Budget Printer...

[Damian Brown]

I´m after a budget printer for me mam... Spotted a few epsons around 50 quid and was just wondering what you´d all get. Remember, around 50 quid is the limit, she´s not interested in spending more so unfortunately we can´t get too excited on this thread.

 

[oldgit]

There are lots of cheap offerings....

Do a bit of reasearch first and check out the price of the re-fil inks. They can be nearly as much as the printer or more

I did a similar thing for my mum and ended up getting a canon one that had inks at < £10 each (1 black 1 colour).

 

[Damian Brown]

Cheers Paul, i know all that stuff.. shoulda said in the first place. So far I´m looking at the CANON Pixma iP4300 which can be had for 57. I know I said 50 but that´s a good price!

 

[Jimmy_Lemon]

I would have said get one of the Epson r265 - but after Shorns problems with getting it to accept none genuine inks then maybe not

 

[Damian Brown]

That was the printer I looked at just before the canon, seems a bit iffy especially over that canon which has some really good reviews for the price especially.

 

[MrGrumpy]

I've got an iP4300 and have been pretty pleased with it.

I've only used Canon cartridges which set you back about £40 for all 5 and you can really get through them when printing A4!!! (I keep meaning to do some benchmarking on how many prints you get, but I'm too disorganised!)

Resolution is fine and the colour representation is pretty good, if a little "flat" in some situations.

I also like the ability to print directly onto CD/DVD (but this is by no means unique to this printer)

 

[Damian Brown]

Ok... bought the ip4300. Seems decent to be fair to it. Probably won´t replace my pro printing tho i may well use it for some stuff above office applications which its for.

What paper do you get? Might start a thread on it.. or do a search too

 

[MrGrumpy]

What paper do you get? Might start a thread on it.. or do a search too

I've been using the Kodak Ultima Ultra Glossy (£1.35 for 15 A4s from SVP -> http://svp.co.uk/products-list.php?bid=161, although it's out of stock at the moment).

I've also bought the Canon ink bundle on occasion which includes 50 Canon 6x4s.

Both produce good results.

 

[Damian Brown]

Are they long lasting? I'm thinking of something like Ilford Smooth Pearl maybe, i want to pay the bit extra to know it's going to stand up over time.

 

[chris02]

Are they long lasting? I'm thinking of something like Ilford Smooth Pearl maybe, i want to pay the bit extra to know it's going to stand up over time.

Hi I have some glossy Jessops at the mo, not bad but I will be ordering canon from now on.

Chris

 

[MrGrumpy]

Are they long lasting? I'm thinking of something like Ilford Smooth Pearl maybe, i want to pay the bit extra to know it's going to stand up over time.

I don't know yet - I've only had the printer for about 6 months; I've not noticed any signs of deterioration in this period, but I guess I'd be disappointed if I did.

 

[Damian Brown]

Got some Kirkland paper just to play around with. May need to sort out the right profile to use. Using the canon inks. Might be a bit warm in places. Calibrated monitor already.