Time for a new printer, suggestions?

[MisterESauce]

Anybody got any suggestions for a cheap color printer whose cartridges cost less than 70 bucks a pair? I'm just tired of giving money to Epson when I don't even really like the quality of the prints with my Stylus 777. Thanks in advance, all!

 

[Zepper]

Whichever of the new Canon Pixma models that covers your mix of printing best. There are multiple threads in Gen Hdwr and here about them. There are reviews of several models on steves-digicams.com and my review of my iP3000 is here: http://www.techimo.com/reviews/ . I think the iP4000 is the best all-around model with a print mix weighted more to the text side. Look at the iP6000D if your mix is heavily weighted toward photo printing and you demand better than what 4-color printing can do. I get a full set of 3rd-party tanks (4) for my iP3000 for $11. shipped
. See the thread in this section about ink for sources and preferences. Unfortunately you just missed out on the big discounts on the iP3000 model (was $64.75 shipped from newegg for a little while) - but there may be other deals this week, I haven't checked yet.
.bh.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Canon printers definately recommended...good quality prints and ink refills a fraction of the cost for Lexmark and HP.

 

[CanonCam]

Canon iP3000 or iP6000. You can refill all the tanks for <$20 a shot, and you only have to replace the colors one at a time, unlike the Epson. With the Epson, if the Red portion of your cartridge is empty, you replace the whole thing. With Canon, you have Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, and black.

 

[skiersteve]

Actually all the new Epsons are individual ink tanks now, so the only ones that will really get you on your ink costs are the HP and Lexmarks with their multiple tri-color cartridges...

 

[Keyvan]

I'd go with Pixma i4000. The only difference between this and the 5000 is that the 5000 uses droplets of one picolitre instead of the 4000's two picolitre droplets. From what I've read, apparently the smaller droplets give you better photo print, but not as great text. Also the 4000 is one of the few printers out there that has parallel and usb ports(not that important i guess).
also, both have dual paper paths(two trays) and duplexing. and they have the two different black ink tanks (5 ink tanks in total), so you also have a dye based black which is good for photos.

 

[madthumbs]

Originally posted by: skiersteve
Actually all the new Epsons are individual ink tanks now, so the only ones that will really get you on your ink costs are the HP and Lexmarks with their multiple tri-color cartridges...

-No, Epsons still rape you on ink.

Go Canon as suggested. :thumbsup:

 

[Zepper]

Newegg has the iP3000 on their one-day sale again - $67.25 !!

Don't forget to DL the latest drivers - they do make a difference.

.bh.

 

[madthumbs]

Swung by this thread again.. Thought to mention inksaver: http://www.inksaver.com/ and Fineprint: http://www.pdffactory.com/ which will save on paper and ink. Between the two, you'll probably use less than half the ink you were.

 

[murban135]

Originally posted by: Keyvan
I'd go with Pixma i4000. The only difference between this and the 5000 is that the 5000 uses droplets of one picolitre instead of the 4000's two picolitre droplets. From what I've read, apparently the smaller droplets give you better photo print, but not as great text. Also the 4000 is one of the few printers out there that has parallel and usb ports(not that important i guess).
also, both have dual paper paths(two trays) and duplexing. and they have the two different black ink tanks (5 ink tanks in total), so you also have a dye based black which is good for photos.

I just bought an ip4000 and it is great, highly recommended.

 

[Mermaidman]

Another vote for Canon. My trusty old S820 still churns out very nice photos.