which printer should I buy?

Ainsley1

I need to buy a new printer, my Epson stylus C86 has finally just stopped printing!
I am unsure which one to buy (hopefully under £100) and whilst the Epson has been far from perfect for (about) £50, I think, it has been good value. Especially as I use third party ink cartridges the ink cost has been acceptable.

I use it for general purpose printing (letters etc) but also for from jpegs shot on a Panasonic Lumix FZ28 bridge camera to reasonable quality photos at A4 so I would wish something at least as good, but not a very high end dye printer owing to cost so another inkjet it will have to be. I have discounted Laser owing to (generally) poor photo results.

I note most now seem to be combined printer/scanner/fax etc but I do not need those facilities so the printing from a PC via cable connection is all that is of interest.

Epson have a good reputation for photo quality, even from these older 4 ink colour machines of the C86 series etc. and that is important to me. Speed is not such a big issue (fast would be nice) but more importantly would be ink cost from maybe once or twice a week usage.

Reviews I've seen would maybe indicate the only other manufacturers to consider would be Canon and Brother.

Any suggestions based upon your experience and which model? :beer:

tinamoo

When we needed a printer we went about it in a back to front way. We were getting sick of having to be careful about how much we were printing out. We decided to go into the big electrical shops and look at the price of ink first. We noted down the cheapest inks and which printer they were for & went home and looked at reviews for those printers.

In the end we bought Kodak ESP7. We only use it for home use and it is adequate for our needs. This printer uses separate black and colour cartridges which we thought would be a good thing but in reality the colour does not last much longer than the black. The black one costs around £10 and colour around £15 and around £1-2 cheaper if you buy them together. It still feels like a lot to pay out though. I made the mistake of buying a cheaper black cartridge off amazon but it has never worked properly. I should have complained but we left it too late.

santer_2

Over budget but worth a look

http://www.epson.co.uk/gb/en/viewcon/corporatesite/products/mainunits/overview/3531

Six inks for better photos but compatibles readily available,and the costs can be reduced further if refillable cartridges are used.

http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-epson-stylus-photo-p50-printer/p1033377?cm_mmc=googlebase-extension-_-printers-_-desktop-inkjet-printers-_-epson-stylus-photo-p50-printer_1033377&utm_source=googlebase-extension&gclid=cplm6-xl8lucfexltaode3gaeq

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Epson-Stylus-Photo-P50-Home-A4-CD-DVD-Photo-Printer-/360598344222?lgeo=1&clk_rvr_id=457369392263&vectorid=229508

chippy2u

I have a Canon Pixma MG 5250 which I find very good for photos as well as black/colour printing. It takes 5 cartridges (2 black, 3 colour) and I can get a full set of compatibles from Refresh Cartridges for £13. The printer has a cartridge front load for paper and I use the rear loader for photo paper. Cost from Amazon is about £75.

zaax

You need to ask yourself why do you need to print. The only time I do is for flight tickets. They important items are encrypted and stored on Google; my phone; a disk and the working copy on my encrypted laptop.

Paper can easily find itself wafting do the road for anyone to read.