Whats a good color laser printer?

[Xernex]

I'm after some recommendations for a color laser printer. The problem is most are just so expensive, does anyone know of any good quality but affordable laser printers?

I've had it with inkjets I've tried the main brands and most just start turning out crappy, smudged pictures with all sorts of problems after a while no matter how much cleaning you do.

So any personal experiences would be helpful and also any links to any sites people might know of that maybe specializes in printers with reviews etc would be helpful.

My budget is I guess around the 700-800ish mark, i know that narrows the playing field considerably but there must be some decent ones out there.

Thanks.

 

[GusSmed]

To my knowledge, there is only one color laser in that price range: the Minolta Magicolor 2300W. I bought one about a year ago for exactly the reason you state, and I've been very happy with it.

About the only negative is that if you had a high print volume, the toner cartridges could theoretically get pricey. I'm unlikely to need replacement cartridges for years, myself, because I only occasionally do color printing. Regular printing I use my trustly 10 year old HP4L for.

- Gus

 

[LuckyTaxi]

can one really find a decent color laser printer in that range?

We're trying to replace our crappy deskjet in our computer labs at work. The technology teacher uses a lot of color ink and I'm sick and tired of jetdirect. We've looked into BOTH HP and Kyocera and both are price close to one another. We had a demo of a kyocera printer and it ran flawlessly! too bad it cost too much!

Anyways, try a Xerox.

 

[Markfw]

Find a used Tektronix Phaser 840 or 850 (solid ink). I got my 850 off ebay for $1200 almost new. I had a bid in on a 840 for $800, but lost in the last 5 seconds. They are pricey, but $/page they kick the ink-jets in the a$$. About 1/10th the cost if you do over $1000/month or more.

 

[zephyrprime]

Let me warn you, the print quality from a color laser isn't as good as from even a low-end inkjet.

 

[Zoinks]

I have a Magicolor 2300DL and I'm very happy with the printer and the output quality. The quality of text it is outstanding.

But you seem to be interested in a printer for photos. If so, a color laser is NOT for you. The smudginess of inkjets must somehow help blend the colors or something but color lasers are not the way to go. I agree - I've had 3 inkjet printers and I have not ever been satisfied with even one of them. They clog, they streak, they cause banding. I've had nothing but headaches - and these are printers that have had nothing but glowing reviews. Right now I don't know what to recommend for photos. I'm never going to buy an inkjet again. I think I'm going to start having them printed at some of the stores that offer that service and see how they turn out.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: Zoinks
I have a Magicolor 2300DL and I'm very happy with the printer and the output quality. The quality of text it is outstanding.

But you seem to be interested in a printer for photos. If so, a color laser is NOT for you. The smudginess of inkjets must somehow help blend the colors or something but color lasers are not the way to go. I agree - I've had 3 inkjet printers and I have not ever been satisfied with even one of them. They clog, they streak, they cause banding. I've had nothing but headaches - and these are printers that have had nothing but glowing reviews. Right now I don't know what to recommend for photos. I'm never going to buy an inkjet again. I think I'm going to start having them printed at some of the stores that offer that service and see how they turn out.

I am with you on this one... either spend HELLA bucks, or you get crappy printouts.
I'd take my stuff to Kinkos..

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
Let me warn you, the print quality from a color laser isn't as good as from even a low-end inkjet.

Maybe, but the output from a Tektronix Phaser 850 is comparable with a photo lab.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: CraigRT

Originally posted by: Zoinks
I have a Magicolor 2300DL and I'm very happy with the printer and the output quality. The quality of text it is outstanding.

But you seem to be interested in a printer for photos. If so, a color laser is NOT for you. The smudginess of inkjets must somehow help blend the colors or something but color lasers are not the way to go. I agree - I've had 3 inkjet printers and I have not ever been satisfied with even one of them. They clog, they streak, they cause banding. I've had nothing but headaches - and these are printers that have had nothing but glowing reviews. Right now I don't know what to recommend for photos. I'm never going to buy an inkjet again. I think I'm going to start having them printed at some of the stores that offer that service and see how they turn out.

I am with you on this one... either spend HELLA bucks, or you get crappy printouts.
I'd take my stuff to Kinkos..

Guess what Kinkos uses, Phaser 850 (or 840) and 780 printers.......

 

[Macro2]

RE:"Guess what Kinkos uses, Phaser 850 (or 840) and 780 printers......."

I've been to several Kinkos looking for samples from solid ink printers. They all had toner type color lasers.
-------------

I believe the latest solid ink printer from Xerox (old tectronix) has a street price of about $950. Less than they used to be. No more free blaack ink for life though.

 

[Xernex]

Originally posted by: Zoinks
I have a Magicolor 2300DL and I'm very happy with the printer and the output quality. The quality of text it is outstanding.

But you seem to be interested in a printer for photos. If so, a color laser is NOT for you. The smudginess of inkjets must somehow help blend the colors or something but color lasers are not the way to go. I agree - I've had 3 inkjet printers and I have not ever been satisfied with even one of them. They clog, they streak, they cause banding. I've had nothing but headaches - and these are printers that have had nothing but glowing reviews. Right now I don't know what to recommend for photos. I'm never going to buy an inkjet again. I think I'm going to start having them printed at some of the stores that offer that service and see how they turn out.

LOL those are the exact same thoughts I have been having about inkjets. I?m currently on my third inkjet to, and they are just CRAP. I mean its not just the photo quality I do photos every now and then and when it worked well it was good but recently its just turned pretty bad. When inkjets start to get worn they can?t even print a simple page of text properly. Ill get smudges of black randomly across the page, streaking and lines through the text.

Is so bloody annoying! Cleaning the heads etc makes it better for like 2 prints then its back to being crap again. If it even fixes it at all that is. Before I finished school last year I remember the school bought a few color laser printers and the print quality was superb, I know they were probably expensive makes but still I was very impressed.

I have been looking on ebay as someone suggested and you can indeed pick up some decent deals on there with used color laser printers going out for in many cases 1/6th or less of their RRP, and often come with 30 day return to seller option to. I think I'll defiantly have to keep an eye out on ebay for a good deal, seems the way to go. But there is a LOT of competition as it seems this is a popular way to get a laser printer.

Thanks for the suggestions and if anyone has any more input please feel free to post.

 

[0roo0roo]

cheap laser for text. good inkjet just for pictures and nothing else. inkets just suck at text/blackwhite output. even with premium papers its not crisp. color lasers are only good for stuff like brouchures etc, photo quality is less. cost per page of black and white laser is lower then inkjet. if u want quality photos with inkjet, one must buy all brand matching supplies, photo paper/inks etc. expensive. i just use photo developing services and a black and white printer for home. easier. let the professionals handle photo printing, u save no money doing it at home. unless you have business use for color laser, save color for kinkos or something.

 

[Macro2]

RE:"I?m currently on my third inkjet to, and they are just CRAP. I mean its not just the photo quality I do photos every now and then and when it worked well it was good but recently its just turned pretty bad."

Which printers have you had?

 

[alent1234]

Originally posted by: Xernex
I'm after some recommendations for a color laser printer. The problem is most are just so expensive, does anyone know of any good quality but affordable laser printers?

I've had it with inkjets I've tried the main brands and most just start turning out crappy, smudged pictures with all sorts of problems after a while no matter how much cleaning you do.

So any personal experiences would be helpful and also any links to any sites people might know of that maybe specializes in printers with reviews etc would be helpful.

My budget is I guess around the 700-800ish mark, i know that narrows the playing field considerably but there must be some decent ones out there.

Thanks.

are you using the real name brand ink, off brand or refilling ink? To get best results you have to use the real stuff since the formula is patented and the drivers are calibrated to the original formula.

I once worked in a place that used off brand remanufactured toner for HP laserjet printers and they would always get jammed. The tech support guy charged $150 per visit and gave me a tip to use the HP toner. After that no more jams. It cost twice as much, but the savings on the support visits and more printed pages per cartridge outweighed it.

 

[GusSmed]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
Let me warn you, the print quality from a color laser isn't as good as from even a low-end inkjet.

That's not my experience. I owned a succession of Epson color inkjets, and the Magicolor 2300 produces color prints that are easily better looking than any of the Epson inkjet printers I've used.

And yes, I'm almost always printing photos, not color bar charts or something.

- Gus

 

[farmercal]

Boy, am I the only one here that has a good inkjet printer? Or do you guys print on a non-stop basis? I have been using my Canon S600 going on 2-3 years now and it still prints everything I want as good as it did when it was new and the prints heads have never clogged. Maybe I just got lucky, BTW I use a refill kit and still get good quality documents. On a side not, I don't print prictures. If I wanted to print pics, I guess I would get a printer designed just for that purpose.

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Find a used Tektronix Phaser 840 or 850 (solid ink). I got my 850 off ebay for $1200 almost new. I had a bid in on a 840 for $800, but lost in the last 5 seconds. They are pricey, but $/page they kick the ink-jets in the a$$. About 1/10th the cost if you do over $1000/month or more.

we have a 850d model at work, uses vax cubes I think
very good quality, the color stuff lasts very well, the vax is a little bit expensive though

 

[robcy]

Im with Farmercal, I only use inkjets I have a 10 year old canon BJC-250, and a 1 yr old Epson PHOTO 825. Cant say I have ever had a problem with any binding, streaks, or anything period. The Canon is old, and gets used quite a bit since me and the wifey are turning into lifer students that will probably never finish studing.

 

[Macro2]

RE:"wifey are turning into lifer students that will probably never finish studing."

Since you are "studing" all the time you must have a lot of kids? <G>

 

[wseyller]

Hp has some as low as $500

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/ho/WF02a/18972-236251-236268.html

 

[Paperlantern]

drawback to tektronix, any respectable repair shop (IF they will even work on it, i know WE dont, too time consuming) will charge you PER HOUR, cheapest $69 an hour to work on them, and they take a MINIMUM of 4 hours to do even basic cleaning or maintenance to. Plus parts, you jsut pray it doesnt break.

 

[wseyller]

I used to work on HP and Lexmark Laserprinters. It is very odd to find repair techs that will work on these niche printers. Most fix only HP and some only fix HP and Lexmark, which these printers are much more common. It's a real pain getting educated and certified for printers that you don't work on much. In fact I've never had anyone that brought a Phaser in too my shop, and if they did I would probably have sent them away.

 

[Banana]

Color Laser Printer less than $500!

 

[Wooster]

How about Xerox Phraser 8400? Sounds like a good alternative to inkjet when in photo printing mode.

Here

 

[WalkingDead]

few issue about the solid (wax) ink printers:

It needs to be on all the time or it will need 5+ min warm up to liquified the wax. However, it does has a low power sleep mod.

The wax sticks are expensive but Xerox claims it's still cheaper than color laser toner.

It's big &amp; heavy. Beware of the shipping cost if you get it from ebay.

The ink seats on top of the paper. It doesn't come off like inkjets but it does get scratch.

Don't expect it has the same print quality as the top end Epson or Cannon inkjets.


The good things are:

It builds like a M1 tank. Both of my Tektronix printers are almost 10 years old.

The color wax produces wider color gramet than the color laser toners. It has nice shinny colors even on regular cheap laser paper.

Phaser series usually has very powerful processing hardwares &amp; great color mangement.


The solid ink tech is kinda interesting too. It's like a combind inkjet &amp; laser technology but it uses melted color wax instead of ink or toner. The melted wax is spray onto a laser printer like rolling drum then gets transfer onto the paper.