Printer for snapshots?

Hi all, I have a 4 month old son and I take a lot of quick snaps with my iPhone and my Fuji x100s. I want a printer that will print good quality on 4x6 paper. I have an Epson XP-600 that seemed good until it died after just 2 months. It saturates the paper with too much ink and the pictures come out looking like my son is a zombie. It's very creepy.

What do you all recommend for say $200 or under?

Is there anything decent for this price?

If you can find one in your price range (mine was a gift so I am unsure of the cost) the HP Photosmart 385 produces phenomenal prints to be an inkjet. It uses one HP Tri-color cartridge and whatever 4x6 photo paper you want to use. It has the capability to add a battery and Bluetooth dongle for printing from a phone. I have only used it a few times but I would definitely look into that one or maybe a previous model.

Hmm, it sounds like you got a lemon, sorry, was there not a warranty?

It looks like the XP 600 prints 4x6 and up to 8x10, correct? I mean there are actually little printers from the various companies that only do 4x6 printing, nice for going to house parties and printing snapshots, but if you ever want to do bigger, such as an 8x10, well, that's something to bear in mind...

Anyway, it looks like the XP 600 has a pretty favorable rating for printing photos, and Epson has it on sale for "$99.99", I believe $50 off?

So, you got a dud, but it looks like it was an exception, not a rule! You might want to stick with one you are familiar with?!

tonylong wrote in post #16323390
Hmm, it sounds like you got a lemon, sorry, was there not a warranty?

It looks like the XP 600 prints 4x6 and up to 8x10, correct? I mean there are actually little printers from the various companies that only do 4x6 printing, nice for going to house parties and printing snapshots, but if you ever want to do bigger, such as an 8x10, well, that's something to bear in mind...

Anyway, it looks like the XP 600 has a pretty favorable rating for printing photos, and Epson has it on sale for "$99.99", I believe $50 off?

So, you got a dud, but it looks like it was an exception, not a rule! You might want to stick with one you are familiar with?!

I'm sure it is still under warranty but I no longer have the receipt and I got it for $89.99 so I'm not sure if it would be worth sending in and having it repaired. I have Googled my issue and it sounds like it is not printing using the black ink so the photos look weird. This seems to be a common problem.

I mainly did 4x6 but yes it did larger. I forgot to mention in my original post that I need something that can print wirelessly from my iPhone. This is very important. I'm a bit hesitant to try another Epson after reading all the problems online similar to mine.

Bazinga wrote in post #16323885
I'm sure it is still under warranty but I no longer have the receipt and I got it for $89.99 so I'm not sure if it would be worth sending in and having it repaired. I have Googled my issue and it sounds like it is not printing using the black ink so the photos look weird. This seems to be a common problem.

I mainly did 4x6 but yes it did larger. I forgot to mention in my original post that I need something that can print wirelessly from my iPhone. This is very important. I'm a bit hesitant to try another Epson after reading all the problems online similar to mine.

Well, having worked for a major printer mfg (HP) for a lot of years, and I can tell you that these operations take failures seriously, and Epson is included -- they have a good reputation.

When you see people popping up online to report problems, you have to realize that this is a small fraction of the total output of these devices. An industry "standard" is that when a device first comes out (printer, camera, whatever), it can be expected that about a 5% failure rate will be returned (they get refurbished). Over time, R&D and various engineers work hard to locate and "fix" defects. So as a result, the return rate gets consistently lower, although there will always be a few "duds" out of the thousands of good ones, and on the Internet we hear about the duds!

I have a Canon PIXMA 5220 that works just fine for simple snapshots. I paid around a hundred bucks for it a couple of years ago from Best Buy.

I love my Epson Artisan 810 (I also have an Epson R1900), I have it for more than 2 years now, still print and work flawlessly, I use this printer more than the R1900. I know it cost more than $200.00 if you can find one, but I think it well worth it.

I gave my printer one last shot before I got a new one. I took all the cartridges out, blew on them, blew in the slots they go in (old Nintendo trick) and amazingly it works again. Definitely going to keep researching though since something obviously isn't right.