Discussion
We are looking to replace our ageing HP710c with something a bit more modern which can handle printing of pictures taken with cameras. At the moment we have my Canon A70 & my dads Nikon F70, so max resolution is ~2700dpi or so due to the scanned slides.
Looking around in PC World earlier it was suggested the best printer is the Epson R300 in that it produces the best results, however best results don't necessarily tell the full story - what about ink usage? The R300 apparently prints out at around 6000dpi, which will drink the ink like an bum-with-a-credit-card drinks spirits. Similiary it won't let you print in plain b/w if one of the colour cartridges is low.
For a budget of around £150-200 which printers do you recommend, not only for the quality, but also the running costs - there is little point buying a new printer if it will cost a small fortune in ink (online printing prices are probably cheaper than home printing)
cheers
Looking around in PC World earlier it was suggested the best printer is the Epson R300 in that it produces the best results, however best results don't necessarily tell the full story - what about ink usage? The R300 apparently prints out at around 6000dpi, which will drink the ink like an bum-with-a-credit-card drinks spirits. Similiary it won't let you print in plain b/w if one of the colour cartridges is low.
For a budget of around £150-200 which printers do you recommend, not only for the quality, but also the running costs - there is little point buying a new printer if it will cost a small fortune in ink (online printing prices are probably cheaper than home printing)
cheers
I also went for the R300. About £80 from Currys, arrived yesterday. I found a site that did three sets of ink plus three extra black cartridges for about the price of the set direct from Epson.
Set up was easy and intuitive. I may use the facility to print onto CD, and Mrs Beano will, no doubt, be happy to take a memory stick out of her camera and print direct.
Now I don't claim to have got my colour calibration anything like right yet, but the first prints are a bit lacking in the red end (from a test chart everything else is pretty much there). However the speed is reasonably impressive and the A4 prints are pretty punchy. For the money it looks like a good everyday bet!
>> Edited by beano500 on Thursday 17th March 23:41
Set up was easy and intuitive. I may use the facility to print onto CD, and Mrs Beano will, no doubt, be happy to take a memory stick out of her camera and print direct.
Now I don't claim to have got my colour calibration anything like right yet, but the first prints are a bit lacking in the red end (from a test chart everything else is pretty much there). However the speed is reasonably impressive and the A4 prints are pretty punchy. For the money it looks like a good everyday bet!
>> Edited by beano500 on Thursday 17th March 23:41
An R800 will cost your about £200 online and is currently probably the best inkjet printer on the market in terms of outright quality.
Don't get swayed by claims of "6000dpi" - I don't quite understand the mechanics of it but 6000dpi is in real-world terms a load of bull. I understand it is marketing schpiel for interpolated dpi. Open a glossy magazine like Evo or National Geo and take a good look at the pictures printed on those pages - they were probably done at 250-300dpi, and there is no consumer inkjet printer than can handle quality anywhere near that, so in real terms the best out there probably print at a true resolution of 100-150dpi. I have yet to find a consumer printer that when you get up close with your naked eye you can't see the actual dots.
What matters is the size of the dot the printer can print, and with the R800 it's 1.5 picolitres, which was for a while the smallest pl rating you could possibly buy (and I'm including the multi-thousand-pound poster-sized high end printers here). I understand that Canon have just released a printer that will do 1 pl, but the feature set of that printer isn't high-end so you lose out on other things.
The R800 uses special pigment inks, which mean they are of archival standard. Traditional dye inks always fade after a while (sometimes in a matter of a few months in daylight), whereas the pigment inks are supposed to last 80 years or so without fade. They also don't smear/run when they come in contact with water, unlike dye inks.
When you print multiple full A4 prints at highest quality on the best paper the inks don't last too long, but at least they are in separate tanks so you only have to replace the tanks (the printer uses 8 different "inks", some go a lot quicker than others and each is about £8-£10 a pop. If you do get an R800 I would advise strongly against buying non-Epson ink cartridges for it due to the special pigment ink it uses. Use a normal ink even once and you contaminate the heads with non-standard ink.
On Epson Premium Glossy paper the prints are very very good, with even gloss applied (one of the tanks in the printer is a gloss ink). The quality is stunning, but make no mistake, not a patch on getting it done by a professional printing outlet like Photobox. The printer also comes with a CD tray for direct CD printing which is quite handy.
If you only need A4, I would seriously recommend the R800.
Don't get swayed by claims of "6000dpi" - I don't quite understand the mechanics of it but 6000dpi is in real-world terms a load of bull. I understand it is marketing schpiel for interpolated dpi. Open a glossy magazine like Evo or National Geo and take a good look at the pictures printed on those pages - they were probably done at 250-300dpi, and there is no consumer inkjet printer than can handle quality anywhere near that, so in real terms the best out there probably print at a true resolution of 100-150dpi. I have yet to find a consumer printer that when you get up close with your naked eye you can't see the actual dots.
What matters is the size of the dot the printer can print, and with the R800 it's 1.5 picolitres, which was for a while the smallest pl rating you could possibly buy (and I'm including the multi-thousand-pound poster-sized high end printers here). I understand that Canon have just released a printer that will do 1 pl, but the feature set of that printer isn't high-end so you lose out on other things.
The R800 uses special pigment inks, which mean they are of archival standard. Traditional dye inks always fade after a while (sometimes in a matter of a few months in daylight), whereas the pigment inks are supposed to last 80 years or so without fade. They also don't smear/run when they come in contact with water, unlike dye inks.
When you print multiple full A4 prints at highest quality on the best paper the inks don't last too long, but at least they are in separate tanks so you only have to replace the tanks (the printer uses 8 different "inks", some go a lot quicker than others and each is about £8-£10 a pop. If you do get an R800 I would advise strongly against buying non-Epson ink cartridges for it due to the special pigment ink it uses. Use a normal ink even once and you contaminate the heads with non-standard ink.
On Epson Premium Glossy paper the prints are very very good, with even gloss applied (one of the tanks in the printer is a gloss ink). The quality is stunning, but make no mistake, not a patch on getting it done by a professional printing outlet like Photobox. The printer also comes with a CD tray for direct CD printing which is quite handy.
If you only need A4, I would seriously recommend the R800.
-DeaDLocK- said:
not a patch on getting it done by a professional printing outlet like Photobox.
Interesting review on PC Prowebsite about inkjet printers, costs, and ink fading here:
In the magazine itself they did loads of test prints to see which ink / paper combination was best. Some of the fading was shocking.
Also interesting is the comment:
PC Pro said:
The fact that a developing company like photobox.co.uk can return high-quality pictures for just 29p - half the price of most printers on show this month including paper - makes it a seriously tempting alternative to reeling off loads of expensive photos at home.
They also say loads of stuff about smudging and fading. Might put you off buying - if not my Mum just got an R300 for 80 notes and I must say it's good quality - I printed straight off the memory card and it was a peach.
Stop the presses
The new Epson R1800 wide format photo printer will be out in about a week:
click her for more info
I have two on order (one for home, one for work). It does large format picture printing (up to 11x14 borderless iirc) and can even do printable cd/dvd's.
Just a small amount more than the R800. Worth the wait imho.
ErnestM
The new Epson R1800 wide format photo printer will be out in about a week:
click her for more info
I have two on order (one for home, one for work). It does large format picture printing (up to 11x14 borderless iirc) and can even do printable cd/dvd's.
Just a small amount more than the R800. Worth the wait imho.
ErnestM
just updating this thread.
My dad picked one up a R300 from PCWorld (ordered online for £79.99, collect & pay at the store), along with a set of ink cartridges from this fella (he's just up the road from where we live & sold them at £30 face value).
Suffice to say the results are stunning - we honestly cannot tell the difference between the prints done on the sample Epson paper (6*4 included sheets) and those by Jessops or similar.
Out of the box the colours are a bit screwy (far too much red) so we will have to adjust the profiles, the manual is useless (only tells you how to use the inbuilt card reader, nothing on the pc settings) but the drivers are easy to understand.
Highly recommended at this price.
My dad picked one up a R300 from PCWorld (ordered online for £79.99, collect & pay at the store), along with a set of ink cartridges from this fella (he's just up the road from where we live & sold them at £30 face value).
Suffice to say the results are stunning - we honestly cannot tell the difference between the prints done on the sample Epson paper (6*4 included sheets) and those by Jessops or similar.
Out of the box the colours are a bit screwy (far too much red) so we will have to adjust the profiles, the manual is useless (only tells you how to use the inbuilt card reader, nothing on the pc settings) but the drivers are easy to understand.
Highly recommended at this price.
docevi1 said:You're not wrong there!!!!
Out of the box the colours are a bit screwy (far too much red)
docevi1 said:...and again...
so we will have to adjust the profiles, the manual is useless
docevi1 said:True - but I've been finding it a fiddly task....
(only tells you how to use the inbuilt card reader, nothing on the pc settings) but the drivers are easy to understand.
What have you found to work best?
I'm no expert, but I had a really constructive discussion this week with this chap: www.selectafont.co.uk
He's a keen underwater photographer as well as being a supplier.
I don't know much, but I'd probably recommend phoning him for a 10-minute chat
He's a keen underwater photographer as well as being a supplier.
I don't know much, but I'd probably recommend phoning him for a 10-minute chat
Right...
Have just installed the Epson R1800 in my house (on the home LAN no less)...
...so, if the kids (3 & 5 yo) don't use up all of my ink printing out pictures of Brum, Barbie, Jimmy Neutron and Jakers/Piggly Winks, I shall give everyone a complete review in about a week or so.
(just kidding on the kids thing - I let them have the old HP for that nonsense)
ErnestM
Have just installed the Epson R1800 in my house (on the home LAN no less)...
...so, if the kids (3 & 5 yo) don't use up all of my ink printing out pictures of Brum, Barbie, Jimmy Neutron and Jakers/Piggly Winks, I shall give everyone a complete review in about a week or so.
(just kidding on the kids thing - I let them have the old HP for that nonsense)
ErnestM
V6GTO said:It's still made AFAIK - Warehouse Express still have them on their website.
I mentioned earlier Matt's Epson 1290. Does anyone know if it is still made, or what the replacement is called and the cost? Thanks...
Martin.
The next model up is the 2100, although is more aimed at fine art prints as the glossy output isn't quite as good, but the matte prints are amazing, and will last far longer than the dye based inks of most other inkjets (including the 1290). The 1800 is basically a glossy optimised version of the 2100, so if glossy is what you want, then I reckon this is the one to go for, or if you're more into wall hanging pics, then look at the 2100.
ehasler said:
I mentioned earlier Matt's Epson 1290. Does anyone know if it is still made, or what the replacement is called and the cost? Thanks...
Martin.
It's still made AFAIK - Warehouse Express still have them on their website.
The next model up is the 2100, although is more aimed at fine art prints as the glossy output isn't quite as good, but the matte prints are amazing, and will last far longer than the dye based inks of most other inkjets (including the 1290). The 1800 is basically a glossy optimised version of the 2100, so if glossy is what you want, then I reckon this is the one to go for, or if you're more into wall hanging pics, then look at the 2100.
Thanks, Ed.
Martin
Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff