timepass Loc: Yardley,PA

Thanks for your reply.

gmsatty Loc: Chicago IL

I have a large Canon printer, but when I am printing every day photos I use my Epson 2550 eco tank.
The in is really cheap and the photos are quite good. Might want to look at the reviews.
It scans and copies too.

Ratskinner Loc: Copalis Beach WA

Canon for pictures. Every model, expensive or cheap. I have purchased bargain ink for over ten years and only once did I have to
wait for my source to catch up, and then I was still operating on the original ink that came with the printer. The bonus is that I have
had all in one printers. The only name brand printer I have never tried is Brother. I do print quite often and maybe that's why I have not had an ink clog for years.

alohakidgil

I did not see the model number of your current canon and did not see where you or any one mention what dpi's the color could print at if that is important. I have a canon MG7520 which is an all in one and prints 9600 x 2400 dpi. I have been using compatible ink cartridges with it and the large black went out. I pulled the print heads and did all the flushing and cleaning and the large black would not work. I could still print except for the large black. The scan and copy feature still work. I found a canon photo printer PIXMA ip7220 that prints 9600 x 2400 dpi on amazon for $70. So I will keep the MG7520 for scan and copy and use the PIXMA ip7220 for printing. The only drawback is the largest size it prints is legal paper size. Another solution if it fits.

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

I would stick with Canon and OEM inks. I have for several years and never regretted.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I've had a series of Epson, HP and Canon printers.

Canon Pro-100 is an 8 color, 13" wide, dye-based printer. It's inks are rated for 100+ years (depending upon paper and exposure to UV light). I got one for free when I purchased a camera a couple years ago and it works flawlessly... has never had an ink clog (unlike the older 6-color Epson it replaced, which was constantly having ink clogs.... to be fair, though, newer Epson are probably a lot better).The Pro-100 is often bundled with cameras or can be bought now outright with a $250 mail in rebate, for net cost of $119.99. It usually comes with a 50-sheet packet of 13x19" paper (valued at $50) and with a "starter set" of inks (half filled). A full set of the OEM "Claria" inks for it costs roughly $125 (but are a little larger and/or a little more efficient than the roughly $75 set of 6 inks that my older Epson used).

Canon Pro-10 costs more ($449.99 after $250 mail in rebate). It's a 10-color, 13" wide, pigment-based printer. This type of ink is rated for a longer life... 200+ years (on archival paper and with reasonable care). It also comes with a free 50-sheet pack of 13x19" paper and a starter set of inks. A full set of Lucia inks for it costs about $135.

Personally I prefer dye-based inks on glossy and semi-gloss papers.... Pigment inks of smooth, matte paper. I'm currently using an older HP B9180 13"wide, 8-color, pigment-based ink printer for the latter. It has MUCH larger ink tanks than either of the Canon... but they are also much more expensive (about $45 apiece)... AND, they are getting difficult to find. This model has been discontinued and HP no longer makes anything comparable. One nice feature was that it has user replaceable print heads... but those are also no longer easy to find. I will probably need to replace it in the not-too-distant future and most likely will do so with the Canon Pro-10. Before deciding, I'll research how current Epson compare. (I was put off by some of Epson's sneaky marketing tactics in the past.... my old 6-color would quit working and give a "printer worn out, needs to be replaced" message after some set number of prints... I found an applet online to hack it and reset the print counter... did that for or five times, allowing me to continue using the printer until it actually did wear out and wouldn't feed paper properly any more.)

Personally I've only been using OEM inks. I hear some good things about certain third party inks, though... so I wouldn't rule that out completely. Before going that route, I'd need a lot more info about print longevity, color accuracy, resistance to clogging, etc. Also I would hope that profiles are available for some of the papers I like to use.

If your primary purpose is high quality, frame-able prints from photos... it's hard to go wrong with the 13" wide Canon printers. I bet the current Epson are equally good. These "wide format" printers can print smaller sizes, of course (I often make 4x6 with my Pro-100). They also can be used for normal office printing purposes, though they are not as fast or as efficient as some dedicated printers for those purposes. But if you do a lot of that, you might be better getting a separate, 8.5" wide printer for the purpose. Some of those can be more cost efficient.

HOWEVER, "office" inkjets (or laser printers) may not be very good for prints from photos. Many office inkjets only use 4 colors of ink and cannot print photos well. You need AT LEAST a 6-color inkjet (Cyan, Light Cyan, Magenta, Light Magenta, Yellow and Black) to make decent photographic prints. 8-color and 10-color are even better. In fact, those are necessary for quality black & white prints.... some of the additional inks are one or more grays, especially for B&W.

Personally I would never buy an "all in one" printer... with a flat bed scanner, fax, etc. If any one function gets worn out and fails, you end up having to replace it all. They also usually don't have particularly good scanning or printing ability. Are often only 4-color.

An "office" printer may be all you need... if you only make "proof" quality prints from your images and occasionally outsource higher quality prints (there are any number of online services for that purpose). However, if you have limited desk space an all-in-one might be the best bet. (In comparison, the 13" printers mentioned above are pretty big and heavy... take up a lot of room on a table and weigh about 40 lb. typically).

BTW, whatever you get I strongly recommend you look for a printer with individually replaceable inks. There are some the only have two or three cartridges... one with black, the other(s) with multiple colors. With those you end up wasting a lot of ink... when any one color runs out you have to replace them all at the same time. (I've never seen all colors run out at exactly the same time!)

Hope this helps!

Robyn H Loc: MainLine PA

I'll tell you what helps and I'm not saying this to be a wiseass, you say too much. It's a proven fact that keeping it short and simple attracts more readers than responding most of the time with a short book. Also, and this pretty much goes for anyone, repetition. It's really not necessary for every responder to essentially say the same things. Don't people read others responses before responding in kind?! I know I'm still a newbie here but I followed along for quite a while before deciding it was worth joining in, and I so do like to converse; yeah, I know, typical female. I apologize in advance if I offended you or anyone else, my intent is not to offend.

hawleyrw Loc: Dayton, OH

I haven’t looked at printers recently but the printer I have is great because it’s an HP Envy 7650 airprint inkjet printer, holds 8.5 by 11 regular paper, but also holds 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 photo paper in a separate photo paper tray so whenever I print, it automatically detects the size of the print chooses the tray ( or you can choose it manually). Also prints automatically from my smartphone. Love it.

I’ve used both cannon and Epson, and my favorite was always Epson, but the printer, copier, scanner I have now with the HP services me very well.

Flyerace Loc: Mt Pleasant, WI

I have the Epson ET-2550 with the Ink Tanks. You won't run out of ink like you do with those little cartridges. The printer comes with a supply of ink and the replacements are very savings oriented. I love it and would buy it all over again. I guess I would have to know what kind of work you want to use it for. Best to use it regularly.

10MPlayer Loc: California

I had an Epson Artisan for about 5 years. It has a scanner and automatic doc feeder. It is a very adequate printer but not really high enough resolution for doing high resolution photographs. Mine died and I bought a Canon 3620. It does it all but it doesn't have the auto-feed. I wish I had spent a little for that feature. I got a PIXMA Canon Pro-100 for photos. It makes great photos and I'm glad I got it. I found a great rebate deal and got the 300-400 dollar printer for $72. Not bad. I would recommend the newest iteration of the Epson Artisan line.

DJphoto Loc: SF Bay Area

You didn't specify that you wanted it to print photos, but implied it was for general use. If this is the case and you can live with C/M/Y and black and want to minimize your ink bill, there is a great option that hasn't been mentioned: the Canon G series Mega Tank printers. They have ink tanks that you refill, rather than cartridges. I bought a G3200 about a year and a half ago when they first came out and it has already paid for itself. The black is rated for 6,000 pages and 7,000 for color on a set of ink bottles. The ink costs about the same for a bottle with about 10 times as much ink as is in a normal ink cartridge. I print a LOT and have only refilled my black once, and I just bought a set of C/M/Y inks; I paid $11.99 for each color. I was spending about $300/year on ink cartridges for my previous Canon Pixma 4900. The prices are very reasonable, varying by the features included between $180 - $300.