Good printerrs?

[papasula]

With all the talk about great photos from digiscoping, what type of photo printers do people use? I am in the market for a decent photo printer in the "under $200" category. I would like to sell some shots as well as some of my pen and ink work. I would like the quality to be as good as the local photmat pictures and (ideally) be of archival quality (wishful thinking in that price range?).

Any suggestions?

Steve

[papasula]

"Good printerrs?"

I could also benefit from a strong spell check program. LOL!

[stevo]

Hi Papasula

Try going for a printer with a high resolution.The other thing to bear in mind is the cost of the cartridges,my printer has seperate ink tanks for each colour which makes it much cheaper to run.Also i`ve found sticking to the manufacturers own inks works a lot better than third party consumables(head clogging).I am currently using a Canon s520 bubble jet printer which gives a resolution of 2400x1200dpi & is giving good results.New printers are coming out all the time so I would say buy the best you can afford.
Regards Steve.

[Geoff Brown]

Hi Papasula

If you believe the latest ads from all the well known printer makers they each claim their printer will produce long term archival prints of at least twenty five years or more if done using their own ink cartridges and invariably their most expensive photo quality papers. You will soon find that if you print out many photos the biggest expense is not the printer but the consummables (i.e. ink cartridges and special photo quality paper). Look carefully at these prices before deciding on which printer to use, as you can soon spend a fortune on ink cartridges and paper. Various reports estimate that a 10x 8 print using "proper" inks and paper can cost well over £1.0 each ($1.60).As Stevo says try to find one with separate cartridges for each colour as that helps to keep the price down somewhat. I also agree with him that buying cheaper compatible cartridges is usually a false economy, as the ink is not made to such a high standard in order to keep the price down. Some of the latest (and more expensive) Canon models have a tank for each ink colour which should work out cheaper and their latest photo paper is claimed to last 75 years before fading! Both Hewlett Packard and Epson also now make multi ink tank printers and they are also usually at the top of their inkjet range and cost $250 or more.

[stefanbj]

I recently bought the Canon i850 printer. I checked reviews for printers on various sites and found that was the pri´nter that got the best reviews in the areas I was looking for.
I have only printed a few photos yet, but the results are really amazing. I recommend you to check the reviews for this printer. Just enter "Canon i850" in your preferred search engine and you should find reviews.

Best regards, Stefan