Thinking of buying a Photo Printer

[pbhalerao]

Hi all,

I am thinking of buying a photoprinter such as HP Photosmart 7760. I am inclining towards HP because HP support and supplies is relatively better in India. But before I make the decision, I wish to find out is how long does an HP Photo Cartridge last (in number of A4/Letter size sheets). I was unable to get a satisfactory reply from the salespeople. Some said 100 sheets, while some said 50-60; some refused to commit.

Secondly how does the quality compare with professional labs?

Of course if I have my own printer I can really control my photographs, touch ups, large size prints, etc. But if the running costs are too high then I might have to reconsider.

Thanks.

[reboot]

50 on HQ full color, small cartridge.
100 on HQ full color, large cartridge.
Beware the price of cartridges can vary alot.

You cannot reproduce the quality of a professional lab, without spending a bundle on high quality photo paper, and even then it's not as good.
It will probably cost you far more to print your own, than a lab would charge, but the convenience of doing only the prints you want, the size you want, when you want, may justify the expense.

[pbhalerao]

reboot,

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking of using genuine HP cartridges and with premium quality paper. An HP cartridge in UK costs around £19 and premium A4 bundle of 20 sheets costs around £13.

What you say about convenience and printing selected photos is also true. I may decide to plunge in after all.

Regards,

[MackemX]

It will probably cost you far more to print your own, than a lab would charge, but the convenience of doing only the prints you want, the size you want, when you want, may justify the expense.

and you can't exactly get them to print your 'more' private shots

I've always went with Epson's but it's been a few years since I bought my 895 so I can't really offer advice

[Noahtuck]

Okay, i think i might be misunderstanding something here...
pbhalerao are you talking about printing full size photos on a letter size sheet of paper, like an 8x10, 8.5x11 ?

[pbhalerao]

Okay, i think i might be misunderstanding something here...
pbhalerao are you talking about printing full size photos on a letter size sheet of paper, like an 8x10, 8.5x11 ?

Not at all. I was trying to compare the cost of printing at home versus cost of printing in a lab. For example:

a) What would be cost of printing a set of 100 pictures at home than at a lab?
b) Lab charges you an arm and a leg (perhaps all your limbs) for large formats such as 8x10 or 8.5x11. Will it be cheaper to print at home.

When I mentioned A4/Letter sheets, I meant how many such sheets can be printed from a new cartridge before it runs dry.

reboot, you said "100 on HQ full color, large cartridge". Did you mean 100 A4/Letter size prints or 100 4x6 prints.

[Noahtuck]

Okay, thats what i was wondering because of what you & reboot said,
because with a #28 color cart. (the smaller of the 2 carts.) i get 12 at the most full page prints surely not 50 and i can refill them maybe 3 times before the built in print head burns out and starts streaking, ect. and the small color carts here are $23.00.

[reboot]

I meant 50 4x5. That would be about 12 full pages, as Noahtuck has said.

[ZAPPER]

I have to recommend that you buy a small pack of paper and take it to a computer store that has a few printers set up and see for yourself. I think that you may be disappointed. From what I have tried with with ink jet printers at the highest settings I am not happy. At least on glossy paper anyways, matte comes out pretty good, but with glossy you get a weird sheen problem if you look at the print at an angle. I don't have a laser printer so I can't really tell how well they work but the photos that my old lady had a coworker do on a laser printer weren't all tha much better from what I rember.

The best that I have seen was a Fuji show set up in semi trailers one time. They had a killer print out, but I think that the photo paper was like poloroid paper in that it didn't really use ink but special paper. I have pretty much given up on home photo printing and just take what I want printed to the local drug store and let them do the work for $.29 each for 5x7s

[pbhalerao]

Zapper is right - try and buy is better.