When buying a printer...!?

[beavereater]

What kind of specs do you look for in a printer. Of course what I want is GOOD quality, something I can get nice print outs from my digital camera, and a CD-R tray...thats all I can think of, but I just wondered if there was anything else I should be paying attention to when making a purchase.

[andyp1]

Replacemant ink cost has to be a major factor. Especially if you want to print a lot of pictures.

[rallynavvie]

Xerox 7700. Or maybe a used Textronix 780.
Yeah, it's a laser printer, what of it?
Here's the thing. You're going to pay a lot more for a laser printer up front. You can get inkjets a dime a dozen these days, even the good ones. However most every inkjet priced less than a laser printer I've ever worked with has gone to utter crap inside 2 years, some even less. You go through ink cartridges in these things pretty quick if you think about it, and you're often switching between print qualities to save on ink (using draft modes and so on). The old color laser printer I had, a Tektronix (now Xerox) Phaser 780 would go thousands of pages before requiring a new stick of toner for it. Toner sticks cost $100 officially and can be found for a lot cheaper through eBay. Now at 3 times the cost of an average ink cartridge that toner stick will last far more than 3 times the printing. And you don't have to worry about print qualities because it's always set to outstanding print quality.

Just a suggestion to maybe research them a little more. If you can find a used 780 in good condition that would be a great machine, but it is a bit slow.

[stiltman]

Just a suggestion to maybe research them a little more. If you can find a used 780 in good condition that would be a great machine, but it is a bit slow.

Yep, that's why I have an HP Laserjet III. Toner lasts for ever

[SquirrelDip]

Just picked up a new Samsung CLP-500 from Staples (Canada).

Their regular price is $999 (all Canadian funds) and currently have a $100 rebate. They also matched www.atic.ca and beat their price by $50 making the price $435 - and I can still apply the $100 rebate. So, final purchase price will be $335...

Jus finished hooking it up and quality appears really good. Still on the noisy side but no where near as noisy as the HP 1500's

[thecoalman]

Besides quality Ink Costs are probably the biggest thing. I probably spend more on ink cleaning the damn jets than I do printing. Printer companys don't sell printers they sell ink, you can almost buy a printer for what the cost of the ink cartridges that come with it. Cnet has a lot of reviews which include cost per page, i'd suggest looking there. If you can find a printer with individual ink cartridges for each color that can be cleaned individually that has a low cost per page that's the one to get.

If money is not an issue definitley go with the Laser, probably cost you less in the long run anyway if you plan on doing a lot of printing.

[enstg8er]

if inkjet... look at canon. great quality for $100us. cheap ink easy to replace. the more ink cartridges the finer the quality. prints full page. cheap if you must replace the head. reasonably good software makes convenient photo printing. in review: cheap, photo quality, easy to use, easy to maintain.

[dxj40c]

Almost all of the inkjet printers (Epson, Canon, HP) do beautiful work. The thing that concerns me is the permanence of the image. I think I read in my Epson book that the image would last fifty years. I don't belive that, a regular photographic color print doesn't last that long. I do wedding photography and would love to go totally digital and do prints on inkjet paper but this issue scares me to no end. I'm using a 6MP camera, so quality 8x10 prints are no problem but, the idea of having to reprint all those pictures every 5 years scares me.
I've read about thermal printers but I've never seen any actual prints made with them. They are pretty pricey and none of the stores I trade with sell them. Word is that this is the route to go for permanence.
Unrelated comment: Coalmaster said he uses a lot of ink cleaning the heads, if he has an Epson printer he need to turn it 'off' when he is finished. This prepares the heads for storage. I had the same problem until I read that advice on this forum and haven't had to clean heads now for about eight months.

[gmatov]

dxj,

All the professional digital photographers I know use a dye sublimation printer, most of them Sony.

Doa search on "Dye Sublimation" and decide for yourself. They, too, are 6 megapixel and above, and seem to be happy with the output.

They may be expensive, I haven't checked, but now I will from curiosity.

Cheers,

George

[thecoalman]

Thanks dxj,

It is a epson.... thanks for the tip. About ready to throw it away I was getting such bad performance from it.

[rallynavvie]

The dye sub printers seem better than a laser print but at least they're known to be better than an inkjet print. I've got one UP-D70A and two UPD-R100s, both Sony units. Well actually they are "dye transfer sublimation thermal" printers. Print res on them is 300dpi. They will last as long as a normal photo would I'm sure. Proper inkjet prints will last a long time if printed properly. There are UV resistant inks out there everywhere now. I don't know how well a laser print would stand the test of time, I would think it would depend on the stock it were printed on.