A Which Printer Question

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Bolerus

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Mike
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as any body ever used these so called lab quality printers that are sellgin for less than £100 such as

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.204-6823.aspx

I am looking for a cheap printer, that will do decent small (probably 7x5 will be the biggest I am likely to print often) but decent quality prints.

I think in fairness, I will only print demo prints or ones that arnt really inportant, for any thing that i need top quality I will carry on using the lab.

any suggestions folks? I do really need to stay below £100 on this one.

Also, I am not bothered by the "all in one" aspect, if the best sugestions are one of them then fine, if its a single printer and nothing else than that is great as well

thanks for any suggestions
 
One thing to look out for is Ink. This is the most expensive part of any printer system. Ideally you need I cart per colour. That way when one colour runs out you just replace it. If the printer has multiple colours in one cartridge you are throwing away part full cartridges.

I don't know what the definition of "Lab Quality"is. I don't think anyone has defined it. It looks as though they are looking at the dpi and comparing it to photographic digital printers.

The quality of this machine may be fine, but I still think you have to pay a fair bit of money to compete with a quality professionally produced print on photographic paper.

However the printer may produce the quality you want. But just watch out for those ink cartidges.
 
I've been really impressed with the quality of my canon printer (IP4200) it's been replaced by more recent models. It has two blacks one dye ink one pigment ink. I've had the prints on my lounge wall in direct sunlight for over a year and they've not faded.
 
my partner has a mp160 and while the quality is ok, they are a real pain, and 1 black + 1 colour is not ideal,. Also I have noticed that after a few prints lines appear on the images, which is why I want to get one to print photos on (the inks drain so quick it is untrue on her printer)


I have been looking at some more today, currently considering the Epson Style R285

The burb

The Epson Stylus R285 Inkjet printer features Epson Claria™ photographic ink, a high-definition, six colour, dye based ink, providing you with high-quality prints up to the standard of those produced in the photo lab.


This inkjet printer has a 1440x5670dpi resolution
Click to expand...

and body experienced that one?

the inks are £7 each, so £42 for the set, which is a bit expensive than some if I had to replace them all in one go, but I presume they dont tend to run out at the same time (unless you print lots of rainbows lol)
 
Buy the Epson and get aftermarket inks for it at about £2 per cart. I've got the older R200 and it still puts out magnificent prints, I've never bought Epson ink for it. Now also got myself an R1400 but that's out of your price range.
 
Canon IP4300-----Superb!
 
I've got an old RX425 and a new All-In-One RX685 printer.

The RX685 is originally £199 and it went on sale for £99 at my local Comet store. It uses 6 ink tanks, print very good pictures, also prints direct on printable CD/DVD.

I think printers with 6 inks print better pictures (someone please correct me if I'm wrong)

I only use cheap ebay inks, and they never let me down.
 
I can recommend the HP 8250, very cheap, under £50 with beautiful A4 output.

Very economical too.
 
Epsons are the best printers... go for Epson...
 
thanks folks, apreciate the input
 
one more question (which may be a variable)

with epson printers, isnt the print head part of the printer as opposed to part of the cartrige (like on cannon)

and is that really an issue?
 
I've just got the HP Photosmart C7280.
Having students at home and doing a bit of business we need the 'all-in-one' stuff, but the quality of the prints are very good.I traded my old printer in at Staples and got it at half price (£149)
It uses six cartridges which are £30 from the same shop. (you can get them cheaper online and the pack includes 150 sheets of 6x4 photo paper.)
I know it's a bit more than your budget but I'm very happy with it.
 
Bolerus said:
one more question (which may be a variable)

with epson printers, isnt the print head part of the printer as opposed to part of the cartrige (like on cannon)

and is that really an issue?
Click to expand...

Yes they are part of the printer as opposed to Canon's or Lexmark, they are part of the cartridge. Dont know about HP.
But after 2 years of rough use, my old RX425 still works flawlessly.
 
strobemonkey said:
I've got an old RX425 and a new All-In-One RX685 printer.

The RX685 is originally £199 and it went on sale for £99 at my local Comet store. It uses 6 ink tanks, print very good pictures, also prints direct on printable CD/DVD.

I think printers with 6 inks print better pictures (someone please correct me if I'm wrong)

I only use cheap ebay inks, and they never let me down.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, I just used promo code 15PRINT and got it for £85 whoowhoo! :clap:
 
With Epson printers you are correct that the print head is not in fact on the cartridge. Whilst this can lead to blockage problems it also means that the replacement cartridges (particularly non official ones) are a lot cheaper.

A lot of remanufactured cartridges for non Epson printers are in fact refilled ones that have been refurbished and refilled. Epson remanufactured cartridges however are made from scratch and in my experience (I used to work for a very popular cartridge website) are less likely to fail.
 
My canon doesn't have the print head as part of the cartridge! but the cartridges are chiped to try and stop you using generic ones!
 
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