[dewy]

I have been thinking about getting a printer over the last few days, I have not had a printer since the last ink tank ran out on my 'hand-me-down' Canon BJC - 265SP. I have now narrowed my search to a few printers andI am just after comments on what would be better? I want it for printing photos and school work (text documents). If you have any other suggestions I would be very happy to listen.

My currrent choices:
Canon i965
Canon i990
Canon PIXMA iP5000
Canon PIXMA iP4000

[peter]

the Pixma loooks nice. ..
iu wouldnt mind a pixma .. id prolli get one if i didnt have an epson photostylus .. hehe .. dont feel the need for a new one yet ..

[StudioJ]

I don't think the pixmas are suitable for general text are they? I've had Epsons and Canon's and these days either of them seem pretty good.

[peter]

haha .. only thing i notice with my epson photostylus 830 ... is that when u come a bit closer to the photo.. you can start to see the grain of the print .. .

[Toad]

I have the Epson R300 - nice printer, but the ink is brutally expensive. You won't go too far wrong with either an Epson or a Canon printer.

[Cailean]

I get great prints from my Canon i550... does a good job on text too.

[shuttertalk]

HP is the best for text.

I've got the photosmart 7660 and the photos are awesome as wellthough i have not compared to canon or epson.

its been a while since i last researched printers, but back then, it was epson, canon and hp in order of photo quality. epson guzzles ink and print heads clog if you don't use them for a while. canon good. hp best for text, ok for photos.

[StudioJ]

The one thing I noticed about the Epsons is the price, they're very expensive in comparison to the other printers. Also when I was doing my research I had several items I used in rank of importance to help make my decision.

1) Price - Overall price including running costs for ink and media.
2) Tonal Range - With the extra red and green inks as well as photo black.
3) Image Quality - Much of a muchness
4) Speed
5) Aesthetics/Jones Factor

[dewy]

I don't think I understand the 5th part but I will look at that studio, as for epson I am (at least in any forseeable future) not really going to look at them after the family previously owning to which just 'died' and not much more than a year after the purchase I am not feeling very secure witht hem, I am also running on a strict budget with consumables, after being a little familiar with recent model canons (parents own at i455 (won't let me print any thing on it, not even school work, little do they know letting it just sit there will assure an early death) and I used a iP4000 at school to print both DVD covers on photopaper (quality and speed was nice, and it was even on low) and on printable DVDs (any one know if the image quality you differ for a iP1000 to iP3000-4000?)) I know their ink is relativley cheap (about $12 for black and $20 for colour iirc)

[StudioJ]

Aesthetics - How pretty is it?
Jones Factor - Am I keeping up with the Jones'?

[dewy]

Ah yes, Well for Aesthetics I'd say the PIXMA's win =P, I am guessing Jones means 'the current craze' kinda thing?

[peter]

yeah ... its hard to keep up with technology...
if you want to stay ahead.. get one of those kodak pro printes that cost bout as much as a decent car .. haha

[dewy]

You mean one of those printers I could buy for more than a camera?

[peter]

well .that koday one .. the "Bad Boy" is almost 30k..
but then again .. its a profressional thermal photo printer..

[shuttertalk]

How about a multifunction unit? I think the scanner copier could come in handy. They're not much more expensive than a printer alone...

[StudioJ]

Update!

New printer arrived on Monday, plugged it in and set it up, popped in the Ilford paper profile to suit the printer (definitely worth checking to see if there are profiles available to match printer and paper) and printed it unadjusted, the results were stunning so I moved upto an A3+ (13 x 19") using a raw image scaled up in C1 and the results again blew me away, only minor artefacts were visible on a very close inspection.

[shuttertalk]

Which printer did you get, J? Awesome... A3 printing!

[StudioJ]

I decided on the Canon i9950. I had a quick play with the cd printing tray that comes with it at lunch a minute ago and printed a photo onto it, comes up pretty good, could be good for printing my own labels to hand over images to clients.

[Toad]

Yes - the CD label printing is a great feature for client presentations - looks really pro. My Epson R300 does that as well, but I have only used it a few times - the printable CDs are consideravbly more pricy - I just keep a few around for "finals".