Photo Printer Recommendations

[MossRoad]

The actual costs of good color printing at home can far outway the cost of the trip to the Walgreens as you mentioned, where the 4x6 prints are as little as 20 cents a poke. Be sure to add up the total costs of printing. That includes the cost of the printer, the ink cartridges and the paper. See if you can find how many prints the cartridges are rated for, etc...

We have an Epson for color printing of school stuff and things like that. Their inks look great years later. I like them better than the HPs that I have seen.

 

[Tractors4u]

I would definately do some cropping, color fixing, and etc. We have been without a color printer for a while and she wants something to do photos with. We had a Compaq printer that came with our first computer that finally died. It did print some nice photos when you used photo paper even though it was a cheapo printer. I think she likes the idea of the small handy size portable printer such as the Epson and others like it. If she wants to sit in the living room with her laptop and print photos while she watches TV or whatever. Most of the 4X6 printers I have seen spec out at about 29 cents per print. I still like the idea of one that can print 8X10's that I take with the Rebel Digital 6 mega pixel. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Sounds like you need 2 printers!

 

[SkyPup]

We have a professional Epson P2000 color ink jet photographic printer with 150 year archival inks, it is difficult to tell the difference between it and a Kodak 100ASA color print. I would highly recommend Epson for professional result.

We had a professional ALPS dye sublimation printer prior to the Epson for professional color prints, it was okay but not reliable and trashed it after only one year.

The HP inkjet printers have come a long way lately with new inks that resist photo-oxidation and ultraviolet crossbonding of the aromatic components of the ink. We use a couple of different HP DeskJets for normal photo printing that is not archival professional quality.

Remember, the price of the printer itself is nothing compared to the paper and ink you use in it, all the manufacturers know this too....

 

[Logan]

I have to agree with MossRoad. I have tried printing at home and have found it expensive and get mixed results. I printed about eight pages of prints last week and it took almost half the ink in the color cartridge to do it. And I wasted two pages trying to get everything set up. I just got back from Eckerds Drugs and asked about their photo service. They told me to download photos in jpeg format to a CD and they would print the pictures on Kodak paper, just like 35 MM prints, for 29 cents each.

 

[BillG_in_TX]

I have used Ritz Camera for digital photo printing. They do a great job, with professional quality equipment and personnel.

Just today, I tried their on-line service at RitxPix.com. It was fairly painless. Same prices as in-store dropoff, and I'll stop by the store on the way home from work and pick up the finished product (they will mail them, also).

 

[Gatorboy]

<font color="blue"> I have used Ritz Camera for digital photo printing... I tried their on-line service </font>

Sam's, Wal*Mart among others have this same type of service.

 

[frank_f15]

I WILL AGREE with MOSSROAD. I PRINTED A LOT OF PHOTOS ON MY EPSON 890 , GREAT PHOTOS, BUT I FOUND IT IS EASIER AND LESS EXPENSIVE TO TAKE THE DISK to the local store and let them print them i still on occasion print photos if the wife just has to have one real quick, or for special projects.

 

[_RaT_]

Dye sublimation is not necessarily the only way to go for fade resistant, waterproof prints. Epsons R800 usees dye chrome inks as do the 2000 series (which is about to be replaced) as well as their larger format printers. Go to stevesdigicam.com for tons of helpful info. As fade resistant and water proof as the Epson dye chrome is, I still think the inkjets that uses pigmented inks produce superior richer colors which seems to be the concensous (especially Canons i9900, the color is unbelieveable). The problems is that they may fade appreciably in time depending on exposure. If you simply place a print on the refrigerator with a magnet and especially in any amount of sun, it will be a problem. If you mount it and keep it out of the UV, it will last a remarkably long time. If it goes in a photo album, even the pigment inks are lasting for quite some time. The Epson R800 produces very nice photos up to 8X10 full bleed. It will print to a CD as well. For the best in affordable Black & White, nothing compares to the HP 8450. While I use various programs to help with my post processing, the new Photoshop Elements 3 is very good, simple and offers a very good photo database. I use Qiamge for my printing, both programs are relatively inexpensive.

Canon 9900

Epson R800

HP 8450


I use a Canon 300D and primarily print 4X6 on my Epson 800 or HP. I do however print some pretty incredible shots of my 3 year old on 8X10 premium glossy Epson paper. The only other paper (from Epson) recommended for the R800 is Epsons Premium Matte. Neither in the 8X10 size are cheap, but the results from a high image quality like the DRebel etc., can be staggering. I always do a 4x6 test print first as what you see on your screen is never what you get. The problems is screens are RGB or Red Green Blue and printers are CYMK or Cyan Yellow Magenta and Black. Additive and subtractive color issues .

RaT...

 

[SkyPup]

I agree with your comments, I have a dedicated $50,000+ digital desktop publishing setup here in my laboratory for digitized professional scientific submissions to peer reviewed journals and the Epson archival inks work much better than the dye sublimation setups. We do fluroescent microscopic photographs of human tumor cell lines as well as reporter gene expression via transgenic viral infections of human cells and the Epson is first class. I have a cloned setup at home so I can work from my home office as well and even some of my friends who are professional photographers come by to learn how to digitize their work! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif