Photo Printers

ZENGHOST · Sep 16, 2002

Now that I've gotten my laptop purchase out of the way, I'm looking to buy a printer to print out up to 8x10 photos (4x6 more often than not, but occasionally 5x7 and 8x10) from my Canon S110 2.11 megapixel digital camera--any suggestions? At first I was looking to just buy a standard HP 4800x1200 photo printer for ~$180 (sans card adapters and viewing screen), but I ran into the new Olympus P400 Dye Sublimation printer which costs ~$499 and now I'm thinking that I want to go with the dye-sub. Any advice?

samo · Sep 16, 2002

Check out what EPSON has to offer.. They print good photo-quality stuff!

Sam

cockroachfarm · Sep 16, 2002

Originally posted by samo
Check out what EPSON has to offer.. They print good photo-quality stuff!

Sam

Definitely! I've been using a little EPSON Stylus Color 777 (about $60.00 from what I can recall!) and the quality of the prints is nothing short of amazing. I'm ready to upgrade - and it will definitely be another EPSON. (Tech support is also excellent.)

Honeywell · Sep 17, 2002

Originally posted by ZENGHOST
Now that I've gotten my laptop purchase out of the way, I'm looking to buy a printer to print out up to 8x10 photos (4x6 more often than not, but occasionally 5x7 and 8x10) from my Canon S110 2.11 megapixel digital camera--any suggestions? At first I was looking to just buy a standard HP 4800x1200 photo printer for ~$180 (sans card adapters and viewing screen), but I ran into the new Olympus P400 Dye Sublimation printer which costs ~$499 and now I'm thinking that I want to go with the dye-sub. Any advice?

What did you end up with? Gateway, Dell, IBM...?

ZENGHOST · Sep 17, 2002

Originally posted by Honeywell
What did you end up with? Gateway, Dell, IBM...?

Sony...I posted all the specs and everything in the original thread. I've been pretty pleased with it so far, but I haven't really had time to fully explore (or use) its capabilities.

TheBadGuy · Sep 17, 2002

I have a HP 940c Deskjet. Small price tag, Big results. The photos that come out of this thing are better than the ones I get developed.

I am sure there are better as far as maybe speed or looks of the actual printer itself. But for the small price tag of the 940c, You can buy yourself a new knife along with it.

ZENGHOST · Sep 17, 2002

Originally posted by TheBadGuy
I have a HP 940c Deskjet. Small price tag, Big results. The photos that come out of this thing are better than the ones I get developed.

I am sure there are better as far as maybe speed or looks of the actual printer itself. But for the small price tag of the 940c, You can buy yourself a new knife along with it.

I actually have a 930c that I use at work and mine can't even begin to compare with the ones that I get developed at the mall. Right now my inkjet at home is a Lexmark Z42 and it's a solid printer, but I'm looking for something that's going to be substantially better in quality than that. Maybe I'll take a look at some of the Epsons on my next trip to the store.

armsraised · Sep 17, 2002

Epson

ZENGHOST · Sep 18, 2002

Originally posted by armsraised
Epson

So any specific model I should be looking at in particular?

cockroachfarm · Sep 18, 2002

....So any specific model I should be looking at in particular?

A few days ago, I asked EPSON Tech Support to advise me on an upgrade from my Stylus Color 777. (Can you imagine asking a Tech Support centre to make a "subjective" comment?) They told me that the next step up - to achieve NOTICEABLE improvement in quality and performance - would be the Stylus Photo 820. However, I am going to go up to the 890 because it is a bit quieter and it is "Windows XP Ready".

PaP · Sep 18, 2002

Take a look at the Canon S900 or S9000(wide carridge). I had an Epson Stylus Photo 1200 but this stands head and shoulders above.

Vulture · Sep 19, 2002

I have a Canon S9000 I have to say it is the best photo printer I have had. Ive had dye sub and thermal printers but this one is by far the fastest printer I have used. The photo quality is top notch, the printing speed in amazing, and the price per print is on the low side compared to other printers.

ZENGHOST · Sep 19, 2002

Originally posted by Vulture
I have a Canon S9000 I have to say it is the best photo printer I have had. Ive had dye sub and thermal printers but this one is by far the fastest printer I have used. The photo quality is top notch, the printing speed in amazing, and the price per print is on the low side compared to other printers.

So the S9000 is faster than the dye sub and thermal printers that you've had, but is the quality better or just comparable (similar)? I can't see an inkjet printer being higher quality than a continuous tone printer and I'd rather have quality over speed any day. Also, the dye sub prints are supposedly longer lasting than inkjet prints which is a plus for me.

armsraised · Sep 19, 2002

Originally posted by ZENGHOST
So any specific model I should be looking at in particular?

well, do a ;ittle homework. decide how much you have to spend and go from there. I have found all epson products to be very good quality. I currently use the 980. At the time it had the smallest ink drop size. 3 picoliters. As opposed to 4 on all your other epsons. Now they have one with a 2 picoliter dot. It only use the 4 color inks insted of the 6, but for what I do I thought I would prefer the smaller dots over exact color reproduction. I'm happy with it. I have another model but the # escapes me now. It is one of the large format epson printers. I use it to print on the large paper and banners. That one uses the four color inks. Lately you get a mail in rebate on every epson printer so make sure to look or ask for that. If yo are not planning on making photo quality prints to frame and hang on your wall or sell than yopu don't need to spend more than you can afford.

if you go to the Epson website you can look at all the specs.

Mongrel · Sep 20, 2002

I can wholeheartedly recommend the Canon 'S' series printers. I personally am using an S820 and it produces excellent photo-QUALITY. This series of printers has consistantly out-ranked the field in dollar for dollar comparisons. Find some reviews on line an see what I mean. I won't bore you with all the specs but I will mention the six seperate ink-tanks and the quiet, fast, photo performance.

One aspect of this particular model that I will not rave about is the B&W text quality. While the graphics are great, the text appears fuzzy when compared to Epson and HP. I already have a pretty good text printer that prints crappy photo's-the Epson Sylus 900. So text was not important to me.

A lessor priced Canon model the S520 is rated as having great text and great pictures. At the time I was looking these were around $175 I believe, and most if not all of the computer rags rated it higher than equivelent priced Epsons (like the C80\60 series) and HP's.

Brock · Sep 21, 2002

I am on my 5th photo printer in as many years, I have had HP, Epson, and Canon. As some have noted the Canon is noticably better then the Epson and I would say the Epson is noticably better then the HP. I currently have the Canon S900, it is also about 2 times faster then the Epson 777, and again the Canon looks better. What else can I say.

Vulture · Sep 23, 2002

I also have an ALPS MD5000 printer which I use to love because it uses dye sub. However the quality is about the same as the S9000 (I actually like the S9000 better though the tones do appear a bit lighter than the MD5000. The dye sub use to push the page out then pull it back in, use a different color... you get the picture. It would take awhile. I would go S900 for compatability and functionality the only reason I still like my MD5000 is that it does semi holographic and matallic dye sublimation.