Photo Quality Printer

[kenk3z]

I'm giving some consideration to buying a moderate quality printer designed especially for printing digital photos. Any recommendations on what to look for and good/bad experience?

Thanks,

kenk3z

[Firefoxx]

You have three major players: Epson, HP, and Canon. Traditionally, Epson was the choice of pros, but HP and Canon have caught up and the boundries aren't so clear anymore. Thailand always falls behind in getting the latest models, usually by about half a year. Some models don't show up at all. (prices taken from IT city)

HP: Their photo printers are the "photosmart" series. There is the 7660 (6,000 baht) and the 7960 (10,000 baht). Both have LCD screens and memory card slots. The 7660 has 6 colors while the 7960 has 8 and is faster at printing. The ink cartridges come with print heads. Colors are not separate, but come in sets, so if one color runs out, you buy a whole set (1 black cartridge, 1 main color set, 1 photo color set, 1 gray).

Epson: Their photo printers are the "photo" series. There is the R310 (8,000), the 915 (6,000) and the 935 (7,000). They all have flash card slots and LCD screens and can print on roll paper. Print head is built-in, colors are a set (in the 9xx series) and separate (in the R series). The 915 and 935 are older models, to be replaced by the "R" series. There is also a R210 (6,000), which has no reader/LCD.

Canon: They actually have a photo-only series, the "IP" series, but they only print small photos. They can't print on A4 size paper for normal prints, so I won't talk about them. The current (in Thailand) photo models are the i865 (7,500), i905 (10,000) and i990(15,000). The i865 is 5 color, the i905 is 6 color while the i990 is 7 color. The i905 has a card reader and an LCD screen. The difference between the three is in quality and speed. They use a separate print head and separate ink tanks. A photography site (www.stevesdigicams.com) praised the i9900 (wide version of i990) as being very high quality and very very fast.

I ended up buying the i905, and I'm pretty satisfied. It does CD printing and has all the bells and whistles. Nice speed, great quality.

Be aware that inkjets are very expensive in the consumables area. They use expensive ink and paper (if you want good prints). Refills are an option, but not for the faint of heart, and not an option if you want good color fidelity. Color lasers are getting real cheap (around 20,000 baht can buy you one) and they have low cost/page. However, their photographic quality is still not even close to photo inkjets.

On another note, the i990 retails in the US (as the i960) for $170... about half of what it's sold for here, which is typical of the markup for nearly all printers/scanners.

If you're serious about photo printing, you'll hardly ever use the card reader or direct camera print ability. That's because you'll always edit the photos first (to do at least color correction and unsharp mask) before printing. However, the card reader is nice since you can access it from the computer like a normal card reader.

[kenk3z]

Thank you very much for your help. I appreciate the time you put into writing all this up for us. From your information, I think I shifted from HP to Canon.

So, I ended up with a Canon Pixma iP6000D. Mostly I'm interested in 4" x 6" prints, but it does have the capability to do a full sheet of US standard 8-1/2" x 11" media. At 4x6 the printer can provide a borderless print. On the high quality paper sample provided with the printer, I can not tell the result from a regular photograph done by a studio. Awesome!

Its a pretty good bargain at $180 USD. I was having a discussion with a friend at work and we came to the conclusion that all these photo printers are being sold at little profit (perhaps even a loss) with the idea that the profit will come from media and ink cartridges.

kenk3z

[Noodles]

Hello

I was just looking at Tesco Lotus and they had a

Canon colour printer with built in scanner, not sure what

model. It costs around 5000 bht.

Does anyone have any advice on these printers with

scanners attatched. I need both, but would it be better to buy

them as seperates?

Thanks

[Firefoxx]

The multifunction printers will do as advertised. However, you have to realize that they are jacks of all trades, but master of none. If you're expecting a good scanner, you'll be disappointed. Ditto if you're expecting a good printer. I'd only recommend them if your budget is tight or if you have really low expectations. One good thing is that they save space.

[Noodles]

The multifunction printers will do as advertised. However, you have to realize that they are jacks of all trades, but master of none. If you're expecting a good scanner, you'll be disappointed. Ditto if you're expecting a good printer. I'd only recommend them if your budget is tight or if you have really low expectations. One good thing is that they save space.

Thanks Firefox....thats what I was thinking.

[Crushdepth]

I get nice results with an Epson C80. Its not a dedicated photo printer, but it works very well and can use it for normal desktop printing as well.

[Khun Jean]

I use a canon i9100. The print quality is superb, even with the replacement ink cartridges whch are about 40% cheaper. This printer uses 6 colors, in seperate cartridges. Prices for a cartridge are between 210 for a "Replacemnt" to 340 for an original. I found the replacement quality a little bit lower but still acceptable for most prints. Still have to wait to see if the color fades or changes with time for the replacement inks. With the original inks i have pictures about 6 months old and they still look the same as a newly printed one.

One problem is the printer can print borderless on a 4x6 paper size but is not able to do that on a A6 size paper.

As A6 is much more readily available and sometimes a lot cheaper that is the only drawback.

Borderless prints on A4, A3 are just perfect.

[fisherd3]

Article in the financial times (UK) on the 26th October saying that the big move is for consumers to stop printing their own photographs because it is very expensive but take their photos to a say a Kodak shop to be printed, better photos and cost effective. When in Ko Samui I took my smart card out of the camera with selected photos I had put back on it from the computer and took it to the local digital photo shop ordinary 6 x 4 prints were just 10 baht each and were excellent. First time I did it. I would never print a photograph again on the basis of that experience.

[Firefoxx]

The bad thing about taking your shots to the local 1-hour photo is that you will not have much control over the process. You cannot fix the color, sharpen, alter, or change the photo in any way. That really dark picture you took will still come out really dark and ugly. That picture you took with the ugly background will still have that ugly background. There is also the matter of privacy. Do you really want someone else to see a pic of your wife in her sexy lingerie? Doing some simple photoshop work will do wonders for badly exposed pictures, and some creative cropping will take your snotty in-law out of the picture, literally.

Let's look at the cost... the genuine canon photo glossy 4x6 paper for my printer is about 7 baht/sheet (retail IT City, maybe cheaper if you know where). I've printed about 50 of these and I still have used less 5% of my ink. A very rough calculation is that for each 4x6" print, I use about 2 baht of genuine canon ink. Total cost (not including cost of the printer itself) per 4x6" print comes out to be roughly 9 baht/print. Not bad, considering that the quality is about the same as the shop (better, since you can change a lot of things).

Of course, in the end, it's all a matter of preference. If you like doing things hand-on and experimenting, your own printer would be best. If you like convenience, the photo store will glady help you out.

[fisherd3]

Firefoxx, you can take your pictures download them to the computer edit them with whatever software you use and send them back to the camera card to take down the shop.

[lopburi3]

As Firefoxx says it need not be that expensive if you do it yourself using a printer/ink combination such as Canon. From current reviews I would buy a Canon Pixma IP4000 if really want good photos and intend to make more than a few. It is a highly rated/fast printer in the 7-8000 baht range that should give good service.

Now I need an excuse to get rid of my Epson and buy it.

But agree that you can let the shop do it and still have good results. But those of use who have worked in darkrooms will probably never accept that.

[dutch]

I am using HP deskjet 990cxi

Camera Kodak DC280

Glossy paper from HP.

Very happy with the result