Printers

[Highland]

Currently looking into 2 printers for dig photos from EOS 10D. Olympus p400 and Canon i950.

Anyone have experience with either?

Thanks,
Don

[rtwwpad]

I'm looking at the i950 and the i9100. Best thing to do is pop into somewhere like PC World or surprisingly enough Staples and have a look at the print samples. Staples also do print samples for all the different photo paper types, so you can see how shiny/matt/thick etc it is before buying it.

Pc World dont carry the i9100 though :(

Canon have been very good sending samples to me wrt their high end photocopiers, you could try them and see if they will send you samples for their printers.

regards
phil

[peterm1]

I love my i950! It's incredibly fast, easy to use, and I get photos which equal photo-lab prints. I used to have an Epson 785EPX, which was slower, clogged, and harder to use.

I highly recommend the Canon.

[justme_dc]

I have the i950 and I have very few complaints. It is fast and quiet. I have owned many an epson printer all have broken down and required servicing. The first Canon i950 I got was broken out of the box but I took it back to the store, traded it for a new one and have been happy ever since. You could do alot worse than the i950.

Good luck to you.

[Highland]

Thanks for the advice gang.
Don

[rtwwpad]

Called Canon this afternoon, give them your address and what printer you want to see the output from and they will send you a sample print. Waiting for my i9100 sample with anticipation

phil

[kendersplace]

I just went through this also. I actually ended up with the Epson 825. I was considering the Canon i950 at first. The Epson 825 is the same printer at around $150 as their next step up (I think the 925?) at about $250, except it doesn't have as many templates for printing direct from the camera. I always print from PS on a computer, so this is fine by me.

I've been quite happy with the print quality (using Epson Primium Gloss paper, btw) out of the 825, and at $150, you can't go wrong. Maybe another consideration to look into.

[robertwgross]

Let me suggest that purchasing a photo printer on the basis of initial cost is the wrong thing to do.

The initial cost of a printer, whether it is $150 or $600 is meaningless compared to the total cost of consumables. To put it another way, ink cartridge cost is much more than the initial cost of the printer. The smart thing to do is to figure out how many pages you are going to be printing over the whole life of the printer, then figure out the cost of ink per page. It will turn out that for high print numbers, the cheapest initial cost printer tend to have the highest per-page ink cost.

---Bob Gross---

[Highland]

very good point. I have an HP 5550 and the cartrige costs are crazy. Within 3 months they had exceeded the initial cost of the printer.

Has anyone any experience with Dye Sublimation printers?

Don

[Murf]

I'm using the oly p-400. The output is truly outstanding! The prints come out dry and ready to sell. I love the fact that fingerprints can be wiped off with a wet cloth without damage. The only downside is the slightly less than 8x10 print size (7.6x10).

[Highland]

Murf -

Any issues with print speed? How about materials cost?

If you want borderless is it a pain to cut down the prints?

Hard to find paper and or ribbons?

Thanks
don

[Highland]

Murf -

Any issues with print speed? How about materials cost?

If you want borderless is it a pain to cut down the prints?

Hard to find paper and or ribbons?

Thanks
don

[boyhowdy]

I have the older s9000 and it absolutely ROCKS!!! It has outstanding print quality up to 13"X19" and prints one of those large puppies in about 4 minutes which is faster than an 8X10 on a HP or an Epson. The consumables are quite reasonable. I buy the refill kits from Atlas copy and can refill the 6 tanks around 10 times each before I replace them. The refills are around $45-$50 for 2oz each of all 6 tanks! The paper is the big issue. The 13X19 paper I use is Epson's brand and is fantastic. I got it at CompUSA. I also use Epson glossy pro or something like that. There are 2 grades of Epson glossy and one is cheaper and ok but the other one rivals the Photo Paper Pro and is a lot cheaper. I buy it at Office Depot when they have there "buy one, get one free" sales. If you consider that the cost of ink tanks in the S9100 are minimal if you refill them with quality ink (you will go through photo magenta, photo cyan like crazy and yellow quite a lot...at least 3 times as much as the other colors) and the paper may cost you $1/sheet for a really good quality, it is still MUCH cheaper than going to a photo lab for an 8X10 or worse yet for a 13X19!

The Olympus on the other hand is another story. It will print the most beautiful prints you have ever seen because it is a dye sublimation printer, but the cost of consumables is exhorbitant! It could cost you close to $100 for 25 prints I believe. The way I do it is use the S9000 for my large prints which will be framed in glass and I bought the little Hi-Touch 4x6 dye-sub printer (B&H PhotoVideo has it) for 4X6's or wallets. The consumables are cheaper than all the other dye-subs in this class. You can get 50 sheets of paper WITH the print cartridge for $20!! That is about half the price of the Sony dye-sub with less paper! The great news is that the 630PS (the one I have) is now being closed out at anywhere from around $125 to $150. I paid $250 for mine. It has a view screen and card readers built in so you can review the pictures without a computer and print right from the CF card. It won't work with a microdrive however. I really blew some family members away last year when we were all together and I took some pictures with my camera and showed them how they looked and they said "gee, I wish you could send me one of those." I said, "just a minute, let me print it out for you." That really turned a lot of heads! I've never seen a 4X6 dye sub as cheap as the Hi-Touch and it works flawlessly. My advice...get the s9100 for the larger prints and the Hi-Touch for the 4X6's and wallets. The 4X6's and wallets look exactly like prints because they have no dots and water won't hurt them like an inkjet photo.

Just my 25 cents worth.....

Patrick

[jimbobp]

I have the P-400, HP1220C, EPSON 785EPX, and have used a few other assorted printers. The Olympus P-400 does an excellent job in both quality an speed. The A4 paper is about .79 cents per sheet when purchased in a box of 100 and the printer ribbon is anywhere between $27.00 to $45.00. I bought quite a few in a bulk deal for $27.00. My total cost per page (excluding printer cost) is roughly $1.30. I'd suggest the following:

1. Compare the cost of consumables between candidate printers.
2. Do a test print of the same target on each printer.
3. Review the options, i.e. paper type, inks, etc.

Enjoy.

[hotmetal]

Hi,

Ref printer for EOS 10D, a lot of you are rightly talking of true print costs including consumables and depreciating the cost of the hardware over the printers life.

Have you considered having your prints made via a Fuji Frontiera (Diamond Laser in UK), the results are outstanding, at around £4.00 for a 10"x15" print the true costs are good too.

Alan

[Highland]

Excellent Patrick thanks. I am off to the B&H site to check out the 630PS.

Thanks again,
Don

[boyhowdy]

Glad I could help Don. The 630PS does an incredible job. The new 640PS has a slightly higher resolution but is over $100 more and I absolutley cannot tell the prints from the 630PS are NOT lab prints. It can also be run off of an inverter in a car so you can truly shoot and print mobile!

Patrick