Which Photo Printer

[fatsteve]

I'm looking at purchasing a color printer, primarily for photo printing. Seems that the difference in A4 vs A3 is negligble (ie < £50).
So far the obvious contender is the Epson 1290s. Have been advised against HP.

Any PH'er recomendations.

Budget is < £400

Cheers

Steve

[te51cle]

Nothing wrong with the 1290. The basic design has been in production for a surprisingly long time - about 4 years. I'm surprised that Epson haven't come out with an A3 version of the R800 to replace the 1290, as the newer machine will use Ultrachrome inks which last much longer.

The Canon printers in your price bracket are pretty good too. I still think the best rule of thumb is once you've selected a printer to stick with that manufacturer's paper, so check how easy it is for you to obtain paper before you buy.

[fatsteve]

Cheers, whats the runing costs like between the Canon and Epson?

Its been ages since I owned a colour printer (old HP790 or something!!).

Steve

[ehasler]

How about the Epson 2100? It uses the Ultrachrome inks which are longer lasting than the dye based inks of the 1290.

The only downside is that the resulting prints are not quite as glossy, however I've been very impressed with mine, and many pros use them for exhibition work.

I've actually had better results with 3rd party paper (and printer profiles), so it's worth experimenting with different types, however do look into how much ink cartridges are!

Replacement cartridges for the 2100 are around #12 each, and it takes 7 of them!

The Canon i9100 gets very good reviews too, but if you don't need A3 then take a look at the new Epson R800 which looks very good as well.

[srider]

fatsteve said:

I'm looking at purchasing a color printer, primarily for photo printing. Seems that the difference in A4 vs A3 is negligble (ie < £50). So far the obvious contender is the Epson 1290s. Have been advised against HP. Any PH'er recomendations. Budget is < £400 Cheers Steve

I have a 1290, and it's excellent. However, I'm tempted by the soon to be released Canon i9950, which improves on the 1290 quite significantly in speed, resolution and colour, but it's £500.

[ehasler]

srider said:

I have a 1290, and it's excellent. However, I'm tempted by the soon to be released Canon i9950, which improves on the 1290 quite significantly in speed, resolution and colour, but it's £500.

I saw the specs for this on the Warehouse Express website earlier, and it does look very impressive. In fact, I thought it looked like an A3 version of the Epson R800, so I wouldn't be surprised if Epson bring a new A3 out soon as well.

I'm very interested to see how it compares to the current A3 printers.

[DustyC]

Im on a lower budget and bought an Epson R300 which Im happy with. Epson seem to build good products.

The reason I post though is to mention SVP which have good prices for PC/Print consumables.
www.blankdiscshop.co.uk/acatalog/

Buy from them for business and home.

Note to Ed and Simpo: See, I do buy some things and only had to start one thread for the printer purchase!

[coot]

I've been using the R800 for a month or so and if you dont need A3 then its probably the best photo printer I've seen.

I would think an updated A3 version would come out later on in the year, hopefully.

Cheers,

Pete.