I am trying to find information on buying a printer for home use (mainly photo printing). I want one that will be somewhat easy on ink usage and will do well using different brands of photo papers. Any ideas, hopefully not over $200 to $250. TIA
TriX
Loc: Raleigh, NC
Thank you for this information but the rebate offer ended a couple hours ago. I will watch for another deal on it. So sorry I didn't think to ask my question sooner.
TriX
Loc: Raleigh, NC
retired2014 wrote:
Thank you for this information but the rebate offer ended a couple hours ago. I will watch for another deal on it. So sorry I didn't think to ask my question sooner.
Sorry. The rebate deal has been going on forever. Try Adorama - it's showing good thru the 31st, but no idea what their cutoff time is. Give them a call if they're still open. We have an Adorama rep who monitors UHH, maybe she can tell you or assist. Send a PM to helenoster - maybe she's still up 😊
Peterff
Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.
retired2014 wrote:
I am trying to find information on buying a printer for home use (mainly photo printing). I want one that will be somewhat easy on ink usage and will do well using different brands of photo papers. Any ideas, hopefully not over $200 to $250. TIA
The Pixma Pro will do a great job, but it is not inexpensive for ink. Very high quality for photos, but I wouldn't use it for general printing. Both Epson and now Canon make high ink capacity printers that would probably be cheaper from the ink cost perspective, but they only have four inks, so will do acceptable but not deliver the same quality printers as a printer with say eight different ink cartridges. It might be better in the long run to have more than one printer, one exclusively for photo work and another for general purpose work. How much printing do you do?
TriX
Loc: Raleigh, NC
Peterff wrote:
The Pixma Pro will do a great job, but it is not inexpensive for ink. Very high quality for photos, but I wouldn't use it for general printing. Both Epson and now Canon make high ink capacity printers that would probably be cheaper from the ink cost perspective, but they only have four inks, so will do acceptable but not deliver the same quality printers as a printer with say eight different ink cartridges. It might be better in the long run to have more than one printer, one exclusively for photo work and another for general purpose work. How much printing do you do?
The Pixma Pro will do a great job, but it is not i... (
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Good advice - one for photos and one for general printing. I swore I would never buy another HP printer (ink usage and price of cartridges), but I just purchased an excellent HP wifi combination printer for ~ $100 for general printing that comes with HP's ink on demand provision. They automatically send you replacement cartridges based on how many prints/month you use - $2.95/month for 50 prints which seems like a bargain to me. And I will have to say, their SW installation is particularly painless, and all my devices, both PC and Mac/iPad can print seamlessly via wifi. I'm pleasantly surprised.
Peterff
Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.
TriX wrote:
Good advice - one for photos and one for general printing. I swore I would never buy another HP printer (ink usage and price of cartridges), but I just purchased an excellent HP wifi combination printer for ~ $100 for general printing that comes with HP's ink on demand provision. They automatically send you replacement cartridges based on how many prints/month you use - $2.95/month for 50 prints which seems like a bargain to me. And I will have to say, their SW installation is particularly painless, and all my devices, both PC and Mac/iPad can print seamlessly via wifi. I'm pleasantly surprised.
Good advice - one for photos and one for general p... (
show quote)
I've not been a fan of HP since they cut corners on the low end LaserJet 1012 and didn't have a driver for Windows 7. However I found a way to make work with Windows 7 and now with Windows 10 and the 64bit Vista drivers it's still going strong. I just don't buy HP toner for it!
However our laser workhorse is a Brother that does a great job with duplex printing. Other than photographs we don't do a lot of color, so I couldn't be happier with my Pixma Pro 9000 mk II, and although a set of inks is not cheap it is quite economical with them.
Peterff wrote:
The Pixma Pro will do a great job, but it is not inexpensive for ink. Very high quality for photos, but I wouldn't use it for general printing. Both Epson and now Canon make high ink capacity printers that would probably be cheaper from the ink cost perspective, but they only have four inks, so will do acceptable but not deliver the same quality printers as a printer with say eight different ink cartridges. It might be better in the long run to have more than one printer, one exclusively for photo work and another for general purpose work. How much printing do you do?
The Pixma Pro will do a great job, but it is not i... (
show quote)
I agree with having more than 1 printer, I have 3. A Pixma Pro 10 for very high quality 13X19 prints, a PRO 100 for other 13X19 plus 8X10 and 5X7 prints, and a Pixma TS9020 printer for other 8X10, 5X7 and 4X6 prints plus plain paper printing. The pro 10 has10 cartridges and a single 13X19 print cost averages out to about $5. A set of Canon cartridges goes for around $135. A set of cartridges for the pro 100 is around $125, but they go farther than the pro 10. The TS9020 has 6 cartridges and a set goes for around $90. The TS9020 printer makes very nice color (9200X1200 resolution) prints and if you're into black and white prints it makes exceptional B&W prints as it has a Grey cartridge. The printer its self costs around $180, is fairly compact and light, is wireless with all the latest print technology and it makes really nice plain paper prints, and, it's easy to use. I use it to print a lot of 5X7's and color documents along with screen prints and other work related printing when I work from home.
If you're not looking for archival museum quality prints but color prints that ARE good enough, the Pixma G1200, G2200, G3200, and G4200 printers are the new mega tank printers from Canon. They range in price from $250 to $400; 2 are wireless and all 4 have the same 4800X1200 resolution and 1 filling of the tanks is equivalent to about 30 sets of cartridges for a fraction of the cost.
TriX
Loc: Raleigh, NC
Peterff wrote:
I've not been a fan of HP since they cut corners on the low end LaserJet 1012 and didn't have a driver for Windows 7. However I found a way to make work with Windows 7 and now with Windows 10 and the 64bit Vista drivers it's still going strong. I just don't buy HP toner for it!
However our laser workhorse is a Brother that does a great job with duplex printing. Other than photographs we don't do a lot of color, so I couldn't be happier with my Pixma Pro 9000 mk II, and although a set of inks is not cheap it is quite economical with them.
I've not been a fan of HP since they cut corners o... (
show quote)
Absolutely agree on the 9000. I've had mine for a few years, and what's really surprising is that you can leave it off for months, turn it on, and it prints flawlessly with no print head clogging (unlike other ink jets I've owned).
Peterff
Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.
TriX wrote:
Absolutely agree on the 9000. I've had mine for a few years, and what's really surprising is that you can leave it off for months, turn it on, and it prints flawlessly with no print head clogging (unlike other ink jets I've owned).
I leave mine switched on, but it performs flawlessly and doesn't seem to waste ink while switched on.
Hello TriX
Which model HP did you choose - and 50 prints - photos do you mean?
TriX wrote:
Good advice - one for photos and one for general printing. I swore I would never buy another HP printer (ink usage and price of cartridges), but I just purchased an excellent HP wifi combination printer for ~ $100 for general printing that comes with HP's ink on demand provision. They automatically send you replacement cartridges based on how many prints/month you use - $2.95/month for 50 prints which seems like a bargain to me. And I will have to say, their SW installation is particularly painless, and all my devices, both PC and Mac/iPad can print seamlessly via wifi. I'm pleasantly surprised.
Good advice - one for photos and one for general p... (
show quote)
I have a Pixma Pro 9000 which is great and a Pixma Pro 10 which is a pain, every time I go to use it there is some problem. Do you have trouble with yours?
A quick note that all printers are not equal in the photo printing quality. Epson then Canon are the best home user quality and Epson in commercial we environment also.
Most if not all companies have a plugin / application for Apple and Droid for phone printing.
Google photo printing and you should come up with a lot of the major online store fronts selling products listed in above comments.
Good luck
I installed the Canon Pixma G4200 a couple weeks ago after both of my HP printers died (and zero HP customer service). The Canon was NO pleasure setting up. The instructions were horrible. However, very patient AMERICAN & ENGLISH SPEAKING customer service reps got me going. The printer has a 4 ink tank system and the ink isn't terribly expensive. Biggest print is 8X10 and does a decent job (which is all I need at the moment). If I want more I'll get it done at Costco for now. The bigger photo printers by Canon need to be used on a more regular basis to keep the printer heads from clogging. I read that you should print a 4x6 regularly to keep the ink flowing. Different manufacturer's inks need certain paper. ie. HP paper will not work with Canon inks. So be advised of that.
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