My printer died, time to replace...

**Buddha Jones** · 08-13-2008, 08:01 AM

But I am moving in about a month so I don't wanna go all out, need to conserve my pennies. What I am looking for, for now, is a good 8x10 and under printer. Any suggestions, even on where to start looking for suggestions would be good.

blwnhr · 08-13-2008, 05:21 PM

Canon IP4500. A mate has the 4000, I have a 4300, girlfriends just bought the 4500. Cheap, comes with ink and print quality is sensational.

US Link: Canon PIXMA iP4500 Photo Inkjet Printer

**Buddha Jones** · 08-13-2008, 06:57 PM

Ugh!!! Canon, that photo gods are against me this day!!!!!!!

blwnhr · 08-13-2008, 09:24 PM

Hahaha, I know, it was hard to buy it. But I compared to Epson and HP and they don't come close, especially for the money. And the packaged software is great.

*iced* · 08-14-2008, 09:27 AM

You may want to check out the Kodak line. I purchased a 5500 all in one printer and it does an excellent job on 8X10 prints. Ink is no smudge and good for 100 + years and the ink cart is less exp.

Moggman · 08-14-2008, 03:10 PM

I have a Canon MP500 and it's also very good (although I'm having some color/calibration issues right now, quality is great for the price). I compared it to Epson and HP before I bought and it seems the Canon gives the best performance for the price.

Nesster · 08-14-2008, 03:45 PM

Once I got an Epson R1800 I haven't looked at the printer market. I see Epson's got a couple of new models, one above and one below the R1800/R800 sibs. It works well enough for me.

The Canons are intriguing. I know that some fancier HP's have several black/grey inks so they supposedly do b&w prints well. With the Epson, I simply shade the blacks and greys a bit, like real photo paper would, and things come out well.

If I were buying now, I honestly don't know if I'd still buy Epson, though that would be my first brand to look at. The R1900 (bigger than you specify) sure looks nice.

irish_spring · 08-18-2008, 11:40 AM

I have a Canon MX700 at home, and another one at the office. I've got very good results with their inks and with Costco glossy paper. Every thing is calibrated and I've done better quality prints at home than at any lab I've used.

One caution however, I've had at least 6 black cartridges go bad on me and that shuts the whole printer down. It has happened on both the one at the office and the one at home. Canon sent me a bunch of new cartridges to replace them (their service was pretty good), but even the ones they sent me went bad after a while. They seem to be having some problems with their cartridge controller chips.

*jmc7104* · 08-23-2008, 05:38 PM

Originally Posted by iced

You may want to check out the Kodak line. I purchased a 5500 all in one printer and it does an excellent job on 8X10 prints. Ink is no smudge and good for 100 + years and the ink cart is less exp.

Agree with iced, I have a Kodak 5300 all in one that does an excellant job as long as you use kodak paper and their ink. jim

roy · 09-02-2008, 04:11 PM

i've had the canon pro9000 for 3 months now and it's great. getting bulk ink from hobbcolors.com and i'm really pleased.. $47 compared to $800 from canon

jaws · 09-07-2008, 08:00 PM

I have recently bought a Epson R1900 after much research, I am very impressed with the quality of prints, its fun being able to print your own shots when you want, just have to watch those paper and ink costs, but hey photography is a hobby, that means spending money in the pursuit of happiness!

Cheers,
John

**Buddha Jones** · 09-12-2008, 08:02 PM

I forgot that this thread was out here... I have pretty much fallen in love with taking B&W photographs so I am pretty much set on getting the Epson R1900.

dosdan · 09-18-2008, 04:44 PM

My Canon IP4000 died 1 day after installing its 2nd replacement print head - no lights - power supply failure? I've also been using my daughter's IP3000 at some stages to get critical work out (DVD label & DVD case covers - I use photo glossy paper for the inserts) but the black in photos is really a dark gray.

I've just got a IP85000 off eBay. 8 colours - small black means it not really suitable for much black text printing. The IP3000/4000 have a large black cartridge for this, with the IP4000 having a 2nd smaller black for photos.

This means I won't be using the IP8500 for general printing - I got a laser for that, so it's not a big deal. The printer came with half-filled refilled ink cartidges and the initial photo printing using ICM colour matching was too dark. I'm in the process now of working out the best adjustments to suit the current inks.

Should be interesting times ahead. The printer is slower than the IP4000. I was also bidding on an IP5000 but it went for a ridiculous amount ($194 AUD), whereas I was the only bidder on the IP8500 and got it for its start price ($70 AUD). I presume the IP4000/5000 models are so expensive now because they've easy to refill.

Just having a quick look at the current Canon range. The IP4500 appears to be similar to the old IP5000. Can anyone owning a IP4xxx later than the IP4000 comment on what changes they've introduced (besides chipping). Can the recent models be refilled?

Dan.

magnum1 · 09-18-2008, 05:58 PM

Love my Kodak 5300. Ink is inexpensive and the quality is very good.

roy · 09-18-2008, 06:58 PM

dan,
my pro9000 is refillable. it's also chipped but canon lets you turn off the monitoring. you loose the ability to ck the tanks except by eye. i've been doing that for almost 10years tho.