Ask Engadget: Good photo printer for the parents?
posted December 16th 2004 6:09PM
Alright, Ask Engadget is back once again with more questions and answers. Last week we had a question from a reader who needed some help selecting a flash-based MP3 player for his girlfriend, this week's question comes from reader Amy R., who is looking for a good photo printer for her parents:
I really need Ask Engadget's help. I gave my parents a digital camera for Christmas two years ago, but hard as I've tried, I haven't been able to get them past the idea that you have to print out all of your photos and that it's perfectly acceptable to email photos or post them to a photoblog instead. They're spending a lot of money having prints made at a store at the mall, and so instead of trying to get them to stop making prints I figured I'd try and get them an easy to use photo printer printer that would hopefully save them a little bit of money, or at least save them the trouble of going to and from the store. Now I'm just not sure which one to get. Are the cheap ones you see from HP and Canon any good? Is it worth spending a little extra?
Any suggestions?
I hate it when people don't answer the question posed...yet here I am doing it.
I actually suggest to people to print pictures at the store...in my case costco. It's really easy, the kiosk accepts CD's with the jpgs, or even the memory cards themselves. They have a choice of sizes and sometimes things like postcards. It's all touch screen.
Cost-wise they are really cheap, and I think cheaper than buying your own printer, ink and paper. Hardly any bad prints, compared to what you may experience at home.
Also most Home printers photos fade..I haven't seen this occur with the CostCo prints.
A printer with a big red button that says "On/Off" on it. No other buttons.
I agree with StuBee
hard to go wrong with the HP photosmart series. cost of ink is high but quality can't be beat. hassle factor is high though, especially if you don't enjoy screwing with settings, trial and error, etc..
I found that I could get better prints, easier, by using one of those in-store kiosks or a service like Shutterfly. I've been shooting digital for a long time and have had a number of photo printers but the online thing is much easier, they have more sizes available, and the cost is just about the same.
I am a photographer, and I have used various printers over the past few years, and I myself am looking for a new printer for just general house use. I was looking at the Canon pixma ip5000 ($184, amazon.com) I don't know if that's out of your price range or not, but the pixma ip4000 looks like a great printer too - and it's only $134.99 on amazon right now. I am not too impressed with HP - in my studies, it's not quite as good as Epson or Canon quality wise. I noticed that prints made with both my CP1700 and my girlfriend's PhotoSmart 7150 - if you get even just a drop of water on them, and then try to wipe it off - all the ink under the water comes with it. This is after a week of drying in one case, and a month (or so) in another. My Canon just doesn't do that.
But StuBee is right - Costco does a great job, at a great price. I was quite surprised.
I have spoken to several photographers and sales reps. in computer stores. The ones that have used Canon's new PIXMA printers are very impressed with the quality and features. They are especially impressed with the cheaper models and the quality they have for the price. Check out Canon!
Ok, so for what your looking for, by far the best printer possible will be the Canon ip6000 Pixma Printer. This thing is absolutly incredible. 6 Ink tanks provide Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Light Cyan and Light Magenta. This thing prints at <2 Picoliters of ink, which means you're going to get much better mileadge out of it for sure. Prints borderless photos on sizes 4x6, 5x7 and 8 1/2x11, yes it does do true borderless all the way up to 8 1/2x11. This printer is absolutly amazing, probably one of the best ones on the market that's still in a consumer price range ($169.99). Ink cartridges are nice and cheap ($12.99 for black, $11.99 for the colors). Paper from canon is the cheapest you can find anywhere, as well as the best quality out of all the photo papers. This thing prints at less than 0.29 cents a photo, which is a great price, especially because you don't even have to leave the printer alone.
here's a link:
http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=117&modelid=10441
I have an ip4000 and it's great. The pictures printed on it are some of the best I've seen. It also has two black ink tanks: one for text and another for photos. It also duplexes, has two paper feeders so that you can keep photo paper separated from letter paper. I'd recommend it.
Hey there all. Grandparents?
The Epson PictureMate.
It is a really cool unit, built to print pictures. They also made it really user friendly in that you by your ink and paper in a "pack" that gives you about 100 prints or something. This way your grandparents don't have to worry about inks, they just know when they run out of paper to replace the big black cartridge in the back too.
Also, I like the Epson inks. Pretty long lasting according to their website. In theory, they are more resistant to fading and water than prints from the lab. So, that is cool.
I got one for my mom and the only bad thing is that I get tons of strange pictures from her now because she likes sharing them so much. She just pops in her SD card and prints away.
Here is a link:
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=41642105
if your parents have a sony camera... there are two great sony printers. i gave my mom a simple to use sony u20 digicam (there's no zoom and very few controls, basically just a big shutter button). and since my mom is scared to death of computer, i got her a the sony ex7 printer to go with it. my mom is very intimidated by computer and needed a printer with no pc interface. two years ago there weren't that many choices. the ex7 is pretty fool proof- it prints dye sub 4x6 photos, using cartridges that contain both the ink and the paper, so it's really easy to restock the printer, just slap in a new cartridge. it's also really easy to use. when you slap a memory stick into the printer, it builds a list of thumnails on the screen. touch a thumbnail and the photo is pulled up. you can drag to crop, add special effects or just press the GIGANTIC green print button to get a copy of the picture. it's really easy, but because it has an lcd touchscreen, it's pretty costly. (400 bucks)
sony has a less expensive version, the ex50, that still uses dye sub cartridges, but doesn't offer as many special features, and connects to a tv for video output instead of having a built in screen. sadly, i don't trust my parents to hook up anything to their tvs or computers.
I have a Canon IP4000; my wife has an IP3000. We haven't had them long enough to really offer an informed opinion, but so far, they seem pretty good. We bought them to get by with while we figure out what to get to replace our big networked printer. We might just end up putting one of these on the network instead, though.
They do print double-sided, which is pretty nice for such an inexpensive printer. The ink is also very cheap -- $5 per tank at abcink.com. (Note: I have a box at home from them with my first order, so caveat emptor!).
That said, having a computer set up specifically for dealing with my digital photos, having taken nearly 7000 pictures with this camera in a little over 2 years, and having currently ONLY a little more than a dozen pictures of the kids on my desk (hey, it's a new job), I strongly recommend the service at Costco. Around here, it's $0.19 per picture. Easy. If your folks don't have a Costco nearby or aren't members, Long's Drugs and others offer similar services and are probably just as good. Long's is currently $0.29 per print, and I think the others are similarly priced. (Note: Once upon a time, I worked for Long's.)
Both Costco and Long's (and probably others) allow you to either upload your pics via the internet or bring them in to the little touch screen machine. If your folks are not geeks, the staff will certainly be willing to help them out. (I know that customer service is a big deal at Long's right now, so that might be the place to start.)
In my opinion, photo printers are kind of a ripoff. I bought an HP Photosmart at the same time as my iBook a couple years ago. Little did I know that it wasn't compatible with airport. Whatever. So I plug it into my laptop every time I need to use it. Printing photos is a nightmare. Tons of expensive paper and ink wasted trying to configure the thing. Not to mention that now with booths setup at photo shops and the like, you can print from your SD, CF, or memory stick with easy and keep the ones you like for a better bargain in some cases. I've since given up on photo printing and now my Photosmart sits in my closet and I've got a cheap Epson doing my dirty work.
Epson Stylus R300 with LCD screen. Fantastic prints, 6 colour cartridges. I want one.
http://www.simply.co.uk/pangora/99494/YL/simply_computers/index.htm
Having been through four generations of digital cameras, my contribution to this discussion: Your parents are right. Where I live, it is much cheaper to have the local experts print 4x6 prints than to do it at home. I admit that I enjoy the best of both worlds: I can edit and improve my photos on the computer, discard nearly 3/4s-- the ones that are not geood enough-- and print the rest for albums or giving away. Get a printer for large prints, once in a while.
The Sony Dye-sublimation printer. I have model DPP-EX7, which has a small LCD screen to review pictures and choose which to print, no PC needed. This Sony is by far the best printer on the market for the average, at-home user. My wife, who just won't use the computer, does use the Sony printer. I bought a digital cameral a couple years ago, then upgraded to a 5.0 Sony a few months ago. I gave the old (less than 1/2 mega-pixel) to my wife, and she prints photos all the time.It beats the ink jet printers for quality, and price wise, it's comparable. I just bought an Epson Picture Mate personal Photo Lab model B271A and really like it, but the vibrant colors that the Sony gives just can't be beat.
Simple to use, some nice features, and the colors and print quality rival any print processed at "the store". The prints come as a 4X6 postcard. You buy a package that contains the print cartridge, and 25 sheets of paper (or the larger 3 cartridge/75 sheet pkg (DPP-SV/DPP-EX series). The printer also does 3.5x4 inch prints, using a cartridge with 30 page paper count, and also, a 9-split sticker size pack, where you're printing out 9 sticker size images on a 3.5x4 photo page. You can add text to your pix, dates, you can enhance, enlarge, make smaller, rotate, add shapes, and several other things from the printer, even do sepia or black and white photos. There's more, but I suggest going to Sony web site for more. The printer is simple, direct, and so far has been hassle free. I've had this printer for almost 3 years now, and many pictures have been printed. If I have a complaint, it is that Sony doesn't support any of the other cards out in the market, only the Sony memory stick. I wish it had the 4 slots built in such as every other printer on the market has.
An even easier option to use Shutterfly or Ofoto or any other web based printing services. On a home printer you are spending about 40-50cents per 4x6 print while the shutterfly price is only about 30c and the quality is way better than anything you would get at home.
I second the Epson Picturemate! It uses true 6 photo pigment based inks for continuous tone prints with 85+ year fade resistance and a gloss overcoat to make them water resistant. The only negative is no actual preview screen. Unless you select to print 1+ of each one, you might have to print an index print which isn't too bad. There's also a $50 Visa gift card back by mail right now (you only need to send a copy of the barcode in)!
Canon. I own an i850, my mother owns an i960 I bought for her, and if the new Pixmas are anything like those, they are a real treat.
I routinely print photos 4x6 better than any kiosk, better than Kinko's, better than Yahoo's own service bureau. Just Glossy Photo Paper. Ink cartridges are cheap enough and it prints plain text really, really quickly.
Plus, it's a snap to install and bundled software makes it super easy to print photos. If it's good enough for my mom, it's good enough for yours.
-C
epson R300M. It's a 6 ink printer that has tiny monitor and a card reader so you don't even need the computer. they sell the ink at Sams Club for $59 for all 6 inks. You can buy 100 packs of 4x6 glossy paper and it looks like a print from the store. To quote my grandfather after I took his picture with our baby and printed him a picture 2 minutes later, "Well I'll be damned!" It really is a great printer and my technically challenged wife has no problem using it. She loves that I don't have to fire up photoshop everytime we want to print a picture.
ok, so everyone looks like they've got their opinions on these printers, but here's why the Canon Pixma series kicks everything else's butt: COST
The epson picturemate or whatever has ONE ink cartridge with 6 different inks, yes, giving a great picture, however, if one of those inks runs out, you have to replace the whole $60 cartridge. Not to mention, the paper you get with the package isn't as good as some other brands.
Dye subelimination printers are good, but once again, not that cost effective, costing sometimes 50-60 cents a print, that's virtually double the cost of a kisok.
Canon's 6 tanks are cheap, effective, use only 2 picoliters of ink, which is VERY little and it still gives an amazing amazing picture. If you don't belive me, head over to best buy (i work there) and at pretty much every store they've got an ip6000 on display just so you can see how amazing it is.
This printer also has an LCD and memory card reader as well as PictBridge so you can print without having a computer.
This is one of the fastest printers on the market period...
These canons print out for LESS than 29 cents a picture most of the time, which is either the same or cheaper than in store prints. Also, those figures are based on full price ink and full priced paper, if you find any sort of sales or deals, obviously those numbers go down...
The cartridges last for more than 240 4"x6" pictures on the 6 $11.99 cartridges, while the Epson PictureMate lasts for about 100 pictures on a single $60 cartridge, so already you're almost double the cost of the Canon. The dye-subelimination printers cost even more, most of the time printing out only 36-50 pictures before expending the cartridge at a cost of $30 a cartridge.
The Canon is by far the best bet, and as a plus, you can use it for regular prints, not just pictures, and you can go all the way up to 8 1/2"x11"...lets see those epson and sony picture printers do that!
Okay, I have bought almost every brand of photo printer, so you've come to the right place. I love the ease of the HP Photosmarts because they have that little screen and card readers that read almost every kind of flash memory known to man or woman. However, the picture quality is only acceptable and my experience is that the printer is not that durable. After a year of heavy duty use, it started having all kinds of issues and all my pictures had this nifty scratch down the left hand side. HP didn't know how to fix the thing, and I figured I got my $100.00's worth. Bring in the CP printers from Canon. The picture quality is very good, but the one I have, the CP 100 will only print from Canon cameras. (This may not be true now.) My portable Canon i70 printed lovely pictures at first, but after a year, all the photos are blotchy and Canon can't figure out why. It is still a great printer, but not for photographs. The best picture quality I've ever gotten comes with the Epson Picturemate. The paper/ink packages are a nice touch. Alas, the Picturemate has no card readers but does support pictbridge so any compatible camera can be plugged in directly. If the camera is an older model, it won't be compatible. The nicest feature of the Picturemate is the easy to use software that comes with it (Film Factory), so if the folks are computer literate in the least, that would be a good choice. Ultimately, however, I come down on the side of the people who urge the use of in store kiosks unless your parents are comfortable with a computer. Digital photo printing is great because you don't have to go out, and if you like fussing with the software (which I do) you can really improve otherwise useless shots. But at-home digital printing can be just as expensive or even more expensive than a good in-store kiosk, so don't kid yourself about saving the folks money. A trip to the store is a good way to keep the blood flowing; unless your parents are housebound for medical reasons, getting out of the house is a good thing, and having to get those pictures printed and picked up can be a good motivator for a walk or a drive to the mall or town. (I know this because I am a greyhaired old lady myself.) So maybe a gift certificate to their favorite store with a photo-kiosk is a way to go. But if you're set on buying a printer, keep in mind that the folks may not use it. If your parents have always had their prints printed at the corner drugstore, they may be perfectly happy doing it their way.
epson picturemate. waterproof, easy to use, $.29/picture guaranteed (send remaining blank 4x6 to epson if pictures no longer satisfactory and they'll refund $.29 for each piece of paper). don't know where Matt got his $60/ catridge price, but you can order cartridge and 100 sheets of paper from dell website for less than $25.00 which makes the price $.25/print.
You actually usually spend less by having photos printed at a photolab, considering the cost of paper and ink adds up. But if it is convenience that you are after, I feel the Epson Picturemate is a great little printer for the cost. Prints are about 29 cents a piece--you can actually get that cost down a little by buying a package of Epson 4x6 photo paper and continuing to use the ink cartridge that comes in the package with the additional paper until it runs out of ink (they usually print more than the 100 sheets that come in each $29 pack. I am really impressed by the quality of the prints. I've never been a big fan of photo printers, but I'm starting to change my tune. The printer is REALLY simple, price is good, and quality is impressive. The biggest drwaback to this printer (and a huge mistake on Epson's part in my opinion) is the ommission of an LCD screen in which you can view the photos before you print them . . . but this can be worked around fairly easily.
I like the R200 and R300 from Epson. Great looking photo prints with 6 color inks. Both printers print directly on a compact disc as well! I saw someone make the most awesome dvd using all white blank discs.
The 300 is the same machine as the 200 with a screen and card readers built in. For $100 and $179 they are a pretty good deal.
My opinion anyway.
The think I thing that is missed when we compare Print prices is that you have to take into account the cost of the printer. If you say that the average printer costs somewhere around $150, for the first 600 pictures you print add an additional $0.25 to the cost bringing it up over $0.50 a print. Couple with that with new technologies coming around, if you were to buy a new printer, that would start that cycle all over again. Chances (or hopes rather) are that the kiosks would upgrade their equipment to bring even better pics to the table, while still leaving the costs per print pretty stable. In either case, I think that still makes a strong point for kiosks, as nice as it is to have a print in hand in under a minute. If your set on one for the home the Epsons make great looking prints, and the Canon's make the best looking prints for their price point. That's my two cents... but that won't add to the cost per print ;)
I just got an Epson CX4600 - it has a built in scanner on top. For your parents, they can plug their photo card right in and it can automatically print out a contact sheet. You make a mark under each picture that you want full sized and put it on the scanner. Now the printer looks at your choices and starts printing automatically with no PC needed. 4 separate cartridges - does borderless - fade proof ink - cheap at Costco
Stuart - Epson fan
The think I thing that is missed when we compare Print prices is that you have to take into account the cost of the printer. If you say that the average printer costs somewhere around $150, for the first 600 pictures you print add an additional $0.25 to the cost bringing it up over $0.50 a print. Couple with that with new technologies coming around, if you were to buy a new printer, that would start that cycle all over again. Chances (or hopes rather) are that the kiosks would upgrade their equipment to bring even better pics to the table, while still leaving the costs per print pretty stable. In either case, I think that still makes a strong point for kiosks, as nice as it is to have a print in hand in under a minute. If your set on one for the home the Epsons make great looking prints, and the Canon's make the best looking prints for their price point. That's my two cents... but that won't add to the cost per print ;)
BIG thumbs up for the Canon PIXMA 5000 - 1st consumer printer with drops one picoliter in size and the prints are better than the ones I got at a local sav-on drugs. With duplexing, multiple paper trays, ability to print high speed draft black (25ppm)and a simple black box design that I can actually put things on top of I couldn't be more pleased with this purchase. I had to print out a few hundred 4x6's and I averaged under 30 cents each easily. Got it for $169 at Newegg.com but I think they recently raised the price to $200 which I think is a good indicator of it's popularity. Check it out.
The Epson R300, as a couple of people have already noted, does great prints and works without a computer. If they want to print from their computer though, the next model down, the R200, is the exact same printer without the LCD screen and card readers. 6 individual colour cartridges push out borderless prints better in quality than photo developing in my opinion. It also includes a tray and software where you can print DIRECTLY onto CD's and DVD's (that have printable surfaces). I use a Mac and it has nicely compatible software included. All this for $90.00 Canadian, which is about $70/US. I have been very happy with it.
I have used the HP Photosmart series for years, my last one was the Photosmart 7760. Good printers overall, but I've found them slow in printing (about 1-3 mins for an 8x10 print depending on color resolution) and the ink cartridges can really add up in price. Their overall resolution is 4800x1200dpi and the newer ones offer 8 colors in 3 ink cartridges, drawbacks here are that if 1 of the colors goes out, you have to replace the whole cartridge, plus the nozzles are replaced each time, thus the cartridges can run $35-$50 per depending on where you buy them, if you get high cap versions, etc etc etc.
I finally ditched the HP Photosmarts and went with the Canon IP8500 printer. 8 ink dye based printer with 8 separate ink cartridges and the nozzles are permanent on the printer. Nice thing with this is you only replace the color you need and the cost is $13-$15 a cartridge. It is WICKED fast printing an 8 x 10 in about 27 seconds. Average cost per 8x10 print is around .17 cents. Color and print quality is exceptional, it is very easy to use and has 2 separate paper feeder systems, a tray underneath and a place to put paper on top, this way you can have both photo paper and regular paper loaded at the same time and toggle betweeen them with a simple button on the printer or through printer properties. It has has the capacity to handle the 4x6,3x5, and various other size papers in the bottom tray which adjusts to the paper size you are using.
I should also add the print resolution on this is 4800 x 2400 vs. the HP 4800 x 1200, cost is lower per print and I feel the quality and speed are better too.
A lot of people say the dye based inks are not as fade resistant as the ink used by HP printers.......My thought on this is as follows: The prints are all good for 2-3 years , in 3 years they'll have better paper, better ink and much better printers and better prices, plus you can always reprint the pics again if you want.........so who really cares if the HP ink lasts a few months or a couple of years longer......if you are that dead set on going back and looking at pics from 4-5 years ago and are upset that they appear a tad faded.......then REPRINT THEM on your newer technology printer with better paper for a fraction of the cost. Tech is changing so fast in this field who knows what we'll have in 3-5 years, so quit griping about it. If that's the only con people find with this printer, then it's a pretty good printer.
Trust me, I've used the photosmart series for years, and this printer (priced at $300 if you are good at searching the net) beats it overall in quality, price per print and sheer print speed. It also has less buttons and gizmos on it and is a simpler printer for the non-tech savvy person.
Just my two cents on this.
Good Luck.
P.S. In order to TRULY enjoy quality prints from this printer, I'd recommend at least a 4mp camera or 5+ megapixel preferable. At 3 mp, you won't get that much quality improvement in the images from one printer to the next. You really see the bang for your buck from your printer with higher quality images.
I am very pleased
I still can't figure out why people think the Picturemate is so cool... It weighs 5lbs, so big it needs a handle. It has no color screen, so you have to guess at what picture you want, or print out a proof sheet (lets say this covers half the sheet with ink, that means you're up to $.45 per print). Also, no editing features; well if you want, you can use a "template" for cropping (if it's not the right size or position, you just cut of grandma's head, we're up to $.75 per print with one incorrect guess, or $1.05 with two). Sure, the paper/ink pack is easy, but if you want higher quality paper you have to spend extra on top of that (the stuff it comes with is Epsons mid-grade paper). Print quality also degrades over time, the print heads built in; I dont care what Epson or Canon tell you, theres no way its gonna stay the same quality. Lastly, if you want to do black and whites, get ready to fork over a ton of money, every Epson rep Ive talked to has openly said its not at all economical, and after those inks are gone the rest of your color pictures will look weird.
Think HP. HPs got a whole new line of Photosmarts that they just brought out, using their new ink and paper handling system, Vivera. Their answer to the Picturemate is the Photosmart 375, one button 4x6s and 45sec prints. First of all, its half the physical size and weight (2.5lbs), no handle needed (and grandma wont break a hip trying to carry it around). Oh, and it also has functionality; not only does it take all 9 of the popular media cards out there, it also has an angle-adjustable 2.5inch color screen. This high color/high res screen isnt just for viewing; you can also crop, resize, change brightness, change to black and white or sepia, and even take out red eye automatically (hey, and youre still at $.36/print). HP also has a Photo Value Pack making it easy to shop, and its my opinion its a little nicer quality stuff than in the Epson pack (HP even adds extra to their paper, every sheets back is covered with tiny droplets of plastic to help you and the printer grip onto single sheets easier and keep just-printed photos from sticking together (cool huh?). You also get a choice with ink and media, you can pick up the ink separate so you can grab HPs best paper (this means even longer lasting photos, and really thick). HP also has a separate gray photo cart just for printing black and whites, very economical. The best is when you get a new color or gray photo cart youre actually getting a new print head, this is the most important part of any printer, its what puts the ink on the paper, its what determines the quality of the print, its almost like getting a whole new printer (ask Epson how much itll cost for a new print head on any of their printers). The features dont end there, HPs best design decision was to put a trap door on the bottom allowing for a Li-ion rechargeable battery, yeah you heard me, no more running from power outlet to power outlet (pictures on the beach anyone?). As far as quality goes, superb; photos will also last almost 80 years without fading. If you want to see the Vivera difference, just hop down to your local Best Buy and ask to view prints from both the Epson and HP (the more vibrantly colored one? yeah, thats the HP), and pick up a 375 if they have any left in stock (maybe check out an 8450, its their full size Photosmart, printing in 8inks [73 million colors] up to a borderless 8.5x24).
Hi-Ti Photo Printers have the best speed, price and output among 4x6" dedicated photo printers. After buying one for my parents a couple years ago, I bought one for myself and one for a friend. The prints are under $.40/ea. and can print in under 45 seconds for the regular resolution printers... or 75 seconds for the newer printers that have 33% more resolution than their standard printers and any other dye-sublimation 4x6 printers on the market. You will not find faster output, higher-resolution images, or lower per-print costs from any other consumer dye-sub. 4x6" printers, period. Not canon, not kodak, not olympus, not sony... the print times are much slower, resolution lower, and per-print costs are all greater. They have built-in card readers that will read a multitude of memory card formats, some printers feature handheld LCD controllers to allow one to do their photo editing or centering straight from the printer without need for a computer. They have newer models out now that will print at larger sizes. You should visit their site: http://www.hitishop.com or check out Steve's Digicams to see his excellent reviews of their printers. You may find their printers at a lower cost by shopping around online.
Hi-Ti Photo Printers have the best speed, price and output among 4x6" dedicated photo printers. After buying one for my parents a couple years ago, I bought one for myself and one for a friend. The prints are under $.40/ea. and can print in under 45 seconds for the regular resolution printers... or 75 seconds for the newer printers that have 33% more resolution than their standard printers and any other dye-sublimation 4x6 printers on the market. You will not find faster output, higher-resolution images, or lower per-print costs from any other consumer dye-sub. 4x6" printers, period. Not canon, not kodak, not olympus, not sony... the print times are much slower, resolution lower, and per-print costs are all greater. They have built-in card readers that will read a multitude of memory card formats, some printers feature handheld LCD controllers to allow one to do their photo editing or centering straight from the printer without need for a computer. They have newer models out now that will print at larger sizes. You should visit their site: http://www.hitishop.com or check out Steve's Digicams to see his excellent reviews of their printers. You may find their printers at a lower cost by shopping around online.
A rather interesting view of the Home versus' Shop debate on this link!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4092653.stm
Concluding that the quality of the home produced prints can last longer than the shop produced ones. With the right printer and ink.
Having worked in the not to recent past in a photolab, I would say that providing that you are printing more than half a dozen pictures, it is much cheaper to have them done in a photo lab, and the quality is much better.
Two caveat's, one this is in the UK, two this is not using the Kodak usits which are just PC printers.
People who wonder why people are raving about the Epson PictureMate must be those that have never used one. For me the PictureMate has been a "TiVo-like" experience you have to try it yourself to understand all the hype and stories from people. I myself was skeptical until I bought and used the PictureMate after getting a $100 rebate on one (from a recent Nikon camera purchase) bringing my cost down to about $75 for the printer. Now I am totally hooked on its ease of use and quality. I have owned many different HP and Cannon printers (and still do) and none compare in quality or ease of use to the PictureMate.
In most cases you dont even need a computer to use the PictureMate. If your digital camera supports PictBridge or DPOF you can select the pictures (and quantity) of pictures you want to print right on the camera and then just push the Print button on the PictureMate and they will print.
I wanted to test the "colorfastness" of the printer so I ran the first picture I made under running water for several minutes no blurring or smudging. I tried dish soap and rubbed it in, still nothing. I had to rub very hard to get any noticeable change on the print and even then it was more of a scratch on the surface of the picture, not bleeding or blurring of the print. I put the PictureMate print next to a store-processed print and the quality of the PictureMate was just as good as or better than the store print.
So one more vote for the PictureMate.
I have an Epson Stylus R300. It makes nice pics, but I am very dissapointed with the life of the cartidges and their price. Also, I get the occational ink spot. I haven't actually figured the cost per photo taking ink and paper into accout, but I doubt it is as little as the 17 cents CDN from Costco. I have stopped using my own printer except if I need a photo very quickly.
Well you can in The Netherlands through the following website http://www.canon.nl/yourprint get a print sample of all Pixma range.
This site is a free service from Canon which allows you to upload one of your own personal digital images and we will print it out on the printer of your choice and post it to you free of charge.
Left navigation underneath Canon logo, you can choose country (selecteer land)
Kind regards,
V. Gummi
James,
You do not want an Epson R300. Mine has been nothing but trouble since I got it. I've spent ages trying to tweak it so I can get decent prints. Then when I use the same "successful" settings the next time, prints still come out smudged or with ink blotches. I know that direct to CD/DVD printing wasn't part of the question, but I've had about as much success with that on this printer as with photo prints. The R300 is now used for basic printing only now, my blood pressure won't allow for anything else.
R300? No!
I agree - what your parents are doing is perfectly fine. They'll save money if they go to Costco to get prints since home prints are typically more expensive. Plus, it's not a bad thing that they're printing their photos since prints can act as a great way to archive their photos. CDs can degrade and hard drives can crash so it's a good idea to have prints as a back-up.
I'd go with the Canon Pixma ip4000. I bought it a month or so ago, replacing an Epson R200. The Epson was slow, and replacing all 6 cartridges cost about $80. Compare that to a little over $50 for the Canon.
It is extremely fast, and has dual paper slots. You can put your standard paper in the tray, and photo paper in the rear loading area. The Canon performs extremely well and is one of the cheapest printers to operate over the long haul.
Epson Picturemate is definately the way to go for in home printing. Easy, great pictures and fairly cheap. Of course, I only use it at the times I don't wish to go to walmart for just a single print or two. Unfortunately, it will only print 4x6 unless you do some gymnastics with some photo software. However, how often do you really want anything else?
I second the hiti printers that CafeDave mentioned. I bought one for myself a few years ago. A year after that I got one for my parents. For the parents you need to go with the ones that work without a computer. They were printing right away. And as far as they are concerned it looks just like the photos from their old film cameras. Standalone functionality is key as it took them 2 more years to figure out how to use it with a computer. Not that it is hard, and not that I hadn't showed them every time I visited.
Prints are way too expensive for what one does with them - 20 seconds to look at then stuffed in some drawer forever.
I tell my parents that instead of making prints and mailing them - save their money and e-mail the photos to people. If they want a print made they can go to the expense to print it out themselves.
I'm going to have to agree with the "No Printer/kiosk" option some people are giving. If your parents are not emailing the photos or photoblogging them, it's doubtful that they even wind up in the computer in the first place. Most likely they take the memory card to the mall for printing and that's it.
So you buy them a printer, now they have to learn to get the pictures into the computer, find and print them. This is not something I would expect them to do easily, at least not my parents.
Just see if you can get them to the point of emailing photos, then photoblogging. Then if they are still printing, buy the printer. Otherwise your just going to frustrate your parents with a new fangled printer which they'll feel obligated to use and at some point I can guarantee they will "lose" their pictures in the computer. Your asking for trouble.
Printer ink being the most expensive liquid in the world go with a printer that has individual ink cartridge like an
Epson or a Cannon.
I would just teach them how to print pictures at Costco or Fred Meyers off a MMC card.
I don't know how things are over there in the colonies, but here in old Europe's Germany prints from labs start at around 10 euro cents. I don't think there are any inkjet printers around that could beat that price. Not to mention the better long time stability of the real photo paper compared to ink print.
I'm sorry, but those of you having issues with the Epson R Series printers must be doing something wrong.
I have an R200, and am ABSOLUTLY thrilled with it.
Compared to a equally priced HP, the epson blows it outta the water. (I have long been an HP loyalist.)
I recently offered my printer's services at a function for kids. Taking pics, then printing them so they could go home with them. The paper and ink ran me about 80 bucks, and I still have over half of the paper left, and teh ink cartridges are about 90% full still.
The quality I get outta this printer is UNREAL. I scanned my kids school photo and printed it. A good family friend who is a professional photographer (runs her own studio) had a hard time discerning the original vs the print. That to me proved it.
I strongly recommend the Epson R200. (over 6 people in my immediate office area have now bought one after seeing my pics).
Greg
If they only want 4x6 prints and the camera is Pictbridge compatible, how about the Canon CP-220 (or the CP-330 for battery operated version).