Digital Photo Printer

[Team Sergeant]

We've talked about digital cameras, what does everyone think about digital photo printers? What's the best one for say under $1000 and capable of 8x10 photos?

TS

[incommin]

What quality? Ink jet? Thermal ribbon?

Jim

[x SF med]

TS-
For a grand, you can get a very nearly professional photo printer that is capable of 11x17 or 22x34 - it's not the printer itself that's going to break the bank, it's the photo quality cartridges and the paper. The high end inks and papers (coated, no bleed, high hold, heavy weight, acid free) are wallet eaters.
Single color cartridges (minimum of 4, 5 better - cyan, magenta, yellow, green, black) can run up to $100 a piece and only have fair life spans depending on what you print (depends on saturations, and colors - cmygb/cmyk printing gives true resolution, but eats ink due to overlay screening). Be prepared for anywhere from $0.40 - $5.00/sheet for good quality paper depends on size, weight, bleed, hold, coat and content. Yeah, I know, too many years in publishing operations, production and finance - but you asked.

I was assuming near professional quality end product, something with 'true' photo finish results. Clue me further, and I'll come up wit ha few products.

Lexmark makes some good stuff, as do Nikon and Ricoh.

[Team Sergeant]

OK second question; would it make more sense to have the digital photos done by photo shops? Or should I continue to shop for my own printer?(We're talking maybe a few hundred photos a year.)

Thanks for the replies!

TS

[jfhiller]

If maintaining color quality in the photos is a high priority, I'd recommend having the prints made at the photo store. Their processes *should* be far more colorfast than home printers as long as they maintain their chemicals properly. The price will probably be very competitive with printing at home, though you lose the convenience. (Home printing has its own set of inconveniences, too, I guess)

edited:
well, from the comments below, i see i've been out of the business too long. i can't believe how cheap dye sub is these days and the longevity claimed by inkjet.

[x SF med]

Product Description
The Dell Color Laser Printer 3100cn is the reliable color laser printer, at the price of black and white. You won't be sacrificing performance or quality with up to 25 pages per minute in black and white and 5 pages per minute color (actual print speed will vary with use) at a max resolution of 600 x 600 dpi with 2400 image quality. Low cost of printing per page (including drum) at 1.5 cents per page in black and white and 9.9 cents per page in color. Dell Color Track can lower your total cost of printing by offering a separate monochrome print driver that allows you to designate color and/or black and white printing on an individual or workgroup basis. Standard Ethernet 10/100 BaseT networking, USB and parallel port. Standard 250 sheet drawer and 150-sheet multipurpose tray. Maximum input capacity 900 sheets, optional 250 sheet legal paper drawer, 250 sheet A4 paper drawer, 500 sheet A4 drawer and duplexer. 600 x 600 dpi with 2400 image quality Fast, black and white up to 25ppm print speed (actual print speed will vary with use) Color up to 5 ppm print speed (actual print speed will vary with use) Maximum input capacity 900 sheets Monthly duty cycle up to 45K pages Ships with 4K each Black and Color (Magenta, Cyan and Yellow) toner cartridges Optional 250 sheet legal paper drawer, 250 sheet A4 paper drawer, 500 sheet A4 drawer and duplexer Standard Ethernet 10/100 BaseT networking, USB and parallel port Standard 1-Year At Home Service3 and 24x7 toll free phone technical support .

[x SF med]

The Kodak Professional 1400 Digital Photo Printer is an affordable 8 x 10-inch, color printer that's perfect for advanced amateurs, professional users and small labs. Priced at $499, the Kodak 1400 is the least expensive of Kodak's professional grade printers and within the budget of us "normal" folks. The Kodak 1400 produces consistent results using dry imaging technology so there's no worries of clogged heads or spilled ink.

Whether in a studio or on location for proofing or at home for final printing and displaying, the robust desktop printer produces one 8x12, one 8x10, two 6x8, two5x7 or four 4x6-inch photos per sheet, and the water-resistant photos last a lifetime. The Kodak Professional paper and ribbon consumables are bundled in matched volumes to provide optimum color density for every print, eliminating worries associated with low ink levels. Consumables—including paper available in 50- and 25-sheet packs—are priced competitively to similar offerings on the market.

Kodak Professional 1400 features include:


90 seconds per print

Gloss and matte finish output available for professional portrait applications

50-sheet paper capacity in / out

Accepts A4, 8.5 x 14" and 8.5 x 12" paper sizes (full size A4 30 x 20 cm)

Maximum Image size - 8.27 x 12 inches

USB 2.0 interface

Windows and Macintosh printer drivers
The Kodak Professional 1400 Digital Photo Printer carries a suggested U.S. list price of $499 and is available now from authorized dealers of Kodak Professional Thermal Printer products.

[x SF med]

Bridging the gap between its professional and consumer lines of photo printers, HP has entered into the advanced amateur market with the HP Photosmart 8750 Professional Photo Printer. With the new HP 101 Blue Photo Inkjet Print Cartridge, this printer enables nine-ink color prints that deliver noticeable improvements in images with intense blues, including landscapes, seascapes and sports photos. The Photosmart 8750 offers color management controls and remarkable printer flexibility to produce realistic color and true black-and-white photos with neutral grays. It is expected to be available in April 2005 for an estimated U.S. street price of $499.

The Photosmart 8750 is designed for photo enthusiasts who want a professional grade printer for producing high quality, long lasting digital photo prints up to 13 x 19-inches in size. HP Photosmart printers using HP Vivera Inks and HP Premium and Premium Plus Photo Papers offer the optimal combination of image quality and fade resistance, providing more than 100 years lightfastness under glass and more than 200 years in archive.

The Photosmart 8750 can be connected to a PC (Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP) or Mac (OS 9+, OS X) computer's USB 2.0 port with the supplied HP Image Zone software or any popular photo editing or viewing software. You can print photos directly from most digital camera flash memory cards or Microdrives using the printer's four, onboard memory card slots. You can print directly from any PictBridge-enabled camera - using the camera's USB download cable and the front-mounted USB port.

The Photosmart 8750 is network-ready out of the box and can be connected directly to any Ethernet LAN switch, hub or router and shared with other users. With the optional HP bt300 Bluetooth Printing Adapter you can print wirelessly from Bluetooth-enabled camera phones, PDAs, laptops or other Bluetooth-equipped devices.





Photosmart 8750 Features:
Photo quality printing with up to 4800-optimized dpi with nine-ink color printing
Photo Gray ink cartridge produces richly saturated black and white prints
Print borderless photos up to 13 x 19-inches and panoramas
Two front-loading paper paths and a straight-through rear path
Print directly from CompactFlash (Type I or II) cards, Microdrives, Secure Digital / MMC, Memory Stick or xD-Picture Cards
Print directly from PictBridge-compatible cameras
Use the memory card slots to transfer image data to the computer, works just like a high-speed USB 2.0 card reader
Easily share the Photosmart 8750 on any Ethernet network
Optional HP bt300 Bluetooth Wireless Print Adapter for wireless printing from camera phones, laptops, PDAs, etc.
Optional black ink cartridge for faster, crisper black text for regular printing tasks.
High-quality photographic reproduction using HP's exclusive color layering technology from PhotoREt Pro
Resist fading for up to 73 years on HP Premium Plus Photo paper (according to tests by Wilhelm Imaging Research, Inc.)

[x SF med]

Ok, Bro - what I think are the best of each type - below $1K.

gotta jet - the Ramones are on the Simpsons... can you think of a better way to end the week? Damn - it's over...

[incommin]

x_sf,

Would you say that the dye sub / termal ribbon printers produces the "best quality" photos?????


Jim

[x SF med]

Jim-
Probably so, although the supplies are a little more expensive than inkjet, and probably even laser. BUT, the manufacturer usually guarantees that the pictures will last anywhere from 30-50+ years if you use photo quality paper. Most photo pros are using the thermal/dye sub technology for 'art' quality work in color, B/W, sepia and mixed tone (sepia wash, color wash).

[Kyobanim]

Put the pic on a cd and go to walgreens and get it printed there. If you use a printer as your photo source then it will eat you alive in supplies. If you use it only occasionally it will eat you in supplies because once the ink dries up you're screwed. If you get a color laser printer you'll find that the price per page of a high quality picture, suitable for framing, will be about equal to going to the drugstore.

OTH, If you have 2k laying around and don't mind paying 200 per cartridge, get a Dell 5100dn color laser. It will print, IIRC, 1200x1200 at 35 per minute. We use them at work and they are nice. The price per page is roughly $.078 per page as far as consumables goes.

Personally, I'd go to walgreens.

[vsvo]

TS,

I shoot on average about 100-200 digital photos a week (lots of little nieces and nephews growing up way too fast). What I typically do is upload the JPG images (the ones that turn out OK:)) to Costco online, then pick up the prints at the local warehouse. Size 4x6, single copy. The ones of which I want extra copies, or enlargements, I print myself at home. I shoot RAW and JPG simultaneously, so the ones I print myself I first post-process the RAW file in Nikon Capture and Photoshop.

I've owned various Epsons and H-P's in the past, but the printer I currently use is the Canon i9900 (http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=117&modelid=9870), and it is the heat (can I use that term for a non-tactical product???) It's been awhile since I've checked the reviews, but when I bought it about a year ago, this printer was consistently ranked first or second by various reviewers. It can print up to 13x19 prints. I print 8x10's regularly, and they come out great. One of the things I like best about it is, with 6,144 nozzles, it prints fast.

As to your second question, if you are only printing a couple hundred prints a year, I would send them out, even for enlargements. As x_ and Kyo detailed, supplies go fast. For example, the Canon i9900 has 8 ink tanks. Start printing out a bunch of 8x10's and those suckers drain fast. Not to mention the time involved. If I don't care about cropping, sharpening, color touch up, etc., I would rather send the pics out.

My own bias is that if you are going through the time and expense of printing at home, you should be shooting RAW. Although digital cameras these days are very good, a JPG straight out of a camera will never beat a post-processed RAW in image quality.

[Verruckt]

OK second question; would it make more sense to have the digital photos done by photo shops? Or should I continue to shop for my own printer?(We're talking maybe a few hundred photos a year.)

Thanks for the replies!

TS

I have an HP psc 1210 which is 4,800x1,200 dpi, that I got a couple years ago for $100. I don't belieive that is the curent model, but that series is the best bang for the buck IMO. At around $100 you get a printer/copier/scanner, that is a photo printer. The ink is fairly inexspensive. It turns out some decent photos. It scans at 600 x 2,400 dpi which isn't the greatest, but I usually only use the scanner for documents. It will print out some decent photos. Within reason, you can't buy a personal printer that will print photos as good as Walgreens, or Walmart, etc. Think about what kind of equipment they have.

Take your memory card into a Circuit City, etc, and get them to print something off for you. Maybe even something you had printed at a Walgreens. Compare them. For the cost and convenience, you can't go wrong. If you want stellar quality, then you already know you can go elsewhere. As for supplies, my wife wears the hell out of ours printing photos, and my kids print off all kinds of garbage from their kid sites. I don't think the usage is that bad.