IMD
Active Member
I've had 2 Canon Pixmas...great quality and not badly priced either. It's worth checking that the one you buy has separate ink cartridges, black and separate colours. If not, you'll find that you end up spending a fortune on replacement ink.
Just imagine if you were printing loads of summer holiday snaps with blue sky in each. If you have a printer with one colour cartridge that does all colours, it will soon tell you it's empty, even though you've just used up all the Cyan ink. You'd be better off just replacing the cyan cartridge.
The slightly more expensive Canons have this facility, and even though they will cost more initially, you'll soon recoup your costs.
Happy printing
Ian
Just imagine if you were printing loads of summer holiday snaps with blue sky in each. If you have a printer with one colour cartridge that does all colours, it will soon tell you it's empty, even though you've just used up all the Cyan ink. You'd be better off just replacing the cyan cartridge.
The slightly more expensive Canons have this facility, and even though they will cost more initially, you'll soon recoup your costs.
Happy printing
Ian
andy_k
MB Enthusiast
another vote for Canon Pixmas here
Canon Pixma 9000 & 9500 here - and I'll probably sell one or both of them
I find I get better results from a £200k lab printer than I can produce at home, and the price is very similar when yuo take wastage and consumables into consideration.
I use a couple of pro labs with custom versions of their printer profiles and I get stunning results. Now I use the labs to print anything I want to keep/frame/sell/give away- and I only run test prints on my Pixmas these days
I find I get better results from a £200k lab printer than I can produce at home, and the price is very similar when yuo take wastage and consumables into consideration.
I use a couple of pro labs with custom versions of their printer profiles and I get stunning results. Now I use the labs to print anything I want to keep/frame/sell/give away- and I only run test prints on my Pixmas these days
whizzkid11
Active Member
Depends on quality you want - HP, Canon and Epsom.
Personally, I am a HP man!!
Personally, I am a HP man!!
TonyVianoAmbiente
Active Member
I have two Epson pro printers and they offer outstanding quality, as long as they are used regularly. The problem comes when you go away for a couple of weeks and the print heads clog up. There is an automated cleaning routine but it uses lots of expensive ink, and it doesn't always work 100%. So I would not recommend Epson for amateur use, unless you can guarantee to print at least once a week.
One exception to that - I have an inexpensive Epson Picturemate which does wonderful 6" x 4" prints and doesn't seem to dry out even if not used for a month. As a professional I always buy a backup, but my backup Picturemate is still unused in its unopened and still-sealed box because the original is still 100% reliable. I must put it on eBay sometime.
For most of my work, especially weddings, I use Photobox. You upload your image files into galleries and then you have a very wide range of options for printing. The standard service offered is superb. They also do a rather more expensive service for pros like me who demand a very high standard of consistency across large numbers of prints, but most amateurs have no need for that. Their PhotoBooks are particularly good value.
Photobox are very quick and very reasonably priced, and I have never had the slightest cause for complaint:
LINK TO PHOTOBOX
GrahamC230K
MB Enthusiast
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I'd say forget photo printing at home an use a printing service.
Lots to choose from but I personally use http://www.photobox.co.uk/
Good price and next day.
Doh! Just read post above!
Lots to choose from but I personally use http://www.photobox.co.uk/
Good price and next day.
Doh! Just read post above!
- Joined
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Canon Pixma get my vote! Excellent quality prints
TonyVianoAmbiente
Active Member
No problem, Graham! If twenty people recommended Photobox it still wouldn't adequately represent the fact that Photobox are extremely good.
The other lab I would recommend is at my local ASDA, where one of the operator came from a pro background and is wonderfully capable. His colleagues are all very good too.
whizzkid11
Active Member
Thats just your local ASDA, and definitely not indicative of the ASDA chain as a whole. I have found ASDA and, most definately TRUPRINT - to be so damn rubbish that I took the same pictures elsewhere to be printed.
As mentioned on a few other threads, I really do recommend COSTCO for printing of special photos - the prices are very reasonable, and the quality of prints is also good - they can even tweak some of the pictures for you in terms of colours, brightness and generally more vibrant.
