Which Printer ? recommendations please

[Disco_owner]

Hi everyone ,

I know this has come up before , but Reading MickG's thread on how to connect your Printer to your Laptop got me thinking about buying a printer , what i require from a printer is to print family photos and print on Blank DVD's and CD's.Are there any recommendations?

[JDNSW]

I can't really recommend a particular printer, but a few things worth thinking about -

1. Regardless of which printer you get, quite soon you will find a much better one has come on the market for half the price!

2. It will be cheaper, if less convenient to get the photos printed by a store!

3. Seriously, depending on how much printing you do, the cost of the ink cartridges will outweigh the original cost in less than a year. Unfortunately, it seems to be impossible to get the data to determine relative costs between brands or models.

4. If you live in an area of low humidity and dust, or use your printer only every few days, it is preferable to get a printer with the nozzles built in to the cartridges, rather than to get one with the nozzles as part of the printer - if they block up, you need a new printer not a new cartridge.

John

[Ferret]

I have owned a number HP and Canon printers over the years. Of the two I reckon Canon have been the pick in terms of reliablity, print quality and ink costs.

As to whether it is best to have the print head nozzels in the cartridge or integrated into the printer. Well I guess everyone has different experiences - my experience leans strongly towards the integrated print heads.

The disposable prints heads built into the ink cartridges like that from HP seem attractive at first sight but I have had better success over the long term with printer integrated heads as used by Canon.

Last thing, if you have not owned an inkjet printer before make sure you get a price on a full set of replacement ink cartridges for the particular printer you are considering. Otherwise you might get a shock come time to buy some.

[EchiDna]

seriously consider a laser printer - ink can't dry up, simple technology, not much goes wrong... BUT no colour... I got a canon LBP2900 with 2 cartridges (3500 pages per cartridge) with it - $129 about 6 months back.
for home use I figure that will last about 5 years!!

[Disco_owner]

I wanted the injek type printer for printing the odd family photo and printing on blank DVD and CD , I assume the colour lasers would be worth quite a fair bit ? would the laser type printers also allow me to print on my DVD's as well?

I saw this Epson R290 one for sale on net for $108.0 plus $20 cash back,and 2 sets of cartridges ( 6 in ea set ) for $70 .

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2008/06/662.jpg

[EchiDna]

hmm get a lightscribe DVD burner - that solves the cd/dvd printer problem :)

[HangOver]

hmm get a lightscribe DVD burner - that solves the cd/dvd printer problem :)
what he said ;)

with your printing requirements in mind go for anything Epson, cheap to buy cheap cartridges.

FYI you can now buy colour laser printers for about $500 but you can't print onto DVDs with them, the quality is good, printer life is average, cartridges coast about the same as the printer.

Inkjet is fine as long as you print out a colour image say once every 2-3 weeks it should not dry out. You can also buy inkjet printers that print directly onto DVD's look out for that feature. Also look for something that have individual colour, (red, cyan,yellow, black) cartridgers. it will save you $$ in the long run.
Stear clear of HP the carts are $$$$.
ALWAYS ask the price, (and size in ml) or replacement carts before you buy, Epson can be as low as $6-8 HP can be as much as $60

[JDNSW]

what he said ;)

with your printing requirements in mind go for anything Epson, cheap to buy cheap cartridges.

FYI you can now buy colour laser printers for about $500 but you can't print onto DVDs with them, the quality is good, printer life is average, cartridges coast about the same as the printer.

Inkjet is fine as long as you print out a colour image say once every 2-3 weeks it should not dry out. You can also buy inkjet printers that print directly onto DVD's look out for that feature. Also look for something that have individual colour, (red, cyan,yellow, black) cartridgers. it will save you $$ in the long run.
Stear clear of HP the carts are $$$$.
ALWAYS ask the price, (and size in ml) or replacement carts before you buy, Epson can be as low as $6-8 HP can be as much as $60

In this area Epson printers have proved quite unreliable unless they are used daily. But you are absolutely right about the cost of cartridges - HP can be even more than $60. Unfortunately it seems to be impossible to find the other factor - how much you can print per cartridge.

At least some cartridges can be fairly easily refilled - and as well as the direct saving by refilling these, the fact that it can be done keeps the price down.

Another factor that may affect some people is whether the printer will work with your operating system. If you use Windows (except Vista) you should be OK, although there are possibly a few that don't work with earlier than XP. Most printers will work with Apples, although make sure your version of the operating system is mentioned on the box! If you use anything else, make sure that support is available - the number of printers that work with Vista is rapidly increasing, if you use Linux or BSD, all HP printers work, almost no Canon printers work, and others support varies by model.

John

[abaddonxi]

I bought a colour laser printer a few months ago for my father, all the reasons about cartridge life/cost and print heads were a factor, although he was not interested in printing on CD/DVDs.

The printer was about $350 from officeworks or Harris Technology and came with some ridiculous manufacturer rebate $150-$200.

Great deal. Took me a stupid amount of time to convince him that he'd spent a fraction more on the day, but save all of that in the first month on cartridge costs. Toner cartridges costs are about the same as the more expensive inkjet ones, too.

Cheers
Simon

[cartm58]

bought a samsung colour laser printer earlier this year for $248 with $100 rebate made it $148 and bought 2 sets of ink drums for it for $90

Does a reasonable job of printing had a few issues with paper feed mechanism but resolved that by spraying it with easi slide to stop it from sticking and jamming the paper feed

[Disco_owner]

What do you fellas think about this Epson Aculaser ?

Harris Technology has the cheapest deal at the moment for $341,

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2008/06/657.jpg




GENERAL PRODUCT NAME AcuLaser C1100
PRODUCT CODE C11C567001
PRODUCT NAME AcuLaser C1100N (with 10/100 BaseTx Network Interface)
PRODUCT CODE C11C567041
PRINTING METHOD Laser
ENGINE RESOLUTION 600dpi
RESOLUTION ENHANCEMENT Epson AcuLaser Colour 2400dpi RITech (Epson AcuLaser Resolution Improvment Technology)
PRINT SPEED (ppm) 25ppm1 (A4) monochrome, 5ppm1 (A4) Colour
FIRST PAGE OUT Colour 17 seconds, Monochrome 9 seconds
WARM UP TIME 37 seconds or less at normal temperature
PROCESSOR 66.7Mhz
MEMORY 32Mb with EpsonRiTech / up to 256Mb Max
MAXIMUM MONTHLY VOLUME 35,000 pages
DIMENSIONS/WEIGHT
DIMENSIONS 441(W) x 445(D) x 439(H) mm
WEIGHT 29kg (including consumables)
PAPER HANDLING STANDARD PAPER UNIT MP tray (Multi-Purpose tray) 180 Sheet of Plain paper (80 g/m2)
Up to 20 envelopes
Up to 75 sheet of transparencies
Up to 75 sheet of labels
- A4, A5, B5, Letter (LT), Government Letter (GLT), Half Letter (HLT),
Executive (EXE), C5, C6, C10, DL, Monarch, ISO-B5
Custom-size paper: (92 to 216mm x 210 to 297mm)
- 64-105 g/m2 or up to 216 g/m2 on Extra Thick Paper
OPTIONAL PAPER INPUT 500-Sheet Paper Cassette Unit (C12C802181)
- A4, Letter (LT)
- 64-105 g/m2
- Plain paper, Recycled paper, Colour Laser paper
MAXIMUM PAPER INPUT 680 pages
STANDARD PAPER OUTPUT 250 sheets (face down tray)
Note: Extra Thick paper, Thick paper, Transparencies, Labels, Envelopes cannot be printed using the Duplex unit *Due to the variety of envelopes available Epson recommends the testing of envelope samples to ensure satisfactory printing results
INTERFACES
STANDARD IEEE 1284 bi-directional compatible and ECP compatible parallel interface
Hi-Speed USB (2.0 compatible)
PRINTER CONTROL LANGUAGE EMULATION
STANDARD ESC/Page-Color S (Host Based)
ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS (OPERATING)
TEMPERATURE 10°C to 32°C (operation) 0°C to 32°C (storage) HUMIDITY 15% to 85% RH (operation) 15% to 85% RH (storage) ACCOUSTIC NOISE LEVEL 53.0dB(A) Standby, 30dB(A) Operating DURABILITY 5 years or 600,000 pages whichever comes first
MONTHLY PRINT VOLUME 35,000 pages
MONTHLY DUTY CYCLE 10,000 pages average

[Xavie]

Epsons are great. My favourite printer I ahve used so far. You can gte generic ink for most of them and they have pretty good quality. It is cheaper to print at home if you get cheap ink.

I now have a canon which I picked up super cheap and has a scanner and is quite good but no generic ink so I pay a fortune in ink or make a mess trying to fill them up with a syringe.

I'll prob go colour laser next. you can pick them up for under 400 and the quality smokes an inkjet and colours won't run either!

Also, you get only around 60% of printed pages compared to what the maker of the laser printer says. And ribbons wildly fluctuate in price dependent on brand so keep an eye on that.

Xav

[JDNSW]

What do you fellas think about this Epson Aculaser ?

Harris Technology has the cheapest deal at the moment for $341,
..........

Actually looks quite attractive on the specs, with one problem I can see - max of 32C and minimum 15% humidity even for storage. This implies airconditioning full time over most of Australia in summer, even for storage. This could be a bit hard to meet.

It does not mention power consumption, which could be fairly high, and note that the weight is very high (typically ten times) compared to an inkjet.

But it seems electrostatic printers are becoming more practical, and this is definitely my preference.

John

[Disco_owner]

Actually looks quite attractive on the specs, with one problem I can see - max of 32C and minimum 15% humidity even for storage. This implies airconditioning full time over most of Australia in summer, even for storage. This could be a bit hard to meet.

It does not mention power consumption, which could be fairly high, and note that the weight is very high (typically ten times) compared to an inkjet.

But it seems electrostatic printers are becoming more practical, and this is definitely my preference.

John

Specs on power consumption

POWER REQUIREMENTS
RATED VOLTAGE 220V to 240V ±10%
RATED FREQUENCY 50Hz to 60Hz ±3Hz
POWER CONSUMPTION MAX 782W
POWER CONSUMPTION AVERAGE (Operating) 257W
POWER CONSUMPTION (Standby) 61W
POWER CONSUMPTION (Sleep Mode) 16 W

[JDNSW]

Specs on power consumption

POWER REQUIREMENTS
RATED VOLTAGE 220V to 240V ±10%
RATED FREQUENCY 50Hz to 60Hz ±3Hz
POWER CONSUMPTION MAX 782W
POWER CONSUMPTION AVERAGE (Operating) 257W
POWER CONSUMPTION (Standby) 61W
POWER CONSUMPTION (Sleep Mode) 16 W




Even more than I expected it to be - the standby power is more than the maximum power use of a typical inkjet (mine is 40w maximum for example), and the sleep mode power consumption is a disgrace in this day and age!

And the typical power use is as much as the rest of your computer system is likely to be. But I suppose you could switch it off at the wall a lot of the time (but would you?).

I'm afraid the conclusion is that they are not as competitive as I thought!

John

[Disco_owner]

Even more than I expected it to be - the standby power is more than the maximum power use of a typical inkjet (mine is 40w maximum for example), and the sleep mode power consumption is a disgrace in this day and age!

And the typical power use is as much as the rest of your computer system is likely to be. But I suppose you could switch it off at the wall a lot of the time (but would you?).

I'm afraid the conclusion is that they are not as competitive as I thought!

John

I'm Starting to lean more towards the Inject type printers , I was really after the the DVD/CD printing facility and did't want to Purchase a seperate lighscribe ready DVD burner , or can I download software to enable my Toshiba DVD burner to become lightscribe ready? now with regards to Ink drying out on the Inkjet I would probably be printing Photos at least once a week.

[simonr23]

i have a xerox (samsung i belive) mono laser printer, as i didnt need the colour printing(saved money) . i went laser, as it works out cheaper for me over the course of a year. printer was 160 with a "starter" toner(1500 pages). i could have gotten an inkjet for 40-70 and just bought their cheaper cartridges(20-40ea) as i needed them. would have ended up costing me more after a few months(i am a heavy user though).

cost for a new toner and/or drum for a laser is usually around 70-130. bear in mind though that these drums/toners(some are all-in-one unit, others seperate) will print off anywher from 1500-4500 pages (depends on brand and which toner you go for) before needing replacing. an inkjet cartridge will last anywhere from 200-500 pages(again brand/model dependant). while the initial cost of the colour laser is higher, if you will be using it frequently it will work out cheaper after say 2000 prints(arbritary number).

basically dont discount lasers without doing some research and seeing the true figures. i'm not at all saying that laser is for all usage types, but their purchase price is now getting to the point where it's worth looking into. their benefits in use are very nice.

cheers.

[loanrangie]

After owning 2 epsom printers that died shortly after the warranty ran out i will never buy another, i now have a Canon Pixma MP600 scanner/ copier and couldnt be happier. My wife usually prints a lot of photo's up to A4 size for family and friends and i print on DVD's, easy to use and have only just replaced 1 ink cartridge in a little over a year. Lightscribe doesnt print in colour,i have a LS burner and dont use that function- plus you need to use LS discs.

[Disco_owner]

Thanks loanie;

from what you're saying, I should stay clear of Epson then ? what do you reckon about Cannon PIXMA ip5300 ,



1 picolitre FINE (Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering) print-head technology
ChromaLife100 (http://www.canon.com.au/home/story_1354.html) ink for beautiful, long-lasting photos
Up to 9600 x 2400 dpi printing resolution :eek:
ContrastPLUS 5 individual ink tank system with photo black for improved image contrast
Print a borderless 6" x 4" photo in approximately 21 seconds
Fast print speed of up to 31 ppm in black and 24 ppm in colour
PictBridge compatible - direct digital camera printing
Prints directly onto printable surface CDs and DVDs
Built-in automatic duplex unit for convenient double sided printing
Features dual paper path - auto sheet feeder (ASF) & front cassette - perfect for easy switching between plain and photo paper. Also allows huge plain paper capacity up to 300 sheets

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2008/06/653.jpg

[loanrangie]

Thanks loanie;

from what you're saying, I should stay clear of Epson then ? what do you reckon about Cannon PIXMA ip5300 ,



1 picolitre FINE (Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering) print-head technology
ChromaLife100 (http://www.canon.com.au/home/story_1354.html) ink for beautiful, long-lasting photos
Up to 9600 x 2400 dpi printing resolution :eek:
ContrastPLUS 5 individual ink tank system with photo black for improved image contrast
Print a borderless 6" x 4" photo in approximately 21 seconds
Fast print speed of up to 31 ppm in black and 24 ppm in colour
PictBridge compatible - direct digital camera printing
Prints directly onto printable surface CDs and DVDs
Built-in automatic duplex unit for convenient double sided printing
Features dual paper path - auto sheet feeder (ASF) & front cassette - perfect for easy switching between plain and photo paper. Also allows huge plain paper capacity up to 300 sheets

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2008/06/653.jpg

My personal view is to stay away from them, you cant go wrong with the pixma, more features than i'll ever use.

[HangOver]

What do you fellas think about this Epson Aculaser ?

Harris Technology has the cheapest deal at the moment for $341,
GENERAL PRODUCT NAME AcuLaser C1100
PRODUCT CODE C11C567001



I had a quick check for prices for this printer and I am seeing cartridges around the 90-100 mark, bear in mind it takes 4 carts in most colour laser printers. Also the developer unit is around $150-$180 and will last a year or two depending on volume of printing.
So the $350 printer will cost you about $400 for a cart refil as soon as the initial carts run out.
BTW carts supplied with new printers are never full. They usually have enough to last you a couple of months.