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Are there any decent A4 photo printers around.
So far I've only really looked at the Epson ET7700 but is it any good.

I had a Canon ip7250 or similar and it died with all the nozzles blocked it seemed and the on off cycle used to drive me mad it was so slow.

I don't print much but I like the idea of doing my own.
 
I had a similar experience with a Canon printer, excellent when it worked but chewed through the ink and they block up if you don't use them often enough. If like me, you don't print a lot, it might be worth working out if it is cost effective to have prints done professionally.

Edit, whoops, just reread the last sentence of your post.... But might be worth doing the sums anyway.
 
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I had a 7250 also
It died
Replaced with ix6850 coz it uses the same inks and I had a few left
Happy so far
Try to print at least once a week to keep it ticking over
 
I keep going round in circles looking at all sorts, shame they dont make the Canon Pro 100 in an A4 version.
Just want good quality prints for putting in a photo album and frames. With the occasional document printing.
 
I am on my second 7250, first one died from a faulty power module.
It was replaceable, but not worth the cost considering the price (45 quid) of a new one at the time.
Only ever used it with third party inks from a company called Prink.
Used them for fifteen years or more, no problems with clogging or fading, chipped cartridges as well

When this one packs up i'll do the same as Gary and get the 6850, can't go wrong for the money.
Admittedly I do have a Pixma Pro 10 for best quality printing, only buy genuine ink for this one.
For everyday prints and things like gig/rail tickets etc the 7250/6850 is just the job.
 
FWIW

My Canon TS8250 is IMO very good for a 'simple' 6 ink printer (5 are used to print the photographs)

I have only to date been printing a few 6x4 inch ones to go on the magnetic white board.

It has something printed on it almost every week/few days when I/we need say a coloured document (word or pdf) rather than a mono print for which we 99% use the mono laser printer.

PS the TS8250 also scans and copies as needed ;)
 
Anyone using one of the eco-tank printers? Epson ones look good and Canon have started a similar line with refillable bottles.
 
FWIW

My Canon TS8250 is IMO very good for a 'simple' 6 ink printer (5 are used to print the photographs)

I have only to date been printing a few 6x4 inch ones to go on the magnetic white board.

It has something printed on it almost every week/few days when I/we need say a coloured document (word or pdf) rather than a mono print for which we 99% use the mono laser printer.

PS the TS8250 also scans and copies as needed ;)
Thanks, looking at the TS8350 and it looks ideal, just need to find one seems printers are out of stock everywhere.
 
I bought an Epson XP-8600 for £90 last year -- I've been happy with the results so far. Ink prices are high (surprise!), but from a functionality and utility perspective, it's a good printer. It has WiFi, so I can position it in a convenient corner away from my PC (already surreounded by kit), and I like the separate paper tray for ordinary A4 paper, and the top-loader for single sheets of A4 photo paper.
 
Had seen that one as well, the canon seems to be favoured mainly for its chromalife 100 ink.
 
I have a Canon TS8352 - very happy with it. Use it to print A4 for comps. It replaced a MG printer which I had dad for years.
 
I have a Canon TS8352 - very happy with it. Use it to print A4 for comps. It replaced a MG printer which I had dad for years.
Great I'd have purchased one by now but no where (reliable) had it or many printers in stock. Got Amazon set to notify me.
 
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I still use a Canon MG7750 from 2016 which is a six ink setup and produces lovely images though ink is not cheap of course (I've tried 3rd party but not happy with it so use OEM).

Print resolution is up to 9600x2400 dpi though in reality I suspect this is no better than a 4800x1200.

Not sure if you could still find a new one, refurb maybe?
 
Well put an order in for the Canon TS8350, WEX dropped the price to £99 so thought even though no stock it's a good price.
 
Anyone using one of the eco-tank printers? Epson ones look good and Canon have started a similar line with refillable bottles.

I'm looking at these too. Did you buy one?
Epson ET-2710 seems to fit my requirements.
 
I may be misjudging such refillable inkjet printers but all the marketing for them majors on the business or SoHo environment i.e. may be lack something in regard to photo prints???
 
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I may be misjudging such refillable inkjet printers but all the marketing for them majors on the business or SoHo environment i.e. may be lack something in regard to photo prints???

Thats a fair point. I primarily want this for home office use with the colour as a bonus if you like.
My experience with a “proper” photo printer (bought in 2007) was that it chewed expensive cartridges. These days if I want a quality print I use DS Colour Labs.
The colour prints from this would be to give to family & friends quick snapshots.

I need a new office printer and it is the tank feature that is the main attraction to me.
 
HI,
I have been using an Epson ET2600 'Ecotank' for over 2 years now and still on the original fill of Inks (7500 prints). I do not print a large amount and often not for days. Great as a fast Home Office printer and not to shabby on Photographs. Inks are cheap in comparison and last forever. Quick to print and has a straight paper path so good for Glossy 290g photo prints.
More expensive a the outset but IMHO worth it in the longer term. As a brucey bonus I can print from Home to my Office !
 
I have been told that the genuine inks clog much less than the copycat inks. Has anybody any ideas on this?
 
I'm looking at these too. Did you buy one?
Epson ET-2710 seems to fit my requirements.
Yes but I bought a Canon G3501 rather than one of the Epsons. It's very close to the photo quality of my old photo printer (also a Canon) and the ink tanks are huge. So far all going well, although the drivers were a bit tricky to install on a Mac (worked perfectly on a PC).
 
Anyone using one of the eco-tank printers? Epson ones look good and Canon have started a similar line with refillable bottles.
I bought a Canon G5050 back in May as I needed a cheap printer as I was working from home and it’s a pain to go into the office just to print. So far as an office printer I’m impressed. wireless printing from Mac, iPad and iPhone has been fine. It was pretty easy to set up.

my biggest concern before buying was that I was worried about ink use and cost. The printer came with a full set of colour bottles and 2 black bottles. I bought another set of colour bottles for about £25 as I wanted to make sure I had enough ink available, but after printing what is likely 1000-2000 pages I’ve only used a quarter of the tanks! I’ve just bought a 5x 500 sheet paper pack so I will try to see how many pages I can get from quarter of a tank.

I bought some cheap canon paper to try printing a few photos but I’m not expecting amazing quality. I’ve not got around to trying it yet.
 
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I’ve never had any luck getting a printer to work on Wi-Fi! How did you set that up on the G5050?
 
I’ve never had any luck getting a printer to work on Wi-Fi! How did you set that up on the G5050?
Does the G3501 have AirPrint? Looking at review on canons website they say it’s wireless via the canon print app rather than AirPrint. I think I remember discounting another model (can’t remember which model) because it didn’t have AirPrint.
 
Does the G3501 have AirPrint? Looking at review on canons website they say it’s wireless via the canon print app rather than AirPrint. I think I remember discounting another model (can’t remember which model) because it didn’t have AirPrint.
You're right - the G3501 appears to support wireless printing using the Canon app only, and I've not got that to work yet. I'm not too bothered as long as it prints reliably from Mac and PC over the USB cable. We've only had it for about a month but it gets quite a bit of use from the whole family and the ink reservoirs have hardly changed :)
 
Seems like I've been waiting ages for the TS8350. Still no sign of it.
 
You're right - the G3501 appears to support wireless printing using the Canon app only, and I've not got that to work yet. I'm not too bothered as long as it prints reliably from Mac and PC over the USB cable. We've only had it for about a month but it gets quite a bit of use from the whole family and the ink reservoirs have hardly changed :)
They are good printers. The ink seems to last a long time and even replacing the full set is around £35-40 and that’s direct from canon. The cost of replacing the ink and its life span is what made me get one. You can buy cheaper printers but the future cost of ink offsets the low price.

I would have been happy with USB too. AirPrint is useful for the wife she’s usually printing from either an iPhone or iPad.
 
Thats a fair point. I primarily want this for home office use with the colour as a bonus if you like.
My experience with a “proper” photo printer (bought in 2007) was that it chewed expensive cartridges. These days if I want a quality print I use DS Colour Labs.
The colour prints from this would be to give to family & friends quick snapshots.

I need a new office printer and it is the tank feature that is the main attraction to me.

For an office printer rather than photographic, I'd be very tempted to go down the laser route rather than inkjet. I think that there are a few colour laser printers that can deliver halt decent photos - not as good as a decent inkjet but possibly good enough for your wants/needs.


I have been told that the genuine inks clog much less than the copycat inks. Has anybody any ideas on this?

Colours tend to be better too and fade much more slowly (in my experience.)
 
I have been told that the genuine inks clog much less than the copycat inks. Has anybody any ideas on this?

Well just my experience with a canon ts8050/1. I use the printer in bursts for about a few weeks then leave it often for a few months at a time. Absolutely not what one should do with any inkjet but there you are.

I usually use refillable instead of oem ink and tried the ones from city ink express. I found that the head clogged after leaving it idle and despite trying every cleaning method I could find including injection kits and ultrasonics - no dice. I zeroed two print heads in total before I switched back to oem ink.

Had no problems since - even though I again left it for months between uses. Just one normal head clean in situ and away it went.

I am going to try a new set of refillable and ink from octopus ink note the german outfit not the uk one. They are supposed to be much better and near oem.

This mess - the time and cost - has really put me off printing photos. I spent some time calibrating screen and printer / inks/media with an xrite spyder as well as spending far too long researching printers. It just seems like a money sink. No point in my getting a pro A3+ - I am sure I would have toasted that as well.
Meanwhile my Brother colour laser printer just keeps on going faultlessly - shame it doesn’t do a decent photo print though.

EDIT:

Having just written this II thought EEK! - when did I last use the TS8051? It was at the earliest late 2019.
So, arming myself with a stiff brandy, I just powered it up and printed a nozzle test sheet then a photo - it worked !!! even without a nozzle clean - unbelievable. These are Canon Inks BTW not the Octopus ones which I haven't tried yet.
 
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This mess - the time and cost - has really put me off printing photos. I spent some time calibrating screen and printer / inks/media with an xrite spyder as well as spending far too long researching printers. It just seems like a money sink. No point in my getting a pro A3+ - I am sure I would have toasted that as well.
Meanwhile my Brother colour laser printer just keeps on going faultlessly - shame it doesn’t do a decent photo print though.

Well my experience with printers too. The colour laser might suit me better.
 
I have been told that the genuine inks clog much less than the copycat inks. Has anybody any ideas on this?

Yes - my view is DON'T. I had a Canon A3 printer and after the originals were used up I started to buy 3rd party inks. They worked but didn't have the brilliance of the originals then I started to get nozzle blockages which could not be cleared. This was after only 4 months. Canon were very 'iffy' about repairing it and stated that I had breached the terms of the guarantee (Reading the terms they were right) Another printer not a Canon followed, but that was also returned to the dealer although I still had the original inkset inserted, it was feed problems with the paper. I am now back to Canon with a Pro300 A3 and original inks and all is well. The printer is left on 24/7 (recommended) but covered over and so far no blockages and I am still on the original set that came with the printer.
 
All the laser printers I have seen produce an image which always has an un-natural semi glossy sheen so not for me.


I would agree for "proper" photos but for occasional sharing with non-photographers, the current incarnations of laser printers might be good enough.
 
Well my experience with printers too. The colour laser might suit me better.

Yes - my laser is a brother hl- cdw 3150 - quite a few years old now. Having said “ shame it doesn’t do decent photos” that is maligning it a bit. On laser photo paper it isn’t too shabby - no banding etc - just an ink jet print has better tones depth and saturation.
Another good thing about colour lasers is that the toner refill kits do work. I got the urefilltoner kit which has tools to mod the starter cartridges and that’s what I have been using since.
I expect colour lasers have got better in tge years since I got the brother
 
Yes - my laser is a brother hl- cdw 3150 - quite a few years old now. Having said “ shame it doesn’t do decent photos” that is maligning it a bit. On laser photo paper it isn’t too shabby - no banding etc - just an ink jet print has better tones depth and saturation.
Another good thing about colour lasers is that the toner refill kits do work. I got the urefilltoner kit which has tools to mod the starter cartridges and that’s what I have been using since.
I expect colour lasers have got better in tge years since I got the brother

Are the refills expensive?
 
Checking their site, its 17.95 for the kit to mod the starter toner cartridges and 46 quid for the set of colours. I think they reckon it works out about 1/3 the cost of buying new oem toners.
They do say that its only a limited number of machines that now have cartridges that can be mod'd. Manaufacturers are chipping the cartridges now ( like ink jet cartridges ) to prevent people doing this refill.

Their site is HERE

As I implied - no idea what the state of play is for modern colour lasers - and whether just straightforward non-oem cartridge replacements are a good idea instead.
 
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