry about getting the print settings correct.