Printer
- Thread starter psainty
- Start date
I'm no expert but I recently had the same question and, after searching around, I ended up getting a Canon iP3600. The recommendation you will find if you do a search here 
So far I have done about 30 prints and am pleased. Excellent prints on glossy plaper with plenty of depth and smooth tones. Colours out of the box (i.e. no printer calibration) match my (calibrated) monitor very well. Much better than prints from photobox ever were!
I've got equally good results with Canon glossy and epson glossy paper (very marginal colour saturation differences between the two) and only marginally worse (colours not quite so deep) with Tesco glossy paper. On the other hand, some old ilford semi gloss paper gave a strange colour balance.
The only negatives I have found so far are:
- not particularly fast. Photo output on highest quality is slower than my MP600R all in one but there again the quality is also better.
- On particular settings you can get a faint band about 1 inch from the end of the print. As far as I can tell this is only on some quality settings, with some paper and using borderless printing with a certain overprint. It happened to me once and I have never been able to reproduce it although there is a mention of it on the Canon support faq.
- matt paper results aren't great compared to my old Epson pigmented printer. I think this is probably true of all dye based inks and on the plus side it hasn't blocked its head every other print like the old epson used to!
I am a Nikon camera man but I have to admit canon do appear to make good printers!
Toby
So far I have done about 30 prints and am pleased. Excellent prints on glossy plaper with plenty of depth and smooth tones. Colours out of the box (i.e. no printer calibration) match my (calibrated) monitor very well. Much better than prints from photobox ever were!
I've got equally good results with Canon glossy and epson glossy paper (very marginal colour saturation differences between the two) and only marginally worse (colours not quite so deep) with Tesco glossy paper. On the other hand, some old ilford semi gloss paper gave a strange colour balance.
The only negatives I have found so far are:
- not particularly fast. Photo output on highest quality is slower than my MP600R all in one but there again the quality is also better.
- On particular settings you can get a faint band about 1 inch from the end of the print. As far as I can tell this is only on some quality settings, with some paper and using borderless printing with a certain overprint. It happened to me once and I have never been able to reproduce it although there is a mention of it on the Canon support faq.
- matt paper results aren't great compared to my old Epson pigmented printer. I think this is probably true of all dye based inks and on the plus side it hasn't blocked its head every other print like the old epson used to!
I am a Nikon camera man but I have to admit canon do appear to make good printers!
Toby
which is the other bit of advise that comes up again and again here
I think that depends on why you want a printer. On line is probably slightly cheaper (maybe) and better quality (maybe) if you use a decent print house (so not photobox then!) but I like the immediacy and flexibility of printing myself. On the other hand, if I want bigger than A4 I will have to go online anyway.
You'll probably get strong views both ways
Toby
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I have the Canon i4600, the picture quality amazes me each time.
For photo prints the main manufacturers to look at are canon and epson. Both do specific photo printer ranges and both will deliver excellent quality if you use the right inks and papers. Kodak have also got good printers in this market, but I've never actually seen a print from one so I have no idea of the quality.