Digital Imaging and Photography → [Tech] Looking for a printer

We are in need of a new printer. I think I'd like to go wireless this time. I'd prefer not to get an all in one. Will only print photos occasionally, but, we'd like for them to print out decently. Trying to keep it under $300. Cheaper is better! We've been satisfied with our old Canon.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Color or Monochrome, Laser or Ink Jet, is it part of a Home Office ?

Color. I thought I'd always heard that ink jet is better than laser for photos. Correct me if I'm wrong. I've always had ink jet. Just for normal home use and an occasional photo.

I just received this printer for Christmas (I picked it out), however, I wanted it "mainly" for photos. I haven't done a lot of regular text printing and I know you said you prefer it not be all-in-one, but it is a very nice printer (no fax).

»www.amazon.com/Canon-MG8 ··· 7&sr=8-1

Good luck in your search.

Thank you. That may be perfect. The only reason I didn't want an all in one was because I have no use for the fax option.

Not all of the all-in-ones offer fax, so if scanning and copying could be useful, you still may want to thing about it. You may also want to take a look at some of the Epsons.

I was a fan of Epson products until their customer service lied to me and said that allowing the printer to print in black-and-white when the magenta cart. was empty would "damage the printer" and that it was "to protect me."

No thanks.

used to be laser printers were much higher resolution than inkjets, but the jets have gotten better now. most any color inkject, with bright glossy paper, will make an 8x10 that looks just like a real chemical photo print, to 90% of the viewers.

inkjet prints smear with water, though, while laser prints are melted onto the paper.

laser printers are more expensive to run, with 4 expensive toner supplies, and eventually requiring an expensive new drum.

check too your local office supply store; i have seen namebrand color inkjet wifi printers for $39. and copier/scanner/printers for $59., when they are having sales or discontinuations.

consider too the extra $$ for extended warranty, sometimes for 2 years instead of 90 days. though you will be out of printing business for a while while they confrim your dead printer is dead, you usually get a check or certrificate to use at the same store for anything, even a newer printer.

Thats a hoot, I wonder how they can justify printing with an empty cartridge would damage anything other than the image being printed???

Wayne

For photos you want to stay with an inkjet.

Wayne

I purchased a Canon i4700 just for photos. I see the i4800 is out now. I also have a laser for regular printing. The laser is set by default to print on both sides of the page. The i4700 is the first ink jet I have owned since.....the 1990s actually.

We spray the prints with Grumbacher "Tuffilm Final Fixative" which puts a water "proof" film over the ink. Casual water spots don't stick and finger prints also don't stick.

My Epson r300 photo ink jet printer does not smear, in fact photos can be put in glass of water right after printing. That is why I bought the Epson. My previous HP printer was terrible, the photo's were damp and picked up fingerprints easily. I think Epson uses pigment based ink and not dye based.

Unfortunately supplies are expensive. It's 3 or 4 years old now and I really don't want to replace it. I will probably replace it eventually with a more expensive Epson photo printer. Canon Pixma seem to get good reviews too.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and other input. Still looking...

A lot of the Epsons do still use dye based, but the do make a good amount that use pigment based. The R300 is dye base, btw (and is one pretty good printer).

Just a suggestion, but when I bought my Epson I went to a few stores and asked to see some prints. Staples and Office Max had test boxes back then. I have not looked at buying a printer for several years and I am not even sure that you can still get prints. A Micro Center might still be able to actually let you see test prints.

$200 or $300 is a lot to spend on a printer when you don't really know what the prints look like.

I got a Brother MFC-6490cw last month and am so impressed (for $199) that my wife wanted one for her birthday. We now have two in our house. 11x17 scanner, printer, copier and FAX capability. I recently used this to scan in and convert to PDF files, 3 year's worth of a fanzine we published 20 years ago. It has an ADF, which is fast and reliable.
I can place a stack of typed papers on the ADF and run my OCR software and in 3 minutes, it's scanned and converted to text about 22 pages.
A large scanner is normally very expensive, so that was a huge deal for me. It's fast, too. And the FAX I've used many times. It can share a line, so as long as there's a TAD, it can listen for a FAX incoming and pick up the call. I've tested it and it's amazing.

Can't beat it for $199 and the print quality is way better than my HP 1220c and the inks don't fade in a month the way the HP inks do.

Very pleased with the Brother!