Photo printer help

[Frank]

My wife dabbles in photography and likes to print some of her horse pix for the kids at our farm. For years she was satisfied with the all-in-one Lexmark we had...but it died. I purchased 4 different printers since then (1 Lexmark and 3 HP's) and she's been dissatisfied with the printing (fine lines). Is there a known economical photo printer out there that doesn't cost a fortune and prints nice pix?

 

[Wobbegong]

My wife dabbles in photography and likes to print some of her horse pix for the kids at our farm. For years she was satisfied with the all-in-one Lexmark we had...but it died. I purchased 4 different printers since then (1 Lexmark and 3 HP's) and she's been dissatisfied with the printing (fine lines). Is there a known economical photo printer out there that doesn't cost a fortune and prints nice pix?

I bought a Canon printer a couple of years ago that makes amazing prints. Check what Canon has these days.

 

[THATmanMANNY]

How old is that lexmark? Model? I have a free one listed here. Listed like a yr ago and no takers. Its a scanner/printer. Never tried to print photos tho. Search and it will come up. Yours if u want

 

[gtluke]

You would think I would have input here, but I think I've printed 5 photos in my whole life.
I think I would get a dedicated photo printer, one made for printing pictures. I know the photo printers get calibrated ink so the colors come out correctly. One of those 5 pictures I printed was of Norm for the 6 hour race, and you could tell the colors were off. I just used whatever network printer my MIL had hooked up with some photo paper I had from a college class in like 1998
haha.

 

[Frank]

You would think I would have input here

I was praying that you had the definitive answer :cry:

J...I heard good things about Cannon as well.

Manny...that printer met the landfill long ago. Will let you know about your offer..thanks

 

[Dr Superb]

typically the all in one printers are decent, not great. Especially for someone who wants to print really nice pictures. those printers are jack of all trades, master of none.

If you want to print real deal pictures, you will need a dedicated photo printer. Although, as you said you are looking for something economical, Canon is probably your best bet.

 

[Frank]

typically the all in one printers are decent, not great. Especially for someone who wants to print really nice pictures. those printers are jack of all trades, master of none.

Interestingly enough, the old Lexmark printed beautiful pictures and the colors were spot on. The replacement Lexmark, and all the HP's never really did well on the colors as Luke referred to.

 

[mike_243]

are you going to be printing photos from sd-cards and such? or just from a system I had good luck with my HP 7420 until it needed ink.

 

[laxman]

I recently bought this at staples http://www.staples.com/Brother-MFC-J410w-Color-Inkjet-All-in-One-Printer/product_887541. It's an all in one and wireless. I'm very satisfied .

 

[hbpatel]

I have a Canon PIXMA Pro9000 for sale if you are interested.

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Pro9000-Inkjet-Printer-3295B002/dp/B001R4BTIA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309361250&sr=8-1

Check your PM.

 

[McKMtnBk]

Last Christmas I bought my wife an Hp PhotoSmart C-310 and she loves it. Makes really nice prints. Easy to set up and use.

 

[Biker Dude]

My wife dabbles in photography and likes to print some of her horse pix for the kids at our farm. For years she was satisfied with the all-in-one Lexmark we had...but it died. I purchased 4 different printers since then (1 Lexmark and 3 HP's) and she's been dissatisfied with the printing (fine lines). Is there a known economical photo printer out there that doesn't cost a fortune and prints nice pix?

Canon is the only way to fly. NEVER by an HP as all of their products, including printers, are at the top of the sales figures but at the bottom of quality and customer service. Check out the reviews on CNET.com. Between their ratings and the customer ratings on their site, you get a pretty good idea of what is good or bad. You may also try NewEgg.com for purchasing and customer reviews.

 

[soundz]

You might check into dye-sublimation printers instead of ink-jet. I can't speak from personal experience since I've never used them, but I believe you will get higher quality photo output from them. They are also much faster than inkjet. One problem I've found with inkjet is they can work well initially (I have Epson Stylus Photo 1280), but over time they tend to break down or start to develop strange color behavior or lines, unless you are constantly cleaning and aligning the head.

Some disadvantages of dye-sub is that you will only get up to 8x10 unless you are willing to spend $$. Not sure about the durability since I've never used it, but seems like it would hold up better than ink jet.

http://photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00HFhY

Read some of the responses as well .. they are helpful.

 

[soundz]

One other thing I'll add is that I stopped printing my own photos since the cost of printing services have come down a lot. I did some calculations once and I found I wasn't saving that much more money by printing my own photos. Plus printing my own photos was not worth pulling my hair out every time I want my inkjet to work right.

For "normal" photos, I just send in my order to Walgreens via Snapfish and it's ready in no time. This works well for up to 8x10 size photos in glossy. Anything bigger or if you want matte or lustre paper, Walgreens actually sends it out to a lab so it takes a bit longer.

If I want to frame something or sell it or something important, I place my order through Adorama.

 

[Frank]

Good stuff everyone...thanks!!