Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

I'm looking for a good photo quality printer (printing to A4, rather than the specific 6" x 4" printer)

Problem is the ink cartridges for say HPs are £30 each, and the some of the other big brands are much the same.

Is there a printer with reasonably priced cartridges?

Not too concerned about the speed of the prints, but the quality is important.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Andy

scoobyjimbo

Hi Andy

I went through this exact scenario a few months back and could not find a decent enough photo printer that was cheapish to run. In the end i went for the hp8450 8 ink printer and although it is pricey to run it is superb!

You will certainly find that 3rd party cartridges (i should know as i sell them for epson's), are a great deal cheaper and allot easier to get hold of than the HP ones. If you want details of printer cart costs for epsons PM me and i will point you inthe direction of my website, but i dont want to advertise on scoobynet as i wil get my wrist slapped (Again!!!)

J

Nick

I use Canon (i950 & Pixma MP780). The multi ink tanks make very reasonable running costs. http://www.canon.co.uk/for_home/prod..._jet/index.asp

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Cheers guys, I'll have a look at both options

Scooby Dooby Blue

Epson Photo R200

Got to be the most cost efficient printer on todays market.
It takes 6 individual 19ml cartridges and they cost less than £1 each!


Paul

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Andy

If you're printing a lot, you might like to look into one of the continuous flow ink system conversions that are available. Take a look at http://www.permajet.com/html/products_permaflow.html

They're not cheap, but if you're a high volume user the savings will add up.

jbryant

I have a Canon i250 off ebuyer. About £30 it cost me for the printer with cartridges included! Now I think superceded by C46 available on same site, with other higher spec printers available.

Replacement InkRite cartridges from the same place are about £2 each so I bought a stackload even though they last well (10-15 A4 full colour shots at least). I can print off my 3MP shots on photo quality paper and the results are outstanding considering the cost. Can't tell the difference between A4 prints from this, and the the prints we had done previously for £10 a go from Boots.

I'm not buying another HP, that's for sure.
Joolz (Canon convert)

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Andy,

It's really for pictures of the "cash gobblers" in my life.... that will be Baby Tang and the car then!

Paul/Joolz,

Thanks for your recommendations.

Looks like I'll be shopping over the weekend, albeit it online

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Currently have a i965 A4 photo printer. Seems very good on ink for photo printing. The comprable HP used to drink it down when printing photos.

Only think I suspect is it uses a small amount ink when it isn't being used (evaporates I suspect). Either that or the ink level monitoring software is on the blink But with 6 seperate ink tanks at £6.79+del each from amazon. It still works out cheaper than a printer using multiple colours in single cartridge (i.e HP). One thing I can only fault it on was the greens didn't seem to be a true representation of the orignal photos, most people probably wouldn't notice though. But the latest top of the range models now have a green ink tank to address this.

I think the modern equivelent spec printer is the Pixma IP6000d.

Latest "top of the range" equivelent is i9950 or pixma ip8500 which has now 8 seperate colours. Same ink tanks just with the addition of a red and green tank.

Next problem is finding cheap good quality A4 240gsm photo paper

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

I'm looking at the R300, seems to have the same features as the R200 (5760dpi) but has the memory card slots for the lazy.

R200 - £63
R300 - £80
R300 with LCD monitor - £108

Just deciding if I need an LCD monitor.

All have the advantage of being able to print on to CD/DVD, something I never thought I needed before!!

Cheap cartridges as well!

Nimbus

Andy,

We bought a R300 a few weeks ago. Very impressed with the quality. Not the fastest printer out there, but I can live with that. We got the one with the little LCD monitor to change settings etc. It was less than £100 I think...

Nimbus

What's the deal on using non-genuine ink cartrages though? I thought this was a bad idea since it could clog the nozzles/print head or something...

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Nimbus,

Where did you get your printer from? Those prices are from ebuyer, just for a comparison.

Personally I think there are still good and bad non-genuine cartridges out there. It was just to get an idea of replacement prices. The Epson ones from ebuyer are about £3 each.

PG

I have used loads and loads of the IM Jet carts from Paul in my R200 and still have a drawer full to get through. No complaints or problems here.

NickAdams

iTrader: (5)

Andy,
You may have seen a similar thread I posted - http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthread.php?t=431599
Worth also considering the Canon Pixma IP5000 which I think is the one I'm gonna get although it's £50 dearer than the R300.Looking at the reviews on the web for the R300 there seemed to quite a few problems with the loading of the tray for the dvds etc and the major benefit for me of the IP5000 is that it has a night mode which makes it more or less silent,useful cos I do most of my printing when my son is in bed (It's pretty quiet most of the time anyway)

Good luck

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for that Nick, I must have misread the specifications of the Canon i5000 as I thought it was a lower resolution compared to the Epson!

For the extra money, the Canon is probably the front runner at the moment!

Floyd

iTrader: (9)

Good post Andy I want a new printer soon for only printing pictures. I've had several all-in-one's that seem good to start with but give up after a while. Mainly sheet feeding stops pretty early on

Do the printers quoted lst on sheet feed or am I doing something wrong? Also sometimes the colour and brightness are wrong on the printed pictures on my HP Is it me or the printer?

F

Nimbus

Paul,

Good to know Is that from Disk Depot?

Scooby Dooby Blue

There is an element of truth to this.

There are 3 types of ink used in manufacture; water based, dye based and pigment based.

Water based inks are nasty...period. They will clog the jets and continual cleaning will quickly fill the head sponges, leaving your printer requiring a service.

Dye and pigment based inks perform similarly. Both will produce top quality prints, the main difference being the longevity of your finished print.

It's assumed that a pigment based print will last circa 50years whereas a dye based ink will begin to deteriorate after 10years.

Genuine Epson cartridges use pigment based and taking the R200 as an example, you can expect to pay about £12 per cart.

When we began stocking compatible cartridges, we tried a water based cart and unfortunately had a reputation to rebuild after that
We now only stock dye based inks and fully guarantee tip-top quality.

Given the choice of paying approx £70 for genuine Epson or about a fiver for dye based compatibles, I know which i'd choose

I'm not an expert on Canon inks but i can only assume the same points hold with their inks. We have begun to stock Canon inks locally and as yet have only received positive feedback.

At the end of the day, you're making the right decision going for either Epson of Canon. I cannot understand people that actually buy HP or Lexmark machines (fair enough if they're free...flog 'em on ebay and buy one of the above )as even the remanufactured carts are extortionate!

Nimbus

SDB,

Sowhat makes of Dye based Epson carts doe you sell for the R300 and how can I buy some?

PG

Aye. I am fortunate to have them on my doorstep

Scooby Dooby Blue

Long-term, we've been stocking ImJet and CybaJet branded inks.
This has been put up against our competitors inks (Jet-tec, InkRite, InkXL etc)on another forum that we sponsor and has continually come out top both for quality and value.
We have recently introduced RiDisc branded and it's yielded excellent test results. We eagerly await official test results from the aforementioned forum.


If you're sceptical about quality, wait until a special offer weekend and it'll cost you next to nothing. We occasionally do BOGOF on the inks

Nimbus

Thanks SDB,

I'm sure you can expect an order in the near future...

NickAdams

iTrader: (5)

Ditto that from me too... (I may even be converted from ordering from my usual supplier SVP!!)
I'll send you a pm when I get a minute too Paul

Dazza's-STi

Mate, i use a canon i865 prints Cd's too.. the ink is £2 per cartrige from SVP (http://www.blankdiscshop.co.uk/) and works spot on...
Good printer too.

Dazza

Trucker Ted

Another thumbs up for the R-300,i've done hundreds of photos with mine and the results are superb,also brilliant for doing the old cd's and dvd's.The software it comes with is idiot proof and Ink refills as stated before are pennies.
P.S check Argos now and again for cheap paper as there always doing buy two get one free!

Nimbus

In store at PC World. Wife told me it was "about" £85. However, that may have just been the "husband" price...

NickAdams

iTrader: (5)

Bought my IP5000 at long last and have to say it's VERY quiet,EXCELLENT quality on photos and pretty damn quick too (Took a minute to print a 7x5 photo at high res on Canon photo paper - The final result does really look like something that came out of a developers too - May even be better than my HP Photosmart 7550 and that's 250 quids worth of printer!!!)
Haven't tested the cd/dvd printing yet as I haven't got any media.
If you're still contemplating,I'd say stick with the Canon (The good thing about the Canon is that you click into place the print head when you install the printer so in other words,if it ***** up,you can buy a replacement head and change it)

Good luck

RobP

Another vote for the Epson R300. Print quality is great, and I like the added convenience of the memory card slots on the front, it saved me the £20 or so that a multi format card reader would have cost.

Inks seem to last well. Did our complete run of wedding invites ( approx 150 6x4 photo cards before any of the tanks needed changing) The fact that I only needed to change the individual colours not the whole cartridge like the HP was the deciding factor for me. Cost £90 from Argos.

RobP