Recomendations - What Photo printer

[XJSJohn]

Folks,

Probably been done to death here, so appologies and just dump any relavent links if it has (i did look back a few days ...

Anyhoo .... looking for one of them Home Photo Printer doohickies as there does not seem to be any online digital photo printers out here, just the old Kodak photo booths.

I would assume that we probably have every make and model of printer under the sun available in shops here, but i have no idea where to start.

What i would like it to do -

Print photo quality pictures
Up to A5 ish size would be nice, but not essential
native read SD cards, does not need to do any others necessarily
Not cost silly money to run

It will be printing pictures from a Rioch Capilio R5 and a Nikon D40

Your recomendations greatly appreciated!!

Cheers folks!

[TheKeyboardDemon]

Not familiar with the cameras however if they both support Pictbridge get a printer that has that same feature and you'll be able to connect a USB cable from camera to printer then print direct from camera.

I would suggest you avoid HP's as there prints always seem to suffer from serious banding.

You could opt for a Dye-Sub printer, there are various models around by Canon, Kodak and Olympus to name a few companies making them. These are continuous tone printers and give very good photo prints however most are a little more expensive to run than standard inkjet printers with a lower picture quality. Otherwise I would look at either Canon or Epson for inkjet, both make portable units that will print on 6*8 inch paper and come with cartridge packs containing around 100 pages of premium photo paper and enough ink to use it all.

Sorry I have no links for you at the moment, but I hope that helps a bit.

[XJSJohn]

I was thinking along the lines of these sort of things rather than photo paper in an inkjet



or have i got teh wrong end of the stick somewhere?

[TheKeyboardDemon]

XJSJohn said:

I was thinking along the lines of these sort of things rather than photo paper in an inkjet



or have i got teh wrong end of the stick somewhere?

That's it, that's a dye sub. It doesn't use ink - instead it prints through a series of gels onto special paper to give 3 layers of continuous tone to make up the print. Go somewhere like Jessops and see if you can get them to print the same picture on a few printers to see how they come out and get the printer that gives the results your happiest with. Choose a photo with a good range of colour and contrast. Running costs on dye-subs can be a little higher than inkjets. Best thing is though when you buy a cartridge pack for the Kodak printer you'll get a set of gels that will cover 160 prints and 160 sheets of very high quality paper. I think they average out to about 25p per print or £40 RRP on the consumables side, check eBay etc for better prices.

Ask them what the DPI is on a dye-sub, if the assistant gives any answer with numbers in it ask for someone who knows a little more, dye-subs can't be measured in DPI.

Edited to correct pricing error.

Edited by TheKeyboardDemon on Thursday 5th July 08:50

[XJSJohn]

Shows what i know ehh

Dye Sub know what to ask for without looking like a complete muppet now and know what it does too cheers!

Hmm dont think there is a branch of jessops within 8000 miles of me, but good idea about bring a few pictues along and get the shop to print a sample or two to decide.

so ... any recomendations on a good Dye Sub printer?

[poah]

Canon SELPHY ES1

[TheKeyboardDemon]

Sorry didn't realise you were in Singapore (Wife and I went there for out honeymoon).

Otherwise, glad I could help.