Looking For New MFC

[hennessy1]

I have a friend that wants to do photo editing work. She wants a scanner and a printer for occasional prints. They will be just documents no photo printing. Her only req. are as follows

-$500 price max
-High Quality Scanner
-Larger than Letter size Scanner
-Has individual ink cartridges
-Fast Scanning at high dpi setting

I am really only familiar with the brother mfc series specifically the 6890cdw model. I don't know if the newer line improves or is worse than that model.

I do light scanning with it usually no higher than 900dpi.

If there is any other information that would be useful for your help let me know.

Thank you for any help.

 

[gsaldivar]

The 6890CDW is discontinued. Instead, I would suggest one of the newer models (MFC-J5910DW, J6510DW, J6710DW or J6910DW), which range from $200-300 depending on the options.

The scanner is decent on these models, and as you know you will get large format (11x17) printing, decent scan speed, and individual ink cartridges. The J6XXXDW series gives you a better print engine, manual feed slot, 11x17 scanner, and larger printer panel. The J6710DW and J6910DW give you an additional paper input tray, and an extra year on the warranty (3 years vs 2 years on the other models). Lastly, the J6910DW gives you a touchscreen front panel (surprisingly useful), and duplex copy/fax capability.

You can find generic print cartridges on eBay relatively easy for this printer, which is a huge plus in my opinion.

 

[hennessy1]

Do you think that would be the best model or brand to go with keeping in mind the the req. she asked for?

 

[gsaldivar]

All printers in this price range are consumer and small-business oriented. It's quite easy to find equipment that is much more expensive, targeted towards discriminating graphic designers, artists and photographers. The most expensive of the models listed is $300 which is very cheap compared to more professional equipment. I think it's best if your friend takes a few photos and a memory stick to a local Staples or Office Depot that has one of these on display. Then scan something in at a high resolution and see if its suitable for her needs. I suspect that scan quality will be quite suitable, even though these are not really targeted for professional design use.

 

[hennessy1]

Alright I will try that out I scanned a picture at the highest res. for my 6890 and it took about a minute and resulted in a 160MB png file. I know I could have changed the type but I kept that so I know roughly how long for a larger file type. Thank you for your help.