Looking for a new printer

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Name
Nick
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Hi all.
After my Epson started playing up, I’ve started looking for a replacement. As the Epson was an ex work printer I’m not really up on current specs.
My requirements are:
  • WiFi
  • Decent image prints to A4, possibly A3
  • Scan/copy
  • Ink cost.
  • Compact footprint
I’ve looked at the Canon Pixma range and that appeals. I’ve also seen Ink tank printers. Do these take non oem inks?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I need to purchase this weekend so mrs NickTB can print off a load of invites for our twins 5th birthday...

Thanks in advance,
Nick
 
Budget always helps with these queries :)
 
The Pixmas are very good but are not the best for OEM ink costs as they tend to use a lot when cleaning the heads.
 
I recently got a Pixma TS8150 which works very well, the inks are a bit expensive but you can get non OEM ones. I paid £139.99 from John Lewis and £30 cashback from Canon. John Lewis are now selling it for £99.99 - and you get their 2 year guarantee.
 
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For quality you really have to look at canon pro 10 (or their older equivalents on ebay, including pro 1) or a similar specced epson.

As much as I’d like that, it’s over budget for me. Looks like an amazing printer though!
 
I have long since given up on printing my own photos with a 'photo' printer as the running costs were too high. The very infrequent prints I need are done at our local high street photo store, for specialist printing services I would use an online vendor.

The big problem with inkjet printers is they all seem to use some ink 'cleaning' print heads when turned on so I was finding cartridges were being used up far quicker than expected. Did you know a small amount of coloured ink is used even when printing a page of black only text? I now regard inkjet printers as being like cheap disposable razor handles, with the cartridges being the expensive proprietary blades :(

I have discovered that some printers (HP in particular) will stop printing when one cartridge runs out even if there is plenty of ink in the other cartridges (e.g. trying to print black text with an empty yellow cartridge) . According to HP this is to protect the print heads from running dry.

I now own an old HP Color LaserJet bought used for £40 with a full set of toner worth £500 which handles most of my printing plus a new HP Officejet Pro 7740 All-in-one which came with 3 year warranty and £100 cashback (It cost me £50 after cashback). It's an A3 printer/scanner/copier and is BIG plus the XL capacity ink cartridges costs £100 a set, I find if it is left switched on in standby mode it cuts down the print head cleaning cycle frequency and wastes less ink.

Be aware too that some manufacturers ship new printers with starter cartridges which are only partially filled with ink......
 
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canon pro-100
bought mine about 4 years ago
never looked back
not cheap to run but fabtastic
 
Thanks for the input. I went with a Pixma TS8150 in the end. That seems to give me all I need, and I can use photo box or similar for prints if needed
 
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