Photo quality printers

[DustyC]

Need a new printer suitable for printing photos but want to keep the price down.

The best I can find is the Epsom 830U (£80)

Are there any other printers I should consider or shall I just go for it?

[chim_girl]

Dusty.....buying a new compact camera, new lens, new printer. Do I detect that someone has a new credit card to play with!?

[Mrs Fish]

Save them to CD - take them to Jessops costs a fiver to print 50 pictures

[getcarter]

I rate Epson printers. I do howerver hate all printers.

Used Epson for 10 years... gave up on others as they kept taking the pi55. Epson also take the pi55, but leave them out in the snow overnight and they'll soon learn who's boss. Others did not.

[ehasler]

I rate Epson printers too - got a 2100 which I'm very impressed with, although I've never left it out in the snow!

Check out PC World though - they've got a couple of printers in their sale which might fit the bill (e.g., Epson R300 for £130). Canon are supposed to be pretty good too - Warehouse Express sell these, and they've got some reduced in their sale as well!

[stone]

I'm currently in the same position. Borrowed an Epson C84 Photo edition last week (£80ish) and that was pretty good. It allegedly uses pigment based inks that can print at a higher resolution on normal paper. I printed a few high res shots and to be fair they were pretty good. There is also an Epson C64 photo edition that is identical with the exception of print speed and price (£60ish) They come with a memory card reader. Slightly more upmarket the Epson RX5000? looks pretty good!

Cheers

Stone

[DustyC]

Mrs Fish said:

Save them to CD - take them to Jessops costs a fiver to print 50 pictures

Thanks but I like to have a play with the pics myself.

chim_girl said:

Dusty.....buying a new compact camera, new lens, new printer. Do I detect that someone has a new credit card to play with!?

Something like that!
(Although I cant stretch to the 300D yet!)

[chim_girl]

My purchase is sponsored by my long time friend, Master Card, you may know him, he's a close relative of Ivor Visa!

better go and find my coat now

[stevieb]

Mrs Fish said:

Save them to CD - take them to Jessops costs a fiver to print 50 pictures

To be honest this is the best option, you can edit as much as you want stick them back on the memory card and take em to the shop to get em prited.

Steve

or there are the Dye Sub Printers that start at 150

[getcarter]

Ed

Lot's of Westie drivers on here today! (Stone)

I also have the 2100 - and a question... when choosing paper, there is a limited choice - I often use matte heavyweight, but the 2100 only gives 'archival matte' as an option - thing is, I've tried that and it just doesn't do it for me... prefer the regular matte, and results are not as good as they were on the previous Epson.

Is there any way of getting the 2100 to expand the paper choices? I checked www.Epson.com but couldn't find any useful info.

Now sticking to semigloss or gloss until I can get a result on matte.

Re snow... my previous Epson (875DC) absolutely REFUSED to work for a while... no matter what I did. So in true 'Basil Fawlty' style, I unplugged it, and threw it out of the window into the snow. Next morning (now sober) I plugged it in - and it worked perfectly.

I'm now from the 'treat 'em rough and they'll behave' brigade. Sod logic and re-installs.

Steve

[ehasler]

Steve,

I've only used glossy paper to be honest (apart from a couple of test prints on matte), but have recently switched to Tetenal Premium Fine Art Glossy Paper (290gsm), so downloaded their custom ICC profile for the 2100 and this has given me the best results so far.

I'm not aware that you can add paper types to the list, as I think this is hard-coded in the driver software itself, however Tetenal recommend the following settings for their matte paper:

Archival Matte Paper (1440 dpi)
No Colour Adjustment
Paper Configuration: Density minus 5%

[simpo two]

If I was buying another printer I'd consider getting one with each colour in a seperate cartridge. That way you don't have to bin the lot when one runs out. Epsons have many options for alternative cartridges too, unlike HP (ludicrous cartridge price). But look at Canon too.

[getcarter]

Ta Ed.

...and of course we all know about www.mx2.com don't we? Check out the prices - sometimes lower elsewhere but they always seem to have stock and deliver when they say they will. (For me works out about 40% cheaper than my nearest High Street).

[TT Tim]

Epson printers are very good, but beware, the newer cartridges have a 'chip' on them meaning that they stop when they consider that they are out of ink, it has been proved that this can happen when they are still 1/4 full!! Also Epson inks work out more expensive per cc than vintage champagne!!!!

I wonder if the snow technique will work with my Epson 500 RIP station, that has decided to hang on start up, hell what do you expect for £3K? Aghhhhhhh, oh and before anyone asks software disks are not included with the printer but an Epson technition will come and visit me for £250.

I use an OKI colour laser printer on a daily basis now, but it's far from photo quality, but it is a hell of a lot cheaper to run than ANY of my Epson printers:

Epson 915 Photo
Epson 2500 Stylus Scan
Epson 3000 Stylus
Epson 5000 RIP station

Tim

[stuh]

getcarter said:

I rate Epson printers. I do howerver hate all printers. Used Epson for 10 years... gave up on others as they kept taking the pi55. Epson also take the pi55, but leave them out in the snow overnight and they'll soon learn who's boss. Others did not.

BTW I use an Epson Stylus Photo 1290s - and the photos even at A3 size are superb

[nighthawkEP3]

I'm happy with my epson 960

been doin the business for a year now and still chucking out fantastic A4 prints

[Edt]

I've borrowed an Epson recently & it needed new ink. Checked with the gals who lent it to me & she was happy for me to use non-official cartridges.. 1 colour, 1 black, and one cleaning cartridge around £12 inc p&p

Ed

[grahambell]

Been using non-Epson cartridges in my Stylus Color 400 for years now because of the cost, and tend to get them at computer fairs for the prices - like 2 black + 2 colour cartridges at under £10 the lot.

Admittedly my old 720dpi Epson is hardly 'photo quality' by today's standard's, but the point is it works just as well with 'non Epson' inks.

Computer fairs are good places to get low prices on paper, printers and all manner of other related bits too.

Don't know about Hampshire, but to find venues for computer fairs in the midlands and north see www.theshowguide.co.uk

[zetec]

ehasler said:

Check out PC World though - they've got a couple of printers in their sale which might fit the bill (e.g., Epson R300 for £130).

I have just brought on of these it seems they are popular as I had to travel to get it. I have a few prints and it seems excellent, quick as well.

[simpo two]

Only problem I found with Epson is that their ink is thin (HP uses pigments). So when I tested an Epson on my company letterhead paper it ran in and looked all fuzzy!
If you buy it from Staples, you gt 14 days to try it and you can take it back if you don't like it. After all you can only really judge its perfomance at home with your system and your stock. Try that at PC World!