Printer for my new digital camera

[indy mike]

Now that I have my new Fuji E 550 digital soul stealer I'm wondering about a dedicated printer for making good quality prints. Long ago I had an Epson printer that did a great job handling images (never tried any photo paper); my current Lexmark all-in-one scanner/printer/copier kinda sucks in the quality department. What do I look for on my quest?

[Scott Young]

I bought an Epson Stylus Photo R200 not long ago and it does a fantastic job on Epson Premium Glossy paper and I've heard it looks even better with Epson's textured semi-gloss paper. The R200 sells for $99, prints on printable CDs, and has individual ink tanks including light cyan and light magenta. It does a gorgeous job on Taiyo-Yuden white CDs. Haven't tried any other discs. I love this little printer, even though the first replacement set of ink cartridges will probably set me back $70 or so...I can't bring myself to check the prices yet.

Epson printers used to be notorious for clogged print heads. The Epson 820 that this printer replaced had that problem but so far not a single clog on the R200. If it was as bad as the 820 I would have had problems by now.

[indy mike]

Thanks! I really liked my old Epson (which was chugging along until my sister-in-law got tired of how slowly a print was coming along and pulled the paper out during printing - needless to say, it soon hit the garbage can)...

[Jamie Tate]

I have the Epson R300. It's the newer version replacing the R200 and does the CD printing also. I got mine from Best Buy for $110 (after $30 rebate). Easy to use and the prints look great with photo paper. I bought one for the studio and tried it out at home. I liked it so much I had to buy another one for the studio. :)

[indy mike]

2 votes for Epson - no HP, Canon or other contenders?

[BGLeduc]

I have a Canon iP5000 and one would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the prints it produces vs. stuff from a real photo lab.

FWIW, I print on Canon Photo Paper Plus - Glossy.

Note that I am a noob at this, and took a friend's suggestion for a Canon based on a ton of research he did. I was actually looking for a different model Canon, which had been discontinued, and this appeared to be the successor. No complaints at all, but I did not do any comparisons. My camera is a Canon A95 and I liked the idea of staying with a Canon product, and I have had great luck with their non-digital cameras in the past.

BGL

[indy mike]

Hmmmm - mebbe this shoulda been a poll...

[DanG]

Now that I have my new Fuji E 550 digital soul stealer I'm wondering about a dedicated printer for making good quality prints.Does the Fuji have PictBridge?

This holiday season they seem to have brought out a new generation of printers specifically designed to deal with digital cameras. Walking through Office Depot I saw combos where the camera sat on top of the printer, press some buttons, and, zap, beautiful prints.

Some of them seem geared to 4x6 prints, I don't know what you have in mind.

Also, some inkjets seem to carry photo as part of the name, as in HP's Photosmart, apparently greater dpi.

I did a search at Office Depot, "camera printer", had 18 results, the link was too cumbersome to paste.

I don't do much photo printing, but get good results on an OfficeJet G55xi, a couple of years old. Best results with 8 1/2 x 11, 4x6 is a PIA. Software is stupid.

Also, look into printers that have special photo inks, as well. I might have seen that on Epson, or Cannon.

[BGLeduc]

FWIW, the Canon I mentioned does support Picture Bridge (pretty cool really, just plug the camera in, turn it on, and it opens up some pretty neat SW in the camera that gives you some control over the printing process).

It does require special inks, and in fact requires 5 different cartridges worth. It has no LCD (the PC or camera takes care of the need for that), nor does it have a slot for a memory card (ditto what I said regarding lack of LCD). It will do border less 8 1/2 x 11 prints, along with 4x6 and 5x7.

BGL

[-=Rudy=-]

I've had an HP PhotoSmart P1000 that's done OK for a few years. My ex got a model that's a year or two newer and it prints even better. No reliability problems here with either one.

I'm wondering if dye-sub printers are worth getting yet or not. For some reason, inkjet doesn't seem to be as "permanent" as I'd like. I'm afraid of the ink running, in other words...