Photo Printer

[NguuMuu]

I have a Canon iP5300 I just recently bought and am impressed with the features and quality. It has top loader and front loader cassettes, a USB port to plug cameras or phone into for direct print, a tray to allow printing color labels on CDs/DVDs. Print quality is excellent in color saturation and contrast even on the cheaper Jet line photo glossy paper. It uses 5 tanks, CYMK dye inks and a larger Black pigment tank for black and white such as printing text. Cartridges cost 300 baht each and from review estimates of 1400 pages, depending on what you are printing, capacity. Haven't had it long enough to say how many prints, but again review sites indicate a lot.

That machine sounds pretty good from those review sites. It seems like it's obsolete already though...did another model already replace it? A lot of sites have it listed but say its no longer in stock.

How much did it cost you?

[Firefoxx]

You don't buy inkjets for an office to do the daily printing of documents. You get a laser printer for that. Much better quality, much cheaper per-page cost. Of course, it will be bad for printing photos, but that's what you buy an inkjet for. If you want graphics (color documents) then you buy a color laser.

I have a "workhorse" HP laser printer at work for printing thousands of pages of documents a week. It works well, prints really fast, and the toner costs comes out to around .5 baht/page. It cost a lot, but it would have cost me a heck of a lot more in toner if I had gotten a sub-10k baht printer. I've saved around 20k in toner costs alone.

I have a "normal" Kyocera laser printer at home for printing documents, only hundreds a week. It also works well, and since I've only had to change the cartridge once in three years, I don't really care about the economy.

And of course, I have the Canon inkjet for printing color.

The only time I'll say that getting a multifunction printer is OK is when the needs of the person using it are very, very low. Never would I recommend an office to get one. Absolutely none that I've seen in offices have worked well, the complicated drivers are a pain, and the process of getting it to do a trivial task (like scanning) is far too complicated. Jack of all trades, master of none.

What I don't like about printers these days is that the price of the really low end models makes people think that they can get a good printer for extremely cheap, and make them not want to spend any more than a few thousand baht. That's not the case, as most people find out. You get what you pay for, and you'll still end up paying in the end, with interest.

Of course, it also depends on your individual situation. Are you really budget-strapped? Are you planning on printing only a few hundred pages per year? Is "just so-so" quality good enough for you? Are you planning to only use the multi-functions of your printer once or twice? Do you mind pulling your hair out once in a while?

Most stores don't carry the higher end models (like the ip5300 or ip6700). You'll have to look around. I didn't recommend the ip5300 since it has only 5 ink cartridges (two of which are black).

Another thing: Canon Thailand is slow (very slow) in bringing new products to the Thai market. If you see a product released in the US, expect to wait at least a few months, normally half a year, before it's released here as a "new" product.

Edited November 14, 2007 by Firefoxx

[Tywais]

Most stores don't carry the higher end models (like the ip5300 or ip6700). You'll have to look around. I didn't recommend the ip5300 since it has only 5 ink cartridges (two of which are black).

I had debated that with myself as to whether to go for the ip5300 or the next model up with higher number of cartridges but decided for my use this was fine. The quality as I mentioned is photo quality and not having to stock a larger number of cartridge types decided it for me. I'm not a heavy printer user (home use that is) but am picky on the final quality of the photo prints. I also liked the idea of a separate, larger black cartridge for my text output. Another nice feature of the printer is it does full duplex printing. No need to flip the sheet to print on the other side.

NguuMuu, I bought the printer on-line at shop4thai.com but looking there now it is no longer shown. They have the next model up the ip6700D at around 10,000 baht, which was more then I wanted to pay. The one I bought, ip5300, was between 6 and 7k if I remember.

[torrenova]

I bought a Canon ip1880 for about Bt1650 a few months ago. I got it for the convenience of printing photos of the new baby at home.

Colour inks go about 100 photos but likely a bit less, perhaps 80 sometimes but the cartridges cost a lot. I'm trying refills from Compute which work out a fraction of the cost but of course, they will not be the same quality (then again, just print another one !). It is too expensive to print lots with these small cartridges.

As I already had a printer/scanner etc. I didn't want to spend a lot of money.

In the future, I will buy something with refillable ink wells or just go straight to colour laser if the price is right.

[Smithson]

You don't buy inkjets for an office to do the daily printing of documents. You get a laser printer for that. Much better quality, much cheaper per-page cost. Of course, it will be bad for printing photos, but that's what you buy an inkjet for. If you want graphics (color documents) then you buy a color laser.

The only time I'll say that getting a multifunction printer is OK is when the needs of the person using it are very, very low. Never would I recommend an office to get one. Absolutely none that I've seen in offices have worked well, the complicated drivers are a pain, and the process of getting it to do a trivial task (like scanning) is far too complicated. Jack of all trades, master of none.

Of course, it also depends on your individual situation. Are you really budget-strapped? Are you planning on printing only a few hundred pages per year? Is "just so-so" quality good enough for you? Are you planning to only use the multi-functions of your printer once or twice? Do you mind pulling your hair out once in a while?

Your advice is similar to what I've been told, although I went for the multi-function and am very happy. We use ours in an office connected to 3 computers, so I wouldn't say our needs are low.

As for the laser for printing documents, I wouldn't say it was much cheaper if compared to the attached ink bottles. Quality may be better, but I don't see the need for great quality documents.

How much do the decent printers cost? We're not budget strapped, but when making decisions for work expenses we look for something that is economical and will do the job. For 6K a month I can employ someone who will earn money for me or put the cash towards a new computer or other equipment.

[Firefoxx]

Three computers is actually quite low, not that far from a home setup. The typical workgroup printer services 10 or so people. For a situation like that, you really can't use an inkjet, be it multifunction, bottled, or whatever. Of course, for three people that don't print much, then anything would probably do.

As I said before, decent printers cost quite a bit, but will save you in the long run, and have less downtime and therefore less wasted time and headaches. Having crisp professional-looking documents every time also helps. Reliability and monthly output are what set the good printers apart from the home ones. You don't think of the cost of these printers in terms of their initial cost, but what they will save you. Truth be told, I had my doubts before and also hated the cost, but after actually using them on a daily basis and having them pump out page after page after page without a hitch, they're really worth it. When you compare a workgroup printer to your typical sub-10k inkjet, you're looking at two very different things.

[Smithson]

Three computers is actually quite low, not that far from a home setup. The typical workgroup printer services 10 or so people. For a situation like that, you really can't use an inkjet, be it multifunction, bottled, or whatever. Of course, for three people that don't print much, then anything would probably do.

That's true, our office is small, we have over 20 working here but only 3 ppl in the office, but we print a lot, sometimes 100's of pages a day. The Epson I have has been fine, because I never open it to replace cartridges I'm not touching it too much, which can lead to problems. If this one breaks I'd just throw it away and get another. If that happened tomorrow it would mean the total cost for 6 months would be B4,700.

How much would the cost of a copier, scanner and printer be if bought separately?

I've used a lot of printers before and found pretty much all troublesome for paper jams. The expensive ones printed well, but there were still the occasional jam.

[samatrob]

I only use a printer for a few family photo,s so i have a cheap Epson C90 and printing emails they send me from the office .but the ink in Thailand is expensive the four cartridges from Panthip 500 baht from IT city 1000 baht. I am at present doing a safety course in the UK went to a Computor market they are held round the midlands in the uk on sundays. I got four complete sets of ink cartridges for a 1000 baht lots of things cheaper than Panthip.

[NguuMuu]

Just an update to let you guys know I decided on the Canon iP4500 since the iP5300 is no longer available. Fairly new model and I guess it's an upgrade(?) on the iP5300, although I haven't found a straight answer on that yet.

It cost 4,500 baht and I haven't done much testing on it yet, but so far so good. Bought a bunch of different paper types to test it out. It's also not photo only so I can use it for standard print jobs as well which will be handy.

The 500 (now 600) photo backlog will still be printed at the local shop, but at least I'll now have the convenience of printing at home on occasion.

Another question: Should I definitely stick with Canon inks and paper?

[lopburi3]

I have never used Canon paper - normally use IJ Photo Glossy 260g and Photo Paper Pro setting on EasyPrint and have been happy with it (but admit am not a perfectionist). The 260g paper (heavy), at least at 4"x6", needs to feed from top on my IP4000. I do seem to have less fade using Canon inks but have not done any side-by-side testing.

[Firefoxx]

Basically you'll get the best results with Canon ink +paper, since they're formulated for each other and will last a long time. Using different inks/paper will make the color shift and affect longevity. Canon inks are pretty cheap to begin with, so I don't think you have any need to use third-party inks, unless you're opening a cheap print shop. As for paper, it really depends on the paper... there are several to choose from.

[torrenova]

Canon inks are not cheap when you work out they cost about Bt1000 or thereabouts for 100 photos (or less) at size 6" x 4". The copy inks are miles cheaper but you have to fanny about filling them and resealing the cartridges.

Home printing of photos at this level is for convenience. Nothing makes grandma look in astonishment more than when she is given a photo of her grandaughter taken only 5 minutes beforehand !

[Firefoxx]

Are you sure about those numbers? They seem to be a bit higher than what I'm used to, and higher than what I've seen from reviews of the printers. Also, I really meant cheap in that they were cheap compared to other brands, and quite a bit cheaper than buying a new print head when your 3rd party inks clog the heads because you don't use them every day. But, YMMV, since I'd rather not get into another argument about ink tanks vs originals.

It's still cheaper to have your stuff printed at the shop, but I really prefer to not have to go to the shop, spend time there, go home, go back to the shop to pick up the photos, and not be happy with the way the prints turned out. Again, YMMV.