What to expect from a sub $200 printer?

Not looking to heavily invest in a print set up. This will be for personal use to hang prints in my home studio space. What kind of quality should one expect before making this purchase?

Would the money be better of spent at a place like sam flax or walgreens?

Also if someone could suggest a printer model to checkout it would be greatly appreciated. Going to buy doing my shopping at best buy.

Sub $200? I think you'll be better off printing at a photo lab.

Unless the printer is 8/10-color and no less than $1000, you'll spend way too much money on resources for it to be worth it. A cheap printer sounds like a good idea until you find out that it's like 6x more expensive to maintain than a high-end printer. So unless you just need color documents every now and then, I wouldn't suggest getting a printer at that price, IMHO.

Don't be tempted by CIS systems, they'll do more harm than good unless you know exactly why you would need one, batch printing is always a good idea to do at the lab.

If you want to get quality that's on par with what you can get at a lab, an Epson 2880 ($600) is the minimum I'd recommend, though it still eats up ink like a hog. Ink and paper costs will make the cost of the printer seem like a tip at a restaurant.

I'd agree with Kolor-Pikker to not look to a "cheap" printer for good quality photo printing. Some folks have gotten inexpensive "all-in-one" printers and have said that they are happy with the output, but still the saying "you get what you pay for" does apply, and like Kolor-Pikker mentions, you pay a lot for photo-quality ink and paper.

Another reason for looking at an outside print service is that you can get prints that are larger than your basic 8.5x11 paper. For hanging prints on a wall, I'd call that important -- the prints I hang are larger, typically 12x16 or 12x18, both of which require a larger (more expensive) printer.

I've used "cheap" printers plenty when I need "office" documents, that's about it. They are great for that when you need paperwork!

As to a local print provider, the one "chain" store that has the best quality if you are in the US is Costco. Sure you can get a "nice" print from Walgreens, or you can be disappointed. Walgreens is "brainless" when it comes to prints, but Costco has a reputation of having good quality print staffers.

wait till canon offers the camera+printer rebates this spring, then check craigslist in your area for people selling the pro9500 or whichever you like

I have a Canon MG5150 all in one printer. I only use OEM ink in it, and for nice prints I use Canon Platinum Pro paper. An A4 print costs me about £1.50. I have found a lab that will print 16×12/A3/18×12 at only £1.10 each including tax. The only downside is that to get them next day costs another £8.99. If I order 10 prints at a time they are only £2.00 each, so still a good deal compared to printing A4 at home. I still print at home for A4 to satisfy that urge when I must have it "NOW!!", being an ex darkroom user, but everything else goes out for printing.

Alan

I guess it all depends on your point of view. If you aren't planning on doing 15 prints a day, then you don't need a $1000 printer. I had a $130 Canon i860 that did excellent prints up to 8x10. They were more than sufficient for hanging on the wall. Read some reviews, (I'd just Google it and read 2 or 3 sites), then make a decision. Those of us who are more casual amateurs really can't usually justify spending a bundle on a printer when the money can be better put to a new lens or body.

If you then have the need for a larger or a professional quality print, you can still send it off to a lab.

I completely disagree with others here. I have an Epson Artisan 837 ($139) and it prints excellent photos. You don't need to spend $1,000 on a printer to get excellent prints, there a tons of great printers under that amount.

I got a Pro9000 Mark II off EBay for $150

That's where you need to be looking. Yeah, the costs are the same and where I'm at, it's a pain when I need ink cause the only two stores in a 20 mile radius that stock ink for this thing only stock a couple of colors. I have to order the rest over the 'Net. All in all, I'm real happy with it because I have instant gratification and I have several images that I printed out of it on Red River paper hanging up in homes and offices.

I've had a ton of printers, everything from a $1200 beast on down to a $129 epson. The epson is still one of my favorites, it produces great prints and a lot of my 8X10 wall hangers came off it.

Inexpensive Epson ink jet printers will print nice pictures. I've had three different ones over the years and they have all done a great job.

Don't be fooled by the initial low price of the printer though, because you will spend many times more than that buying ink. You'll get annoying warnings when the cartridges still have plenty of ink left (hoping you will buy more before you need it), then some models will stop working completely if just one of the cartridges are empty - you won't even be able to print in black & white.

I got rid of my ink jet printers long ago. I'd suggest spending that $200 on a Canon imageClass monochrome laser printer/scanner instead, and get your pictures printed at WHCC or Bay Photo. It will be far less expensive with many more options than doing your own ink jet printing at home.

sircanon wrote in post #15743031
Not looking to heavily invest in a print set up. This will be for personal use to hang prints in my home studio space. What kind of quality should one expect before making this purchase?

Would the money be better of spent at a place like sam flax or walgreens?

Also if someone could suggest a printer model to checkout it would be greatly appreciated. Going to buy doing my shopping at best buy.

Seriously consider the Canon ip4920. From actually owning and using one of these sub-US $100 printers, I've learned in real use and not second-hand that it does a very good and quick job, especially when used with Canon's better glossy photo paper. Because of retailers' reluctance to stock photo printers, it's easier to order the ip4920 online direct through Canon.

As far as the quality of the output, I've used an ip4920 for on-demand print sales at events, and every customer was delighted with the 8x11 glossy prints from the unit. Not a single real-world customer was unhappy.

Any of the Epson printers in their "Stylus Photo" range will produce excellent prints. I've no idea whether that is miles above your $200 limit.

I assume Canon has a method of naming their specialist photo printers?

Lowner wrote in post #15745956
Any of the Epson printers in their 2Stylus Photo" range will produce excellent prints. I've no idea whether that is miles above your $200 limit.

I assume Canon has a method of naming their specialist photo printers?

Canon has used the general prefix "ip PIXMA" for photo printers for several years.