Anybody care to recommend a color printer strictly for digital photos?
I have a laser printer for B&W work, I'm looking for something that's not too expensive (up to $200, but less would be better) and does an excellent job with photos. 8x10 format is large enough, needs to have a driver for Mac OS X; Windows and Linux drivers would be a bonus.
All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.
It's MUCH cheaper to take them to your local camera services store. I quit printing years ago. I get real photo-prints too. Hell even those little photo kiosk deals do a decent job and are uber cheap.
Sorry I couldn't help. I've been out of the printer loop for about 4 years. Had some nice printed work fade off the paper after 6 months, some after 2 years. Too many variables and I don't want to waste time, ink and paper figuring it out for the tweaks of the Nth degree.
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RIP Albi
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It's a jungle out there. Many EQ stupidly with poor articulation.
~TKX
YIAH
"And, of course, the Gym Teacher being his usual self."
W3WN
"The enablers ride on the top of the pile."
WZ7U
I hear what you're saying, Charles, and I'd just as soon not be bothered with printing color at all but what happens here is that the Mother-in-Law will want one on short notice after seeing pictures of the grandkids (her great-grandkids) on my laptop. I'm not worried about top quality or archival permanence; if they last a couple of years, that's good enough.
All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.
Was just looking at printers on Newegg recently. I've got an "old" HP 8250 here that gets used mostly for office-type printing, but occasionally gets pushed into service for photo prints.
Being the lazy bastidge that I am, I rely a lot on user reviews of gear and right now, Canon printers are getting the nod among Newegg users. (I'm starting to feel like a Canon shill here!). Printers are cheap (but ink is expensive) -- buy what's popular and be done with it if you just need it occasionally.
If I ever have to print a bunch, I think I'm going to try Charles' approach. Never done that before, but my daughter says she can get good prints from China cheaper than doing it herself.
If I go to Wolf Camera, I put the files I want in .tiff format and put them on a CD. In this scenario I probably started out in RAW and saved in Adobe .PSD and .tiff.
I've enjoyed island life for 17 years. That's 13 years more than the Confederacy was around.
RIP Albi
When do you tell a woman you're a ham?
It's a jungle out there. Many EQ stupidly with poor articulation.
~TKX
YIAH
"And, of course, the Gym Teacher being his usual self."
W3WN
"The enablers ride on the top of the pile."
WZ7U
It's been several years since I've bought a color printer, but my Canon i960 is still giving me very good prints. If I were looking for a newer model, I think I would tend to go with Canon again.
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I had one of the Canon Pixma series printers awhile back. It used six or so print carts. The photos were nice but kinda expensive. Now we use an HP ink jet when we need to print in color. Although not really a photo quality printer, it does okay for the occasional pix. Not much family left to share photos with anymore, so most of our photography is just for our own fun.
I got a little Brother MFC-255CW fax/print/scanner/copier that does well on photos, and it's cheap.
"Where would we be without the agitators of the world to attach the electrodes
of knowledge to the nipples of ignorance?" ~ Professor "Dick" Soloman
Probably any Canon or HP photo ink-jet will do a wholly satisfactory job. My HP's vintage 2002 and it's still going great. Amazingly so - it's been dropped and kicked around and the ink cartridge door is held shut by tape. But..it still keeps going.
Ink's expensive, unless you consider that each ink cartridge comes with a new printing head. Probably why these things keep on printing wonderfully.
The big problem with ink jet prints is they aren't waterproof...any moisture will result in a smudge on the image. That's a strong argument for getting real prints from a photo-finishing shop. Or....if you can live with 4x6, one of those "Dye Sub" printers by Canon. Here's Adorama's listing. They do an excellent job, even printing right from the camera, and those prints ARE waterproof, right from the printer. But...you're limited to 4x6.
If it's a war on drugs, then free the POW's.
For what it's worth I use an HP J4580 and 8 X 10 on plain paper behind glass looks pretty darn good, as good as a framed glossy.
"The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you."
Neil deGrasse Tyson
73 de Warren KB2VXA
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