Thread: Printers vs Printers

If you're after a colour printer to do production quality photos your only choice is a decent ink-jet. Lasers just don't have the colour range or resolution.

Colour document - Laser, any day of the week.
Photo - All injet...

As for the multifunction, they tend to be a jack of all trades and master of none. Their scanners are generally pretty ordinary (certainly not a match for a decent dedicated one), and same with the printing.

The setup I want at home is a colour laser multifunction for general work, and a dedicated inkjet for the pretty stuff. Mind you, I find paying for photos to be printed often works out cheaper than doing it at home with the cost of consumables...

Cheers,
Dave

I agree with Ozkaban.....

I had an older HP inkjet which was costing a fortune in consumables, while giving pretty ordinary print quality. Replaced it with a Dell 2130CN colour laser for about $380 delivered to my door.

Very impressed with the Dell - it actually prints photos better than my old inkjet, and is VERY fast. First page out in about 5 seconds, and about 10ppm (colour) thereafter. Print quality on B&W and colour is awesome.

If I want really good photo prints I'd rather pay to get them done. You can waste an awful lot of inkjet ink trying to get colours/contrast, etc. just right. Unless you have a colour injet that has been properly calibrated to your monitor (so that what you see is what you get), I wouldn't bother. For most colour prints the laser is just fine, and I don't do enough photo printing to justify a dedicated inkjet (plus calibration device).

We have a Canon MP610. One reason we chose it was that it is still possible to refill the ink cartridges (there are warranty implications but it is way out of warranty now). It is so much cheaper to run that way. Have never had any trouble with the refill ink either (except sometimes multicoloured hands). Quality is good enough for us. Look on the websites for the refill ink people and you will get an idea of what cartridges can be refilled, and the look for review of printers that use those ones.

Peter

Dave, Foxie, and Pete - thank you for the contribution. You have each confirmed my thoughts. I've decided on a heavily discounted Brother MFC-6490CW. A bit more than I started out to buy but it is an A3 printer which will come in handy for enlarged drawings.
Unlike the Epson, which requires 6, this needs just 4 ink tanks which are also a few $$ less than the Epson.

soth

Have you tried getting refills from Peach Australia,Swiss ink,top quality, use it in my Canon mp500, next day delivery,prices about half of refills.This was earlier put up in the forums, do a search.