# Best photo printer under $200??



## sashmo

Hi,

I'm planning a getting a good photo printer when Boxing Day sales roll around, which will be soon enough. Any recommendations out there?


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## keebler27

HI Sachmo,

Now that is a great unknown open question 

I was wondering the same thing, but I ended up getting an all in one b/c I had the rebate through Apple. I doubt it's anything special for printing photos (a middle of the road printer).

For what it's worth, I've heard various photographers say that the all in ones are more trouble than they are worth. Get a dedicated photo printer. Wireless is pretty sweet too...one less cable lying around.

Do you print for work purposes or just for home use?

If the latter, have you thought about not getting a printer? Maybe just send them to your local photo store (grocery store, Costco, local photo store, Black's etc...). It's cheaper to do that. I had a photo printer once and the amount of ink that puppy went through was ridiculous. 

Maybe the technology is better and ink lasts longer, but I seriously doubt it would be cheaper or more cost effective than printing as you go.

Hope you realize just trying to provide a different angle in case you hadn't thought about it. The upside is being able to print when you want and have your photos accessible then and there.

Good time of year to be buying anything these days.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Keebler


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## eMacMan

As long as you calibrate the monitor (the built in utility is just fine), the suggestion of using a photo lab is great. Be sure gamma is set to the PC setting and make your desk top a neutral gray. The grey desktop makes it much easier to judge how accurate your calibration efforts are. PC setting for the Gamma to match the printers calibration.

When having them printed, request no corrections and no sharpening. Make your jpegs 1200x1800 pixels for a 4x6 print. The lab will not take any real advantage of a higher count and you may lose some edge sharpness by picking something other than the 300 pixel/inch resolution their printer uses. If the prints are not a reasonable match to what you see on your monitor try a different lab. I have had my best success with labs using Fuji printers. Kodak equipment seems to have a mind of its own and I have been avoiding it for so long that it is even slightly possible that nowadays they would do a good job.

You cannot possibly print a 4x6 image at home for 25¢, and even 5x7s and 8x10s are almost certain to be cheaper. As to quality I reject less than 1%.


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## FeXL

The least expensive printer I can advise upon is the new Epson R2000. It's twice your budget, but it produces fantastic images. It will accept paper up to 13" wide. 

The thing I like most about it is that the ink cartridges are about 1/2 again as large as the printer it replaced. I mention this because ink & paper cost will be the biggest factor over the lifetime of the printer, not the initial outlay.


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## screature

FeXL said:


> The least expensive printer I can advise upon is the new Epson R2000. It's twice your budget, but it produces fantastic images. It will accept paper up to 13" wide.
> 
> The thing I like most about it is that the ink cartridges are about 1/2 again as large as the printer it replaced. *I mention this because ink & paper cost will be the biggest factor over the lifetime of the printer, not the initial outlay.*


Exactly.


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## FeXL

I have a couple boxes of MT cartridges from our R800 & R1800 printers (they used the same cartridges). The two printers cost us around $800. 575 cartridges at around $16 each equals $9200 on ink alone, over the course of 6-1/2 years. I'd estimate the paper costs somewhere between another $9k-$10K.

Yes, we use our event printers more than most, but it gives you some idea (the printers themselves were < 5% of the cost of operation).


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## Joker Eh

FeXL said:


> I have a couple boxes of MT cartridges from our R800 & R1800 printers (they used the same cartridges). The two printers cost us around $800. 575 cartridges at around $16 each equals $9200 on ink alone, over the course of 6-1/2 years. I'd estimate the paper costs somewhere between another $9k-$10K.
> 
> Yes, we use our event printers more than most, but it gives you some idea (the printers themselves were < 5% of the cost of operation).


I know it is hard to measure but how many prints would you would get from a set of cartridges?


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## sashmo

I also bought an all-in-one printer with the rebate through Apple. Its colours need a lot of adjustment and that is what I would like to avoid. I have also sent prints into a lab and they came back with colours that were too dark.


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## FeXL

Joker Eh said:


> I know it is hard to measure but how many prints would you would get from a set of cartridges?


Don't have a clue. It is nearly impossible to calculate, as what you are photographing (printing) affects your ink use.

I can give you some generalities, but that's it. Hockey images take a lot less ink because most of the background is ice/boards: white or light grey. Dance images take a lot of ink, especially if the subject is photographed out towards the wings, where the black curtains hang. Other events varied between.

I did set up a small spreadsheet that used our typical color ratios in order to help me order ink at any given time. In order, C, M, Y, Photo K, Matte K, Red, Blue, Gloss: 5,5,3,3,1,1,1,6.

The inks, according to Epson, are supposed to last 400 8-1/2x11 pages at 5% coverage. The only one you could really figure from that would be gloss, as it's always 100% coverage. Mathematically that gives you 20 pages. I'd estimate that to be roughly correct.


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## Joker Eh

FeXL said:


> Don't have a clue. It is nearly impossible to calculate, as what you are photographing (printing) affects your ink use.
> 
> I can give you some generalities, but that's it. Hockey images take a lot less ink because most of the background is ice/boards: white or light grey. Dance images take a lot of ink, especially if the subject is photographed out towards the wings, where the black curtains hang. Other events varied between.
> 
> I did set up a small spreadsheet that used our typical color ratios in order to help me order ink at any given time. In order, C, M, Y, Photo K, Matte K, Red, Blue, Gloss: 5,5,3,3,1,1,1,6.
> 
> The inks, according to Epson, are supposed to last 400 8-1/2x11 pages at 5% coverage. The only one you could really figure from that would be gloss, as it's always 100% coverage. *Mathematically that gives you 20 pages. I'd estimate that to be roughly correct.*


Wow. That makes a mistake or test print costly.


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## SINC

FWIW, I bought a Kodak 5250 last time around at about $129. Why? The inkjet refills are much cheaper, colour at $19 and black at $9 and have been pleased with the quality along with the number of copies per cartridge. 

I make very few large prints and keep a HP Photosmart A510 for 4 x 6 prints to make quick prints for friends or relatives at a function. It prints directly from the camera card and works independent of a computer. It will handle four different types of cards to cover most cameras. Paper and ink costs for a single print run about a quarter, but that suits me fine for the convenience and the fact I don't print many of them. 

Costco or London Drug prints when there are many involved, are about one quarter of that cost.


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## FeXL

Joker Eh said:


> Wow. That makes a mistake or test print costly.


We shopped pretty hard for the best consumables price we could get this side of the border. We'd do a rough estimate of print cost by dividing paper count by paper/ink costs. An 8x10 from the R1800 cost around $1.15, maybe a bit less. On a hobbyists budget, I suppose that adds up (one more reason to calibrate screens/printers). We counted it as negligible.


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## eMacMan

Every time you fire off an inkjet there is a chance it will run a cleaning cycle. These will happen if you have not run any prints previously that week. It is quite possible to suck a down a complete set of ink cartridges running very few prints, if they are evenly spaced at a print or so a week.

For occasional use the cleaning cycle will probably use far more ink than the prints themselves.


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## SINC

I use the Kodak daily for black document printing only. That noted, it will only perform a cleaning or test print on command, unlike many other printers I have owned.


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## kps

sashmo said:


> Hi,
> 
> I'm *planning a getting a good photo printer* when Boxing Day sales roll around, which will be soon enough. Any recommendations out there?


Costco...


.
.
.
Sorry, couldn't resist, 'cause I gave up on home printing. Waaaay toooo expensive if you do limited runs, low volume or occasional printing with ink jets. But hey, just my opinion.


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## whatiwant

kps said:


> Waaaay toooo expensive if you do limited runs, low volume or occasional printing with ink jets. But hey, just my opinion.


+1 
It's actually quite cost effective to just take your files to Blacks in a mall or something. Better quality prints too.


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## FeXL

jawknee said:


> Better quality prints too.


Than what?


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## sashmo

Costco.ca has a Canon® Pixma Pro9000 Mark II Professional Photo Inkjet Printer for $489. Wow. Since I took a few prints into a print place (I wanted a poster arrangement made) and experienced miserable results that I had to pay for, I'm reluctant to try other print outfits. It's not just "common family and friend" pics that I want to print. I'd like to print some of my more "artsy" shots.


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## whatiwant

FeXL said:


> Than what?


Than run of the mill inkjet photo printers


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## Joker Eh

sashmo said:


> *Costco.ca has a Canon® Pixma Pro9000 Mark II Professional Photo Inkjet Printer for $489. Wow.* Since I took a few prints into a print place (I wanted a poster arrangement made) and experienced miserable results that I had to pay for, I'm reluctant to try other print outfits. It's not just "common family and friend" pics that I want to print. I'd like to print some of my more "artsy" shots.


Canon.ca own website has it for $399.99.

Canon eStore Canada / Printers / Fax / Copiers / Single Function Printers / PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II


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## FeXL

jawknee said:


> Than run of the mill inkjet photo printers


And therein lies the confusion.

Not to put to fine a point on it, but what line separates run of the mill & something that will produce decent output?

Not a question for you, necessarily, just...thinking out loud. Makes it tough as a consumer to know what to purchase. Higher printer prices usually mean better output, but not always.

Apologies to the OP, this probably isn't helping much.


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## whatiwant

FeXL said:


> Not a question for you, necessarily, just...thinking out loud. Makes it tough as a consumer to know what to purchase. Higher printer prices usually mean better output, but not always.
> 
> Apologies to the OP, this probably isn't helping much.


Yes, and that was my point as well, if you want to pay "higher prices" sure, but it's probably more cost effective to just take them to a place that specializes in digital photo prints. 

My apologies to the OP as well.


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## FeXL

There are two reasons we went to our original Epson (and have continued with high quality small format printers):

1) Event photography, where buyers expect to walk home with their photos in hand.

2) Volume. We don't fire up the Epson 4800 unless there is a sizeable order or a need for prints 16" wide. As such, the R1800 & it's successor to us, the R2000, provide more than enough quality for smaller orders & prints.


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## sashmo

It seems like most of the printers under $200 are all-in-one which I don't need.


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## BigDL

I was interested to find an ink jet printer/all in one as these seem to be more readily available.

In the past the ink jets have cost a fortune in consumables so I would like some idea which devices may be better or how to judge the most advantages set-ups or brands.

Will do limited photo printing but would like reasonably good prints/colour printing. 

We have Brother laser for most letters/docs but my wife would like to have colour as well. We have an old Lexmark (Z715) that Lexmark no longer provides updated drivers since 10.4.x I believe.

The price range as the thread indicates around $200.00 but not apposed to a price up to $250.00 (25%) more. Basically under $300.00 taxes in.

Any thoughts.


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## eMacMan

BigDL said:


> I was interested to find an ink jet printer/all in one as these seem to be more readily available.
> 
> In the past the ink jets have cost a fortune in consumables so I would like some idea which devices may be better or how to judge the most advantages set-ups or brands.
> 
> Will do limited photo printing but would like reasonably good prints/colour printing.
> 
> We have Brother laser for most letters/docs but my wife would like to have colour as well. We have an old Lexmark (Z715) that Lexmark no longer provides updated drivers since 10.4.x I believe.
> 
> The price range as the thread indicates around $200.00 but not apposed to a price up to $250.00 (25%) more. Basically under $300.00 taxes in.
> 
> Any thoughts.


I like Epson Printers for photos but these are work horses. Meaning if you don't use them on a regular basis the heads tend to clog a few weeks after the warranty expires. Heads are not easily replaceable. My apologies to Epson if this info is out of date.

Our Canon is still going strong after six years, using generic inks for four of them. Good photo results on Epson plain paper. 

A general observation on AIOs is that drivers can be a real issue as the Mac OS evolves. My Epson scanner is eight years old and still does a much better job than any AIO, so unless you really need a computer based fax, I would recommend going with just the printer.

For photos I do Index style prints or cards. For Album 4x6s or 5x7s I still use a photolab. Sadly these are fewer and farther between meaning that now I face a day in Lethbridge or Calgary when the time comes to up date our albums.

Prices have come down on 4x6 prints from the Kodak Kiosks and the quality seems to have improved. This puts their excellent Thermal Dye Sublimation 4x6s into the same price range as silver based images. Big advantage with these is you can still find one close to home. OTH the touch screen software tends to be glacially slow and some people need a hammer to get it to respond at all.


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## BigDL

Just wanted to update my decision to purchase this printer

emm I took your advise and ordered a "printer" only from Canon today. No wifi, no ethernet.

We already have flat bed scanner from Epson so it may not be as convenient by we shall get by with that.

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my post.

Dana


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## Aceline

Canon MP600... right around $200


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## Lawrence

I just bought a MFC-J430w with the ability of the Brother iPrint&Scan for my iPhone,
The printer perked my interest mostly because of the ink being pretty cheap and also the
ability to use it on a Wi-Fi network or USB, No ethernet though. 

Also, I've discovered that I really need a printer that can fax documents lately,
No idea if it prints photo's very well, But for $99., I won't be complaining too much.

Here's the official Youtube video





+
YouTube Video









ERROR: If you can see this, then YouTube is down or you don't have Flash installed.


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## MacAddict

eMacMan said:


> I like Epson Printers for photos but these are work horses. Meaning if you don't use them on a regular basis the heads tend to clog a few weeks after the warranty expires. Heads are not easily replaceable. My apologies to Epson if this info is out of date.


It would now appear that this has happened to me with the Epson Stylus Photo AIO RX-680. I have to admit that recently my attention has been predominently directed elsewhere and the printer has been practically unused since mid-January with the result that the YELLOW cartridge, while not entirely empty, will no longer print even after many head cleaning procedures and wastage of ink by ALL the cartridges. And now the printer will not function at all. I am now assuming that the yellow print head is U/S, and so I thought about having to replace this printer altogether. 

I came across a refurbished Epson Artisan 835 priced at $110 US and was rather taken by it and was actually completing the order form until the order called for a Zip Code. I then happened to glance at the top of the page and it showed UNITED STATES. So I naturally went directly to the Epson CANADA web site for the same refurbished printer but the price was now $210 Cdn. I wrote to Epson to ask whether we Canadians were in effect subsidizing their American customers, to which they have acknowledged receipt but have so far not responded as they claimed they would do.

So after two Epson printers in a row I am now searching for a replacement printer from another manufacturer.


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## Lawrence

MacAddict said:


> It would now appear that this has happened to me with the Epson Stylus Photo AIO RX-680. I have to admit that recently my attention has been predominently directed elsewhere and the printer has been practically unused since mid-January with the result that the YELLOW cartridge, while not entirely empty, will no longer print even after many head cleaning procedures and wastage of ink by ALL the cartridges. And now the printer will not function at all. I am now assuming that the yellow print head is U/S, and so I thought about having to replace this printer altogether.
> 
> I came across a refurbished Epson Artisan 835 priced at $110 US and was rather taken by it and was actually completing the order form until the order called for a Zip Code. I then happened to glance at the top of the page and it showed UNITED STATES. So I naturally went directly to the Epson CANADA web site for the same refurbished printer but the price was now $210 Cdn. I wrote to Epson to ask whether we Canadians were in effect subsidizing their American customers, to which they have acknowledged receipt but have so far not responded as they claimed they would do.
> 
> So after two Epson printers in a row I am now searching for a replacement printer from another manufacturer.


Your yellow cartridge, Does it have a "reset" hole?
Some printer cartridges can be reset with a paperclip.
Resetting the cartridge can force it to show the true printing ink level.


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## MacAddict

Lawrence said:


> Your yellow cartridge, Does it have a "reset" hole?
> Some printer cartridges can be reset with a paperclip.
> Resetting the cartridge can force it to show the true printing ink level.


Thanks for the heads up on that one, Lawrence. However, I'm afraid not.


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## bringonthenite

sashmo said:


> Hi,
> 
> I'm planning a getting a good photo printer when Boxing Day sales roll around, which will be soon enough. Any recommendations out there?


A year late but the Epson Artisan 837 for $99 (this week) is great!


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## OldeBullDust

I understand this thread started a year ago, but the latest post by bringonthenite caught my attention and I thought I might pass along this note.

If anyone is looking for a higher quality, but not excessively expensive printer, you should check out Vistek. They have the Epson 2880 on for $ 449.95 Cdn.

It's a 13" wide printer and it includes a set of inks (8 I believe)


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