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Stand Alone Photo Printers...Suggestions Please

I have just finsihed my reasearch for a printer. HP's are good, but ink is a little expensive. Epson and Canon seems to be the best quality and cheaper ink. I have setteled on the canon iP5000. Which I am about to go buy, and if you don't mind me hijacking your thread for a second, I have a question. Does USB 2.0 actually improve print speed?
 
USB 2.0: It will not speed up the actually printer while it prints at all. It could theoretically speed up the time it takes for the data to be sent to your printer. I say that because it has higher bandwidth than USB 1.1, however it wouldn't speed it up by much unless you are printing files in excess of 10MBs, even then you'd only notice a second or two speed increase.

As for the stand alone Photo Printer...I don't know if you mean no PC involved or a solely Photo printing printer (as opposed to the larger printers that print both pictures and regular b/w & color papers) I will post some pictures of my Sony PictureStation DPP-EX50. If you don't need a color LCD to view the pictures on the printer then this is the printer you need to get. It has the best quality prints.

Edit: If you go to BestBuy they should have one set up. Bring your memory stick with you and try printing something out. They should have no problem with this as my dad did this up in Wisconsin. We ended up buying three of them *yup, three* one for myself, one for my dad and one for my brother.
 
Stand alone without a PC involved is what I am shooting for. An LCD is also a must so I can preview my prints. I am however interested to see pics of the Sony🙂 Thanks!
 
Well another one of the canons that got good reviews was the i6000D. It has media reader and LCD, so I assume it can function as a stand alone, but that is just an assumption.
 
Originally posted by: MX2times
Stand alone without a PC involved is what I am shooting for. An LCD is also a must so I can preview my prints. I am however interested to see pics of the Sony🙂 Thanks!
Click to expand...

Funny F#$&ing movie clip of the printer!!!!! - A MUST DOWNLOAD! (Hint, turn up the sound to appreciate the scene.)

Hahah I was just shooting the process of the print job because it does take a good minute and a half to print. It prints 4 layers. The yellow, then red, then cyan then a clear coat protection layer. There is absolutely no smearing with these pictures. You really need to read up on it and take a serious look at it. It supports PrictBridge so you do not need a computer, you can print directly from the camera or by memory card.

Final Picture - Taken by my new Sony DSC-T1. I'm new to picture taking so the image sucks, sorry! 🙁


Btw to explain the movie, the cat jumped up towards the in and tried to get in the shot. I grabbed him with the left hand and tried to keep a steady shot of the printer. He started to scirmish in my hand and began to fall just as I saw the picture coming out. I released my hold on him and he fell and knocked a whole stack of things including a glass bottle and some extras. It was quite amusing.
 
It supports Memory Stick, CompactFlash and if you have a CompactFlash Adapter then it supports SM, SD, and xD. Same with the Memory Stick and the Memory Stick Pro Duos (What I have.)

I'm completely new to digital photography see PictBridge should allow you to use it as a standalone w/ picture view, from my understanding. Please correct me if I'm wrong, anyone.
 
I researched all the standalones a couple months ago...HP, epson picturemate, Hi-Touch, and sony. For quality, dye sublimation is the best bet, sony or Hi-touch. I took a compact flash to a local store and printed the same picture on HP, picturemate, and the sony. By far the sony had the best all around picture. I have the ex-50 which does not have an LCD, but if you have a pict-bridge compatible camera there is really no need for the LCD, in my opinion. Either the pictures will be on a card in the camera or downloaded to a computer. Now there is the option to hook the sony printer up to a TV which gives you editing options, but I have not had the chance to do it yet. As far as cost, If you buy the bulk sony paper/cartrige, then it comes out to about 29 cents a prints, similar to most stores (walmart, kmart, target.) I wouldn't print volumes with it, but it definitely comes in handy for several prints at once.
 
I researched all the standalones a couple months ago...HP, epson picturemate, Hi-Touch, and sony. For quality, dye sublimation is the best bet, sony or Hi-touch. I took a compact flash to a local store and printed the same picture on HP, picturemate, and the sony. By far the sony had the best all around picture. I have the ex-50 which does not have an LCD, but if you have a pict-bridge compatible camera there is really no need for the LCD, in my opinion. Either the pictures will be on a card in the camera or downloaded to a computer. Now there is the option to hook the sony printer up to a TV which gives you editing options, but I have not had the chance to do it yet. As far as cost, If you buy the bulk sony paper/cartrige, then it comes out to about 29 cents a prints, similar to most stores (walmart, kmart, target.) I wouldn't print volumes with it, but it definitely comes in handy for several prints at once.
Click to expand...

I don't know where the heck you're getting a $0.29 per print figure with the Sony printer. Let's do the math. The 75-print bulk pack costs $39.99 retail at most stores. That's $0.53 per print, not $0.29. Unless of course you found that bulk pack for under $22 - point me in that direction because I'd like to know! Furthermore, I don't know about you, but as a photographer I think snap-off perforations are tacky. They leave jaggies all over the edges of the prints. The whole point behind printing at home is making it convenient to produce photos that look and feel like the real thing.

Epson PictureMate is the best overall bang for the buck and I'll tell you why:

1) Dye sub printers produce great, durable pictures but also have highest per-print costs among the standalone 4x6 printers. Sony, Kodak, Hi-Touch, and Canon all use dye-sub technology for their printing. You're looking at roughly $0.50-0.60 per print. The minlabs charge about half that for equal or better quality.

2) The PictureMate matches average photo lab print costs at $0.30 per print. You buy the paper and the ink in a package for $30 that gives you 100 prints. If you don't get all 100 prints, Epson has a guarantee that will refund you the difference plus postage.

3) Dye sub prints are durable, but they aren't very fade resistant. 4-12 years is the norm for a dye sub print. On Wilhelm Imaging Research's recent 4x6 printer longetivity test, the Sony model came out at the bottom (4 years). Would you honestly want that print to last only 4 years? The PictureMate's prints last 100+ years in the same condition (photo stored in a UV-shielded glass frame). The HP Photosmart 325/375 came in very close at 82 years (but this is assuming you use their Premium Plus paper, which costs $30 for 100 sheets - add in a $25 color cartridge and you're talking at LEAST $55 for 100 prints, assuming the cartridge lasts that long).

4) The PictureMate uses a 6-color pigment ink set, giving it a better color gamut than any of its competition (all others use 3 colors, with the exception of Sony, who uses 4). Since these inks are pigmented, you get the benefits of a long-lasting print (see #3 above) that is also water- and smudge-resistant just like a dye sub print. Again, you only had to pay half as much to get that!

5) The PictureMate is the most versatile 4x6 photo printer on the market. You can print from memory cards, straight from a PictBridge/USB Direct camera, from external Zip and CD-RW drives, from a PC, etc. You can even dump a memory card straight to an external storage device using the Save Photo feature.
 
I am leaning towards the HP in my original post simply due to the LCD screeen onboard. Anyone have any idea how good it is?
 
I stand corrected on the above print price. I paid $30 each for four when I bought the sony 75 value pack a couple months ago, which translates to $.40 a print. I don't recall what store, but it was a local one I walked into. I am no expert printer or photographer, and am only giving my opinion as to what I saw first hand with prints done in front of me. Out of all of them I saw, I thought the epson gave the worst print in terms of color comparison. I was actually ready to buy the epson picturemate based on reviews and changed my mind after this. Fade resistance is a good point and had I known about it at the time maybe I would not have bought the Sony printer. Something for me to take into consideration the next time.
 
The HP 375 is very good. I originally wanted the epson but I ended up with the HP because of the LCD screen. The only problem with the HP is the higher cost of Ink.
 
Well, if it came down to a choice between the two, I'd take the HP over the Lexmark any day. I've seen both of them print using the manufacturer-recommended paper and OEM ink, of course.

On the Lexmark, you really need to play around with print settings to get a print that looks remotely equal in quality to the other inkjet-based 4x6 models. For a product that is targeted at users who don't want to use computer software to edit/crop, that is unacceptable. Just about every other model consistently produces superior prints using basic settings. The memory card readers built into the Lexmark P315 are VERY picky with card formatting. Sometimes they'll stall while reading certain cards. Completely unacceptable.

 
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