I went to buy another ink cartridge for the Compaq-branded Lexmark printer that came with my computer ( Lexmarks are notorious for low initial price but the highest-priced ink cartridges around.) when I noticed that for less than the cost of 2-to-3 ink cartridges I could get machines that copy and scan as well as print.
I don’t have a huge need for document copies, but the public library is usually closed or has its machine out-of-order whenever I do.
A scanner is something that right now just looks like an interesting toy, though I suspect that I’ll eventualy come to wonder how I ever did without it.
For $80–100 I saw several Lexmarks and Hewlett-Packards and I’m wondering if Lexmark is still slow, still needs a minimum of 25 sheets of paper in the in-tray to keep from going offline on “paper out”, still has a whopping appetite for ink.
And what about HP? I notice some have “Pict-Smart” ports for digital cameras.
In that my 35mm will eventually break and be replaced by a digital, does this port download from anything other than an HP camera?
Do any of these cheaper printers make good photo prints or should I just take my memory cards ( Is this the right term? I’m the Fred Flintsone of digital photography lingo.) to Walgreens?
Do HPs have any annoying traits I should know about?
There was an article in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago that said it was cheaper to get digital prints online or at places like Walgreens than to print them yourself, given the cost of printer paper and ink.
As for which printer to buy now, I prefer laser printers because the per page cost is so much lower.
Most articles I’ve read suggest you carefully check out the ink and paper cost as well as the quality of the print.
As to multi-function machines, my first was a Xerox which was not really too good. My current one is the Canon MP720 lwhcih really makes excellent color prints, copies, scans, FAXes and does PC FAX too, all very well.
Don’t think that model is available any more. You might go to a library and look through the last few issues of the PC magazines which frequently review printers, as does Consumer Reports
There was a Pit thread not too long ago about HP printers.
Personally, I have always had HP and probably always will. That being said, my contribution to said Pitting was that their software is getting more and more bulky and there was a big fat bug in the software for my machine (Officejet 5510 all-in-one).
I really like the all-in-one. I’ve used the fax alot for business and personal stuff. I’ve used the copier and scanner several times.
I would venture to guess that Canon and Epson are about the same quality of HP. I have had alot of HP printers and they have been sent around the block to various friends and family members and most are still in service.
I’ve only known a few folks with Lexmarks…and I think they fall in the “you get what you pay for” category.
We (wife and I) used to use HP printers, but got annoyed with them. They refuse to print to the bottom of the page, which may not be a big deal if all you do is letters, but if you do 4-up postcards and such, can be a real PITA. And the cartridges are fairly expensive.
Now Wife has a Canon i860 (IIRC) at her office, I have a CAnon Pixma P4000 at my shop, and we have a little Canon, whose number I forget, and a Dell all-in-one A10 at home, all of which are really nice machines. I particularly like the Pixma because it will print to the edges of the paper all around, has a paper tray underneath plus a sheet feeder on the top - selectable with a push button, has 5 individual cartridges for the different inks (2 blacks), and the cartridges are relatively inexpensive, especially if you buy the replacement cartridges from Amazon Imaging. Prints really nice too.
I can’t talk much about the all-in-one machines. Our Dell A10 came bundled with a desktop system we bought last year, and I’d swear it’s really a Lexmark. Looks just like it. It’s a nice printer, and the copy and scanner functions work fine, but the software is kinda clunky and non-ergonomic.
I have a Canon MP390 (I don’t think this one is made anymore either, but Canon is generally good for print quality). I bought it when my Epson multi-function had problems.
It prints out very nice photos. It uses any brand of photo paper, and I’ve been using generic ink in it without any noticable problems (www.inksell.com or www.all-ink.com have good deals). While it might cost marginally more to print them at home, I have prints without leaving the house, sort of an on-demand thing, and I like that.
It also will do scanning, copying, and faxing.
The only drawback is that it does not have seperate color ink tanks…the color ink is all in one tank. Oh well, with generic ink, it’s really cheap anyhow, so no big deal.
It has slots on it for pictbridge as well as any of the media cards you might want to print from (these can also be used to transfer files to the computer from the memory card).
I second the idea of HP software being big and bloated. Most of them require 750MB for a printer install now. 750MB!! WTF? Microsoft Office doesn’t take up that much space!
I have an HP and that is my only problem, the ink costs a fortune and recently I had some visitors and printed out their vacation photos. It probably would have been cheaper to simply go to Walgreens and print out the photos.
Otherwise, my machine is a photocopier and scanner and does great photos (other than that ink cost problem). I am not at home and don’t have the model number but it cost about $148 or so. Put me down as a happy HP camper.
If you’re having software problems check for updates.
I would recommend a laser printer AND an injet. Printing on a laser is considerably cheaper for B&W. If you can only afford an injet then buy one with individual ink cartridges for each color. $300 gets you a nice printer. I personally wouldn’t spend extra money on memory slots on a printer because using it to print all your digital pictures is not cost effective. Take it to WallyWorld or Sams if you want everything printed.
Since I switched to digital imaging I have adopted a philosophy of only printing the pictures I really want. I can shoot hundreds of pictures on vacation for free and choose only the best shots to print. It’s easier and cheaper to take a memory chip or CD full of pictures down to a photo store and have them print them out. The quality of digital prints from places like Sam’s is outstanding.
I guess I should have talked about inkjets a little more. I’ve owned both HP’s and Epsons and they’re both great companies to work with. HP’s historically put their print head on the ink cartridge while Epson print heads are built into the printer. My current printer is an Epson 2200. It has 7 separate ink cartridges so I can replace them as each ink runs out. It also uses archival ink. You can run a glossy photo underwater and it won’t run. The image is not suppose to fade for 80 years or more. The one thing that seems to be consistent is that they continually improve on existing models. My printer has already been pushed aside by the newer models. Fortunately it was a popular model so the ink cartridges will be around for quite some time.