Photo Printers

boofy_2

Which should I choose. Stand alone, or one connected to PC? If PC, is it cos we can muck around with them on screen? Am looking at Lexmark, either P915 (computer) or P315 (stand alone). Views please. Thanx. PS: layman's terms would be appreciated!!

wobbley

Whatever you do DONT buy a Lexmark ! They are decent printers in themselves but you'll need to take out a second mortgage to buy replacement ink. I would advise to stick to either Epson HP or Canon. I have never owned an HP but friends have good reports of them. Canon, I have found have to be used very often or the print heads clog up needing new cartridges each time. I prefer Epson because they are so cheap, and replacement ink is ridiculously cheap. Some used to say they were noisy which was true to some extent but the newish ones R200 / R300 are quiet excellent quality and cheap to run. I have an Epson R200 which does brilliant photos and is fast. But it's not all down to the printer though. Probably more critical is the choice of paper, and this is where the 'cost per print' can bite. Good photo paper costs a lot.
On the ink issue - "Ink is ink !" there are some companies that use really crappy stuff in their cartridges but these are few and far between as they obviously want your repeat custom. Also there are some that put hardly any ink in and they run out in next to no-time. The best policy with paper and ink is try a few different ones and if you find some you're happy with stick with them.
Choosing between 'stand alone' or PC based is all down to your personal choice but there are some points to bear in mind. I would assume but dont know for certain that the cartridges for stand alone are less economical. If you want to print 'enlargements' on a stand alone you're gonna be disappointed ! As you said, it's easier to 'muck around' with PC based printers - red eye and colour balance cropping, centreing, etc. Some of the stand alone units look too much like toasters - small children inserting slices of bread doesn't help picture quality! On the plus side though they obviously have a smaller footprint and take up less space. I don't think you'll benefit in cost or quality from having a stand alone but I suppose there's a 'funky' aspect to having a toaster churn out your holiday snaps!
One major point to consider is having them printed for you. I have printed my own pics for years but recently used 'Photobox' and am really pleased with the results. By ordering 100 prints I got 7x5's for 15p each. they are better quality than anything I have produced at home and if you add up the cost of photo paper, ink, and printer, they're more cost effective.
'Informed choice' is the best, ask around, weigh up the pro's and cons of each. But whatever you do dont buy a Lexmark,,,,,,,,please !

Mr_Skint_2

Tosh, Nowt wrong with Lexmark Cartridge price if you know where to look.

I take my piccies into my local camera shop reasons are.

Cheaper than buying, Printer, Ink, Glossy Paper.

Better Quality Print

And they will even put them on a CDrom for no Xtra.

EvilMonkey

Just an alternate view, why not find a good online printer? similar to taking them to a local place, I'm fairly certain its as cheap as printing them yourself and without the hassle???

boofy_2

Wobbly: thanx for that excellent advice. Have just had some printed at tesco at 10p a go. Just thought it might be more economical to buy my own printer. We'll see! Thanx again all for your time!

CReWdog

Hi

Not worth buying a photo printer & ink & paper when you can get Tesco to do it for you. £5 for 50 6"X4" prints on Kodak paper using Kodak ink. At this price there's no way you can do printing cheaper at home (unless you steal the paper & ink!)
BTW the machine they use for digital prints is the same one they use for 35mm.
Regards

CReWdog

Deef1

Hi Boofy,
This is a post i did on the techi forum a short while ago, should set some people right. You can produce superb pics from home for the same price if you know where to buy the ink, paper and know the yeilds of the ink on the right paper. Just ordered two from ebay seller (great service!) for £80 delivered. The thing is, its not just a dedicated photo printer its a very good general printer aswell, it comes with the adapter for 6x4's, the cd printing adapter and a shed load of software to make it as easy as pie.
Every one has to have printer if you've got a PC then why not get one that does everything VERY well instead of jack of all, master of none! Have to agree with wobbley dont get a lexmark...i had a 6 colour one just before my canon and it was awfull...36 minutes for an a4 borderless print! rubbish quality everything. I cannot sing the i965's praises enough it is fantastic. If you want the ebay sellers details let me know. I dont know what canon's new alternative is...Pixma something i suppose but with a dpi of 2400x4800 its not gonna be cheep. I really hope this helps. P.S. Dont buy ink and paper from PC World thats definatley when it starts to get expensive. i965 comes with pictbridge port at the front so you can print out photos straight from you digi camera without switching the pc on, as long as your camera has pictbridge which pretty much all do...anyway sorry will shut up now heres my original post....

Canon i965 Printer, What a peice of Kit!

If anyone out there is thinking of buying a photo printer and wants it to be lab quality, then the canon i965 is definately worth a look.

I bought mine about 6 months ago from dabs.com for about £130 delivered, they must have a good time on the beer the night before they put it on their website 'cus every where else wanted about £200 at the time. Now i'm surprised that some websites still want up to £330!!!!!! Don't know if you can still buy it from the shops tho.

Its build quality is superb, with a brushed alluminium lid,it weighs a tonne (not like my old Lexmark!) ,you get the adapter so that you can print 6x4's, an adapter for printing on cd's, you can buy canon original ink tanks for £5.85 each from 7dayshop.com (it needs 6 tanks) and the picture quality is the same as 'proper' film processing, from boots say. It tends to cost about 11p for a 6x4 print and that includes the ink and paper costs. It takes about 40 or so seconds for a full A4 photo at its highest resolution which is 2400 x 4800dpi.

I used to use Kodak ultima photo paper and thought that was great, intil i bought some Canon PP-101 glossy photo paper...the difference is amazing, it brings everything to life and is indistinguishable from a lab processed photo. I'm a printer by trade and like to think that i i've got a good eye for colour, we've had a printed photo under the glass and can see no visible dots at all.

The depth of colour reproduction is faultless and there are plenty of ICM profiles in the software for you to find the exact type of colour balance that you like (great for getting good skin tones).

But most of all it's a great all rounder, wether its a quick letter, webpage printout, a cd print or full blown borderless A4 photo AND its idiot proof!

It would be nice to here from other i965 users to see what they think and to fill in the features/benefits that i've bound to have missed out!

Let me know what you think..

(Can now buy on ebay for £80 next day delivered.)