Photo Printer Recommendation?

C

c1001

Gawd
Joined
Oct 24, 2004
Messages
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I've been trying to get my wife to give up her 35mm point and click camera and stick to digital. She always complains that the photos we print from the digital camera just don't look as good. I just bought a 7.3 megapixel Casio EX-Z750 and printed some shots on our HP7310xi and I have to agree, they just don't look at good. I used the best quality printing mode on Premium Plus photo paper and they still look a little dull, not as sharp as a store 35mm print, and I can see little pixel dots on the faces.

Does anyone have any recommendations on a really good home photo printer? I can buy a dedicated photo printer, but it really has to match a 35mm store print.
 
Really depends on how much you want to spend. For around $400-500 nothing beats the canon i9900 or Epson R1800. For around $350-400 I would recommend the Epson r800. And for under $200 nothing is wrong with the Epson r320 or r300.
 
This is really the cheapest way I've found to print digitals: create an account with Flickr.com, (it's free) then select which photos you want printed, and how, (size, finish) and have them print them at a local Target. Then go to Target, pick them up and pay for them locally. There's just no way to compete with the quality.
 
Another service like flickr is snapfish.com. I used them for some poster prints and they came back awesome. Have a few framed and hung up.

As for your printer issue, try putting the printer in Max Resolution. I have noticed that some photos come out better in max mode than in best mode. That printer should do really good photos.

Also some of the pixel dots you are seeing may be digital noise (doubtful unless you see it on a monitor as well) or just the camera itself in how it compresses the jpegs.
 
I'm a Canon person all the way. Didn't used to be that way.

I used to use Epsons. I loved the color output. However _every single_ Epson I've ever owned (about 4 of them) have ended up in the trash can due to clogged print heads.

After my expensive 1280 bit the bullet for the same reason, that was it for me and Epson.

I started with a Canon i950 a few years ago. I still have it. It still works perfectly, and it sometimes sits for months without being used and it prints perfectly the first time with no skipping caused by clogs.

And if it ever does clog, the print head is _replaceable_, not permanent like the Epsons.

I now have a Pixma i8500 8-color. I love it too.

I love the inexpensive and long-lasting single-color cartridges as well, and in my case both printers use the same BCI-6 cartridges so I don't have to have different models (except I have to keep the addition of Red and Green's for the 8500).

-Larry
 
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