Printers...

[mrpcman]

My sister and I are in need of a printer in AK since,(like all my other computer stuff) is in seattle. Anyhow, I'm kinda partial to HP, but I'll pick anything that's decent and reliable. We're looking at $250 tops, and it's mainly for photo printing, but still 5-6 text pages a day. My last printer was the HP 950C, and it wasn't bad at all, but seemed a bit slow. i was looking at these as possibilities; tell me what you think. HP Photosmart 7350
PhotoSmart 7150 Or DeskJet 5550 , DeskJet 6122
It needs to be purchased locally, and a BB just opened up in anchorage this weekend so now that's an option as well.Anybody have any experiences with these or know anything about em? TIA

[mrpcman]

Or Epson...anything that works well and isn't amazingly expensive. I also want something with decent ink prices.lol i'm asking for the world here.

[Daniel ~]

E-mail Robbie, he's our resident printer expert.

[The Spyder]

Im happy with my $99 HP 920c

[unclemojo]

I've got an HP 952c and with good paper it prints mighty fine pictures. THe Photosmart's are nice, but only if you're planning to print pics and high quality color. The black ink is still pretty pricey and they tend to use a lot. Set the feed to low when printing black on an HP.

[Southern Man]

I have a Lexmark Z13 I picked up at Best Buy for like $50.00 and it has a $30.00 rebate on it. I only use it for text printing but the times I've used it for color it wasn't too bad. I buy the big bottles of ink refills @ +/- $21.00. Been running for a year now & used to print about 30 pages a day with the same head in it. Still cranks out great documents. Not a moments trouble in a years time. Haven't tried any color stuff lately.

[mrpcman]

I had my lexmark printer die on me in a very short time, but they are pretty cheap now. yeah, that 95xc printer is what i had, but the ink was pretty dang expensive.

[unclemojo]

Originally posted by mrpcman
yeah, that 95xc printer is what i had, but the ink was pretty dang expensive.

I get refill kits online for about $9 ($14 shipped) They save a ton of money and work just as well as the branded HP ink carts. I'll scoop up a link or 3 for ya'll if you want One kit is good for 2 refills usually. Color kits are not nearly as bad as people say they are. I've been using them for years and never had problems. I have to agree that the branded carts are far more expensive and can deter buyers from getting a good printer, thats for sure.

[Pinky]

Canon S400 owner here.

relatively pleased, but I really need a good laser for the stuff I'd like to do... but for a sub-$100 inkjet it works great...

Replacement ink tanks are very cheap online

[robbie]

I'll post something tonight for ya guys.
Rob

[mrpcman]

I was looking at that S900 cannon printer for a bit under $300, and it has the individual color tanks, so you can replace them by themselves, but the downside is they cost more overall. That DeskJet 5550 is looking like a pretty good deal now. I've got a 3.2MP camera, so I'm looking for a semi capable one that won't kill me in the long run with ink costs. I would put more money up front if i save in supplies in the long run.

[robbie]

OK well from MY experiance HP's are GREAT boxes (errr printers we call them boxes) All the machines of there's that I've worked on have worked VERY WELL!!!

I can say this much about the one's that you have posted about. If you get a $300 printer it will be just that. A $300 printer. A printer that will probably have ALOT more features and (bells and whistles) than a $50 printer. But KNOW THIS they BOTH use pretty much the same technology to get the ink on the page.

Granted the $300 one will probably do it better and produce a better picture, they still pretty much both do it the same.

NOW with the $50 printer remember this. (YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!) I had a friend of mine that had one just go out on her. It lasted her about 3 years. I told her that this one servered her well and it was time to move on.

So she got another $50 printer that was pretty much the samething that she just had die on her but looked a little more modern. And with that one she had a USB port. As a matter of fact to keep costs down when they mad it, that's the ONLY PORT that it had on it.

Now if you really want quality then your going to have to goto Laserjet. Mind you those are pretty pricey but the quality is VERY GOOD.

So as much as I HATE to say it. I DON'T get service calls (professionally) to fix $50 printers (I charge $129 just to walk in the door) They seem to be ok, but I'm NOT sure how they rank as far as other printers. I'd say if you really really want something with quality then go with something that is around the $300 range and make sure that the cost is not in all the bells and whistles. (unless that's what you want)

If you have anymore question please feel free to post.
Rob

[mrpcman]

well, i ruled out the HP PhotoJet because it wanted too much ink cartridge swapping. The Epson ones looked a bit too dark, and the cannon ones were quick and bring. i Ended up buying the Canon S900, and will tell you how it works for me. I liked the idea of seperate color tanks, although they may come out a bit more on the whole to replace them all, but only time will tell for that. It did 2400x1200 4x6 in less then a minute, and looked sharp even on regular paper(i brought some digital pics of my own in). This printer is all printer; no bells and whistles. Thanks alot guys.

[Pinky]

Like I eluded to earlier, canon ink cartidges are available cheap online

[mrpcman]

now all i need to find is cheap 4x6 glossy photo paper that doesn't suck. i bought some cheap $6 for 40 compusa brand and it sucked. i tried to use the sample 4x6 that came with the printer and it's beautiful.