Photo Printers

how often and what sizes will you print, will you use it for text docs?, the reason i ask is that i print maybe 6-10 images a year, at the beginning of this year i bought an epson NX-415 , paid about $99 if i remember corrrectly, at best buy, it was purchased because i could not seem to make my lexmark b&w text only work with mac, of course it was 4 years old, and i paid a total of $42 for it, so i got my $ worth. now i could print photos with my new printer but have not so far, most of the time i just burn to a cd, and print up to 8x10 at the local cvs, i pass right by it going to and from one of my job sites, it's cheap, the prints look pretty good, and anything larger i send out top a commercial lab. the problem with owning a home printer is that inks and papers are expensive, and unless you print regularly, you run the risk of the nozzles clogging, plus you need to spend a fair amount of learning time and expend some inks and paper, learning how to do it, color management is a whole other complex world to learn,
so i feel this is one purchase that really needs to be looked at from all angles, other than that, basically any epson, hp, canon, will do the trick, model, well get the one you can afford, my epson was actually purchased for scanning as i am collating, scanning and putting into the digital photo frame the 60 years worth of unlabeled photos from the jamesport fire department, fires, accidents, drills, parades, carnivals, etc. the 15" pandigital frame that i got the social fund of the department to pay for has proven to be a big hit, especially among the older members, as i have it randomly doing 60 second shots from over 2000 and growing.
if what you want is a home display of your photos, then consider getting a large photo frame, you can have the display in order, random, change the time , display for 24 hours, stay static until you change the show, a lot of options for display, music etc. i liked the one from the fire dept so much i went and bought the same exact one for home.
 
I agree with Gary. ; If you get a good quality photo printer, you need to print a large number of photos to break even and you have to print frequently to keep the heads clean. ; I looked at getting a nice printer two years ago and when I did the math, it was going to cost me more to print an 8x10 than it did to send it to an online professional lab like Mpix.
 
I keep going back and forth on this topic. ; Still haven't purchased a printer. ; I don't send images out often either. ; I would be real nice to just once and awhile hit the print button and have an image you created right at your desktop. ; I know it isn't that simple, there is paper to match to your printer, color calibration, ink refills, etc. ; One of these days.....
 
I have an Epson 1900, love it. But I was never sure how much it cost to do a full 8x10 (or 8.5x11) print. Red River Paper did an article that put the cost per print (glossy) about $1.00 per print. The single advantage is that you can immediately have a print. You can print to Costco and go pick it up in about an hour (for a reasonable price). MPIX will get it to you the next day if you get it up to them by 10.

Personally, the quality that MPIX will give you wins hands down. A good quality printer will also give you good results, along with immediate feedback in case something is set wrong, but MPIX will also frame and matte it (if you want).

If you're looking at cost, Costco is your best bet. Quality, MPIX. But there *is* something special when you say "Yeah, I printed this out just the other day..." Maybe it's a guy thing. ; ::)
 
I think you are on to something Tom. ; Its that sense of you making the print and tweaking it if the results aren't quite to your liking. ;
 
aahhh, but how much ink and paper used up learning the tweaks. i still just can't get behind doing my own, but i also freely admit that i have almost nothing hanging or on display anymore smaller than 11x14, most of my wall stuff, including my 4 park icons, are 16x20. so i really don't need the 8x10 capability, and if i did, mpix it would be
 
Yeah, testing prints can REALLY consume ink. (Even more than a head cleaning....) I use Photoshop and Lightroom to do the majority of my printing. If I am printing a set, I'll do one test print and go from there. Hopefully nobody monkied around with the settings to it should be close. If not, then you can bet on one to many test prints, each a little less than $1, since if I can tell it's bad, I'll abort the print.
 
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