Photo printer
November 25, 2015 12:29 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for a reliable photo printer for infrequent, spontaneous use.
We want more pictures on our walls but we're finding that the effort involved in 1) picking photos, 2) uploading them to website xxxxx, 3) picking up / paying for photos to be enough to keep us from actually following through. I'm willing to pay more per-photo so we can be more spontaneous about printing pictures.
That said, reviews online are scaring me. Some people complain that if you only print photos every few weeks the ink or print head or something gets screwed up... Also, it seems like some of the cheaper printers gobble up the most ink, and people often complain about build quality / ease of use issues. We're a mixed PC/Mac household though my preference is on the Mac side of things. I don't think we need any kind of large format printing (8x10 is fine) but if larger "prosumer" printers are more reliable, eat less ink, or what have you I'd be willing to investigate.
Any suggestions for how to get my money's worth out of this? Is there a price point where the quality and ease of use are worth the payout?
We want more pictures on our walls but we're finding that the effort involved in 1) picking photos, 2) uploading them to website xxxxx, 3) picking up / paying for photos to be enough to keep us from actually following through. I'm willing to pay more per-photo so we can be more spontaneous about printing pictures.
That said, reviews online are scaring me. Some people complain that if you only print photos every few weeks the ink or print head or something gets screwed up... Also, it seems like some of the cheaper printers gobble up the most ink, and people often complain about build quality / ease of use issues. We're a mixed PC/Mac household though my preference is on the Mac side of things. I don't think we need any kind of large format printing (8x10 is fine) but if larger "prosumer" printers are more reliable, eat less ink, or what have you I'd be willing to investigate.
Any suggestions for how to get my money's worth out of this? Is there a price point where the quality and ease of use are worth the payout?
Have a look at laser printing on proper laser photo paper. I have a brother laser printer and the non-brother ink replacements will give me something like 1000 A4 colour photos for about $500-$600. They aren't as glossy vivid as an inkjet can do and I have no idea about archival quality, but I print a ton of colour index and A4 pages now and slap 'em up on my wall and never fuss with dried out ink heads. If I use heavy laser photo paper, and frame it, it looks to my untrained eye very nice - like a standard matt postcard.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 3:53 AM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 3:53 AM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
Epson was great but the print heads dry out if not used regularly. Perhaps get a cheap color laser to print "proofs" then when it works physically do an offsite high quality run?
posted by sammyo at 4:02 AM on November 25, 2015
posted by sammyo at 4:02 AM on November 25, 2015
Granted, it's been several years, but my mom looked into these a while back when "photo printer" was the only thing on my uncle's christmas list. (We're the kind of family that demands lists from 50 year olds, yes.) My mom is really, really diligent about product research, reading consumer reports, etc, to the extent where I hesitate even to mention new products to her because I know she'll spend the next week doing nothing but reading about them. Anyway, her conclusion (and I want to say this was 6 years ago) was that for the low and infrequent volume of printing my uncle was planning to do, all of them were an incredible waste of money. He ended up getting something for himself (don't know what brand) that he spent the next christmas bitching about because it wouldn't work and needed new ink even though he'd only used it a few times.
Personally I have had a small number of occasions to print photos in my life. I load my files up to FedEx online and pick them up from the store a few hours later. This system works for me.
posted by phunniemee at 6:06 AM on November 25, 2015
Personally I have had a small number of occasions to print photos in my life. I load my files up to FedEx online and pick them up from the store a few hours later. This system works for me.
posted by phunniemee at 6:06 AM on November 25, 2015
Laser is best for infrequent printing but only slightly above adequate for photos. We have a Brother color laser that sits dormant weeks at a time but when we spontaneous want a print of a picture, often from an iPhone, it reliably shows up as an air print printer and is ready to go. The prints are less than stellar on plain paper but I would argue that they look better than inkjet's on plain paper. I think sammyo is right print your proof on the laser put it on the wall if it works ship it out to and get a good print. We get most of our prints at the local Walmart "1 hour photo" we'll upload and by the time I get to the store they are usually done.
posted by jmsta at 6:14 AM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by jmsta at 6:14 AM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
I've been very happy with my Canon Pixma inkjet. I haven't noticed any problems with the ink drying up, although I probably do use it once a week or more. I use third-party ink cartridges that cost the equivalent of $20 for a full set of 5, and which produce identical results to Canon's own inks. Printing costs are difficult to calculate, but it seems very cost-effective when paired with the cheap-but-heavy photo paper I bought in bulk online.
Apparently if you're not going to use the printer for a few weeks, you can take the cartridges out and store them in small ziploc-style bags to keep them fresh. I'd probably just set an alarm on my phone reminding me to do a print once a week.
posted by pipeski at 6:28 AM on November 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
Apparently if you're not going to use the printer for a few weeks, you can take the cartridges out and store them in small ziploc-style bags to keep them fresh. I'd probably just set an alarm on my phone reminding me to do a print once a week.
posted by pipeski at 6:28 AM on November 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
I second the recommendation to go with a colour laser. Laser printers don't care how often or how rarely they're used.
The effect of laser prints on plain paper can be improved a lot by laminating the prints.
posted by Too-Ticky at 7:01 AM on November 25, 2015
The effect of laser prints on plain paper can be improved a lot by laminating the prints.
posted by Too-Ticky at 7:01 AM on November 25, 2015
I've always had a $30 Brother monochrome laser and loved it. Color laser never looked good to me and after years fighting my Epson R1900 with perpetually clogging ink heads (to the point that color was so far off, I had to manually calibrate it and generate my own ICC profiles and was spending more ink in head cleaning than in printing), I switched to a Canon Pixma Pro 100. Right now they're $150 after rebate from B&H. I'm about a year in on mine and no complaints. We tend to print a batch of 11x17 at once, then let it sit for a month or two. I do mostly color (scanned Provia/Velvia) and the GF does half color and half B&W (and also messes around in a darkroom).
posted by Brian Puccio at 7:27 AM on November 25, 2015
posted by Brian Puccio at 7:27 AM on November 25, 2015
Depending on if you can live with smaller sizes, I very very highly recommend the Canon SELPHY CP910. It is not laser nor inkjet but dye sublimation which is what the pro photographers use to print. The supplies are stable and do not dry out if left unused for a long period, which is what was happening to me with my inkjet photo printer (ask me about my $80 print for my son's required daycare photo someday).
The downsize is that it only prints up to 4 by 6. Dye sub printers that go to 8 by 10 are more than 10 times as expensive. What we do is use the SELPHY for small prints that we want to share and then get bigger prints printed elsewhere and delivered.
posted by procrastination at 7:50 AM on November 25, 2015
The downsize is that it only prints up to 4 by 6. Dye sub printers that go to 8 by 10 are more than 10 times as expensive. What we do is use the SELPHY for small prints that we want to share and then get bigger prints printed elsewhere and delivered.
posted by procrastination at 7:50 AM on November 25, 2015
I swore off inkjet printers for what I thought was forever, after fighting with an inkjet printer every time I went to print something, because of clogged print heads, after it sat for less than a week. I felt like throwing that thing out the window every time I used it. So clogged print heads is definitely a thing. Then we went to a color laser printer, and I loved it, except when it came time to replace the toner cartridges. When you buy them, they come with partially full cartridges, so they can make their big bucks selling you new toner. Replacing the toner would have been twice the original cost of the printer. Mr. molasses convinced me to put our money into an inkjet. Now we have an HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 and I love it. Has NEVER clogged, and I have no complaints about the color. We've had it for a couple of years now I think.
posted by molasses at 7:56 AM on November 25, 2015
posted by molasses at 7:56 AM on November 25, 2015
You might want to get into a routine of making a file of pictures you want to print, and once you have collected enough of them buy yourself the cheapest possible inkjet printer, and print them until the free cartridge that comes with the printer wears out. Then throw out the printer as the new cartridges cost more than the printer itself did, so it is cheaper to simply buy a new printer each time. They sell the printers extremely cheaply as they make they money on the cartridges.
This way you can schedule two or three or five printing sessions a year, keeping in mind your own habits, like that you will want to print pictures shortly after your holiday, or before Christmas to send to family, or after Christmas to enjoy.
Another thing you might be able to do is find someone close to you who works for a place that has a colour printer and lets the employees print pictures if they put money into the little tin on the printer table. That way perhaps you could get your own aunt to print out the pictures you are giving her for Christmas, plus all of the ones you are giving to her sister etc.
Finally, some digital print shops will do drop in service of low volume printing, so if you save them onto a stick and wander in they might print a bunch for you while you wait. -Look for a small digital print shop, not a place that does high volume offset printing.
posted by Jane the Brown at 12:10 PM on November 25, 2015
This way you can schedule two or three or five printing sessions a year, keeping in mind your own habits, like that you will want to print pictures shortly after your holiday, or before Christmas to send to family, or after Christmas to enjoy.
Another thing you might be able to do is find someone close to you who works for a place that has a colour printer and lets the employees print pictures if they put money into the little tin on the printer table. That way perhaps you could get your own aunt to print out the pictures you are giving her for Christmas, plus all of the ones you are giving to her sister etc.
Finally, some digital print shops will do drop in service of low volume printing, so if you save them onto a stick and wander in they might print a bunch for you while you wait. -Look for a small digital print shop, not a place that does high volume offset printing.
posted by Jane the Brown at 12:10 PM on November 25, 2015
Jane the Brown: Then throw out the printer as the new cartridges cost more than the printer itself did, so it is cheaper to simply buy a new printer each time.
Despite the cheapness, I'm urging people to not throw multiple printers a year into a landfill where they'll leach chemicals for the next one hundred or so years. If you're willing to save up photos to print, you'll get better photos for cheaper and without all the e-waste at an online photo lab like Pro DPI.
posted by bluecore at 4:34 PM on November 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
Despite the cheapness, I'm urging people to not throw multiple printers a year into a landfill where they'll leach chemicals for the next one hundred or so years. If you're willing to save up photos to print, you'll get better photos for cheaper and without all the e-waste at an online photo lab like Pro DPI.
posted by bluecore at 4:34 PM on November 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I have had a Canon Pixma printer for a few years now and have been very happy with it. We mostly use it for printing documents but we keep glossy photo paper in the under-printer tray, and every couple of months I print out a photo or two with great results.
I buy Sophia Global ink cartridges from Amazon. They are about 1/5 the price of Canon and they generally work fine.
I'm totally with you on the inconvenience of ordering prints. This system has worked very well for me for occasional home photo printing.
posted by alms at 1:15 PM on November 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
I buy Sophia Global ink cartridges from Amazon. They are about 1/5 the price of Canon and they generally work fine.
I'm totally with you on the inconvenience of ordering prints. This system has worked very well for me for occasional home photo printing.
posted by alms at 1:15 PM on November 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I'm following Alm's suggestion -- cheap ink + a Pixma MX922. Found a four-pack of ink for half the cost of a single Canon pack. Will see how it goes.
posted by rouftop at 10:11 PM on December 1, 2015
posted by rouftop at 10:11 PM on December 1, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by bluecore at 3:05 AM on November 25, 2015 [3 favorites]