Which printer for photos only

den

den

Messages
9,608
Name
Dennis
Edit My Images
No
Hi, i am looking for a printer that will give me the best results for my budget of around £100 for printing photos only .....printing no higher than A4 ,it's been a while since i purchased a printer and when i didans it was a family one....This one will only be used for my photos so ink cost is not a massive issue ....i know some can print directly from camera but i have no delved in to that .....Any help would be apreciated.Thanks
 
I've a Canon iP printer and it's much better than my old Epson was, uses 2 black (1 is for photo's and 1 for text) and 3 colours. Not too badly priced for genuine inks. Printer wise, should be easily under your £100 budget. Prints up to A4 and has a rear feed for paper as well as a front tray - better for heavy photo paper.

I had issues with my Epson and was recommended to try the Canon - don't think I'd have anything different now...
 
I always believed that home printing was an exercise in frustration. It's no cheaper than a decent lab. So unless you have a desire to really work at it to produce outstanding prints for the self esteem it's not worth the bother.

I know many will disagree here.
 
Phil V said:
I always believed that home printing was an exercise in frustration. It's no cheaper than a decent lab. So unless you have a desire to really work at it to produce outstanding prints for the self esteem it's not worth the bother.

I know many will disagree here.
Click to expand...

i agree completely

i came to the same conclusion some time ago
when the canon s9000 was launched some time around 2002 / 03 i bought myself one at the time it was still cheaper to print at a3 than to get printed but over the years the print labs have caught up and in some cases cheaper

i suppose you could argue about 3rd party inks and the price etc but i never used em and still don't
i still have the printer but the reality is running it just too pricey
 
Phil V said:
I always believed that home printing was an exercise in frustration. It's no cheaper than a decent lab. So unless you have a desire to really work at it to produce outstanding prints for the self esteem it's not worth the bother.

I know many will disagree here.
Click to expand...

I'm with you on this Phil, the cost of using a lab is so low I can't justify the hassle of home printing.
 
I have a multifunction Canon printer/scanner thingy that prints very good photos, but I never use it for anything more than quick 6x4 prints, as its cheaper to get them printed at a lab. Plus the wife has always used up all my ink printing worksheets or planning sheets for school :-)
 
A very very very general rule the more inks the better. A 6 ink system will out perform a 4 ink and in turn will be out performed by a 8 ink system. For your budget have a look at the Canon PIXMA iP4950. There is not at lot to choose from in the A4 bracket
 
Last edited:
I'm with phil too on this one. Its realy not worth the bother, Use a good lab like loxley :P
 
I use a lab for my photos too its cheaper and better! There is always times when you need a home printer however and printers under £100 i will go Canon every time. I'm currently using a ip4940. If you can spare another £50 i would go with there budget A3 ix6550.
 
I've got a home printer - (Canon Outlet store on ebay). I never use it for photo's, although the photo quality is brilliant. I use it for printing DVD's though, because having those done commercially isn't worth the money / effort.
 
I have an Epson P50 that has 6 ink cartridges and a multitude of paper and quality settings and I can and do get some excellent quality prints from it, but TBH it really doesn't get used for that many actual photos. I've maybe done around 6 A4 prints and 10 6x4 prints in the last couple of months. If I had to print a whole batch of photos then like many others I'd be down at the local print lab. I find it so boring having to print out loads of pages, I'm an avid DVD collector with over 3,500 and printing a list of them every now and again takes up around 70 A4 pages and around 15 minutes of total boredom. No way would I shoot a wedding and home print 200 photos for everyone.
 
Phil V said:
I always believed that home printing was an exercise in frustration. It's no cheaper than a decent lab. So unless you have a desire to really work at it to produce outstanding prints for the self esteem it's not worth the bother.

I know many will disagree here.
Click to expand...

I doubt all that many will disagree.

Every once in a while I'll send off a batch to DSCL.. far cheaper and better than I could ever produce on a home printer. No need to worry about paying for ink just to clean the printer heads, heads drying out when not in use, ink used for printer calibration and head alignment.
 
I have an old IP4200 and it prints lovely photos, well to a certain standard
I haven't replaced it in 5 years and hardly use it for printing anything series because, as phil says, I'd rather process them online and have them in the post the next day
all the prints around my house end up as gifts are printed in a lab
 
Phil V said:
I always believed that home printing was an exercise in frustration. It's no cheaper than a decent lab. So unless you have a desire to really work at it to produce outstanding prints for the self esteem it's not worth the bother.

I know many will disagree here.
Click to expand...

Cheaper god no lol but I like to print there and then and on paper you can't get from a lab which is why I print at home. If I wanted 50 7x5s I'd get them done online.

Colour matching can be an even bigger problem for online than at home though
 
POAH said:
Cheaper god no lol but I like to print there and then and on paper you can't get from a lab which is why I print at home. If I wanted 50 7x5s I'd get them done online.

Colour matching can be an even bigger problem for online than at home though
Click to expand...

Most 'decent' labs will give you printer profiles, if you couple that with a calibrated monitor and decent workflow, colour matching for a lab is a non issue.

Compared to home printing with different papers?
 
Phil V said:
Most 'decent' labs will give you printer profiles, if you couple that with a calibrated monitor and decent workflow, colour matching for a lab is a non issue.

Compared to home printing with different papers?
Click to expand...

got loads of different papers with profiles for each one of them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top