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Author Topic: Looking to buy a photo printer  (Read 2068 times)

citro

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Looking to buy a photo printer
« on: August 07, 2015, 07:01:48 am »

I'm interested in buying a printer for home use and occasional photo prints.

I print my photos at a photo center, mostly 4x6. The cost is about $0.20 / print.

I'm looking for an A4 printer, with wireless connectivity (it has to, since the printer will be in a different room than the computer).

Epson is promoting new products (and offers a cashback). The printers are using 4-color print technology (CMYK).

How much will the quality of printed photos suffer when using (only) 4 colors vs. 6+ colors or a photo lab?

Thanks,
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Ken Bennett

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Re: Looking to buy a photo printer
« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2015, 08:18:53 am »

Which Epson printers are you looking at? Their true photo printers use far more than 4 ink colors. What is your budget?

To me, the advantages of printing my own photos at home is the control that I get over the final output, as well as the convenience of being able to get immediate results. (Being able to knock out a 16x20 at 6am in my bathrobe is actually pretty cool.) I can choose from a multitude of different papers, far more than almost any lab offers. But when I add up the cost of the printer, paper, and inks, I know that I am not saving any money on the prints themselves versus getting my local minilab to make them. But I'm not doing this to save money. :)
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PeterAit

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Re: Looking to buy a photo printer
« Reply #2 on: August 07, 2015, 11:06:45 am »

While the Epson 7900 is my "serious" photo printer, I also have an Epson Artisan 837 that I bought as a general purpose office printer. It uses 6 colors of ink and is A4 size. I am surprised at the quality of the photo prints it makes (using an appropriate paper, of course). Not for museum shows, of course, but more than good for many uses such as snapshots for friends and family. I am not sure about the wireless, though.
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citro

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Re: Looking to buy a photo printer
« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2015, 06:25:07 am »

Epson L455 looks interesting.
The information I found, the "ink and paper" price for a 6x4 is about $.11. Price-wise: very nice.

I'm doing it for fun (family and friends). I just want to know how much quality I would lose vs. photo lab.
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Ken Bennett

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Re: Looking to buy a photo printer
« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2015, 08:54:51 am »

I don't know how much quality you would lose. I do know that all the true photo quality printers use far more ink colors than CMYK for a good reason.

To generalize what I mentioned above, I would not recommend printing photos at home as a way to save money. There are just too many ways for the printer to eat cash (all the ink used in cleaning cycles, for example, or the three or four tries it takes to get one that you like) for it to be a big money-saver over inexpensive lab printing.
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Some Guy

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Re: Looking to buy a photo printer
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2015, 09:49:59 am »

A professor I know has an Epson Charm PM-225 he uses in the class field trips to archaeology digs.  Kids can link into it via Bluetooth off their phones and print what they dig up and find (You need the battery and plug-in BT antenna options though.).  It's only a 4x6 inch printer and uses the better Claria ink that comes in the paper pack (Not sold separately, only as a combo.).

It's sort of expensive though as paper is about $40 with the ink cart.  Glossy runs about 100 sheets before the cart goes dry even though there is 150 sheets to the box, so 40 cents each.  You can send in the remainder back to Epson and get 30 per sheet back on the unused.  They sell a Matte paper too for about the same price.

Quality is actually pretty darn good even off cell phones.  Bluetooth wireless has some size limitation on transmission though or it won't print.  It has all the ports for cards as well, and a printer plug on the back too.  I ended up buying one as well but found I do need to run at least one print a week through it or it will plug (even with dye ink!) and a cleaning cycle to get the nozzle check right can cost!  Epson claims some 96 years with the Claria ink in it.
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