Peripherals forum: Best Potgraphy printer?

the only printers 2 consider are the Canon pixma 4000 or better. I have just purchased a MP760 which has a scanner as well. If U intend to scan 35mm slides or neg's this one is is the 1 4U. The Canon range is extremly economical on ink & the cartriges are cheap. They are Duplex, Have a A4 paper tray built in, Like the Laser printers, & will print directly onto your DVD/CD rom disks. Forget the rest, no other brand of printer comes anywhere near the Canon.

I have researched and used various printers while looking for the perfect home printer to handle my digital pictures as well as other projects.
The Epson 820 Photo Printer wins hands down! At about $199.99 in cost, with the cheapest cartridge price I've found around, ( $50 for a pak with one black and one 4 color cartridge) and the best quality photo printing I've seen, it's a winner in my book.
It's also the last printer Epson came out with that doesn't use indiviual color cartridges. It's still available on the market as well.
I've tested for fading, blurring, sharper image and truer colors, and it's come through with flying colors..(pun intended)..on all counts.

It depends on what you're really looking for - Do you want large format pictures? If not, I have a Canon CP300 dye-sub that prints up to 4x6, comes with a battery for printing on the go, and is small enough to take anywhere. The pictures it produces are excellent. The new models print up to 4x8. On the other side, I also have a Canon i9900, which prints up to 13x19! This printer is by far the best value on the market for larger format prints, in my opinion. The output is awesome, even at 13x19, with Canon's Photo Pro paper. Of course, it also helps if you have a high resolution camera, but even using a 3.2 MP camera the prints are really good!

I bought the Canon ip8500 this year.It works for me right out of the box.Just use the gravity feed for photographic paper and use the lower cassette for regular sized everyday type of paper printing.
I use Photoshop to adjust my digital negatives.When I am ready to print, I turn on the included Canon program and I tell the program that I use the Canon Photo Pro paper.

Although I am a devout Canon user of 30 years and print over 6000 full bleed photos on my iP300's (NEVER had a single hiccup either...beautiful prints) a year, there is more to it than just the brand name. As it is right now, almost all the major players have printers that can give you beautiful prints.
A lot of people use the generic inks. On my old 550 I was able to use the bulk ink without a problem but on the newer printers....impossible. I had viscousity tests done on several "major" brand (generic) suppliers and found ALL of the inks were too thick and would burn out the print heads after a few hundred copies. I don't worry that one brands' magenta may be "darker" than Canons' since it is easy to compensate (only have to do ir once) in the printer driver options. Unfortunantly (for me) I found that the manufacturers' ink to be the only one (for now) that works properly in my printers. Compare the prices of the manufacturers inks and replacement printheads. I have found a 3rd party glossy stock supplier that is almost as good as Canon's. That is Impresso Platinum High Gloss Photo Paper sold at Future Shop (Best Buy in the US) for a third the price of the Canon stock. Remember that the manufacturers create their replacement supplies to work the the nuances of THEIR printers and their's only. A generic supplier tries to be "compatable" with all and will not be as good as the original....close maybe, but not as good as.
As I said, most of the manufactures (ok,...I don't include Lexmark) have excellent printers at reasonable / comparable prices.
Be prepared to buy original manufactures supplies for your needs (and best results) and compare ALL the replacement costs. Stay away from printers that have all the colours in one cartridge....yellow ALWAYS runs out first and you will be wasting the other colours left in the cartridge.
Another important thing.....DON"T expect a perfect print from a printer "right out of the box". Every printer (even same models side by side) has need of tweaking the printer driver for colour levels. You will have to experiment to obtain the best results.

You commented that on later model Canon printers you can only use Canon inks. I previously had an i9000 printer and for past 6 months an i9900 and I have used 3rd party ink cartridges without problem. I have printed up to 13X19 canvas prints that are beautiful and had no problems with the print heads, they haven't 'burned out' or clogged. Canon, Epson, HP and all the other makers naturally want you to buy their overpriced inks, Epson heavily handed use of chips to try and prevent non EOM ink is totally based on greed. If you use ink from companies that are ISO9001 certified, the ink is totally compatible with your printer. Canon ink retails for about $19 each, that is $152 for a set of 8! Even discounted Canon inks sell for around $12 each, and times 8 carts in the i9900 equals $96! That is outrageous and I refuse to submit to their tactics. I pay under $3 each, including shipping, 1/4 the Canon price.

I have a iP3000 and have used DIY Refill Kit InkMaster but it clogged my printer. So I am using original inks today. The clog is gone and the prints are as good as when i first used it.

I was myself in the same dilemma not long ago, and after many days of studying various forums and specialized test labs and opinions I have decided for the one that got by far most of the specialists votes for personal lab photo as "PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition", see the official webpage at:
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=53540922&modeloid=56361&infoType=Downloads

Go with Epson- you won't be sorry!Without spending a ton of money. You will get unbelievable results.

Most newer inkjet printers from the major brands work fine. I'm currently using and older Epson sylus 880. It prints on the slow side but the pictures are decent. My friend always has been an HP inkjet user and his prints also are fine.

To get truly good photos, you need to experiment with your printer and try different print settings to see what will give you the best results. Make sure you use the good photostock paper and set your printer settings appropriately. I have spent countless times printing the same picture with different settings just to see how the photo varies.

From talking to some professional photographers at a Nikon workshop, a lot of them use Epson printers. One of the reasons is that their inks are a bit more stable from batch to batch. There is less variance on the print outs.