Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Aug 2005
- Posts
- 8,878
- Location
- Clydebank
Hi there, I was going to post in General Hardware but I thought here might get me a better answer.
I'm looking for a new printer for printing photos at upto A4 size (10x8) and the odd bit of text/web page etc, the most important factors being image quality, cost to run, and price to buy. I had a DJ840c but gave it to my dad a while ago and I got angry with my 6L and smashed it up the other month (kept jamming paper).
If I have say 30 or 50 6x4 to print i'll proably go photobox, but this printer will be more for experimenting, creating one offs, a few prints here and there.
I only have a budget of about £200 for both printer + scanner, I have been looking at the Canon ip4200 and the HP 8540, now the canon has great prints, is quite fast, does duplex (does anyone find it useful?) and has 2 input trays which seems quite useful. But getting cheapish ink for this can be problematic so far as I have heard. It can print on DVD/cd which i suppose could be useful but i doubt it.
The HP, however is a lot bigger, and has a load of Picbridge stuff on (not really interested in that) but it has a RJ45 port, and all th reviews I read and scans of smaple pictures I have seen rate the print quality amazing if a little slower than the Canon. As good as printers 2-3 times the price. It has a dedicated gray cartridge which really give great B&W printing. I imagine I will be doing some large B&W prints. Putting 6x4 card in is a little tricky, but no more so than the envelope thing for previous HP deskjets which I have owned a few of. No duplex though.
Canon is about 60 quid, HP about 120. From the reading I have done, epsons waste ink and are really expensive to run, plus the HP seems to be really well beahved (these are built into the print cartridge). I haven't found much about the canons other than they change their setup between models pretty much, the 4200 has chipped carts.
) Bear in mind cheap lasers are only 50 quid so the canon and a cheap laser is less than the HP.
Anyone got/used these printers have anything to say about them, even though it's twice the price and looks fugly, the HP may edge out the Canon, unless someone can convince me otherwise.
I was looking at a scanners and it seems with out spending funny money (9950f / v700) the canon 8400f looks OK for scanning a few negs / slides and prints in to edit and print on my new printer.
otherwise what epson scanner would you suggest. I was looking on ebay and saw a few older film scanners going for around a 100. Any recommendations to do this (e.g. Nikon Ls30 or coolscan 2000) and a cheap 30 pound scanner for prints, or will e.g. the 8400f canon produce better results.
Thanks for reading this I know it's quite long but I have been reading about these things solid for 2 days now and wanted to ask some questions to people who may have more hands on usability.
Cheers
I'm looking for a new printer for printing photos at upto A4 size (10x8) and the odd bit of text/web page etc, the most important factors being image quality, cost to run, and price to buy. I had a DJ840c but gave it to my dad a while ago and I got angry with my 6L and smashed it up the other month (kept jamming paper).
If I have say 30 or 50 6x4 to print i'll proably go photobox, but this printer will be more for experimenting, creating one offs, a few prints here and there.
I only have a budget of about £200 for both printer + scanner, I have been looking at the Canon ip4200 and the HP 8540, now the canon has great prints, is quite fast, does duplex (does anyone find it useful?) and has 2 input trays which seems quite useful. But getting cheapish ink for this can be problematic so far as I have heard. It can print on DVD/cd which i suppose could be useful but i doubt it.
The HP, however is a lot bigger, and has a load of Picbridge stuff on (not really interested in that) but it has a RJ45 port, and all th reviews I read and scans of smaple pictures I have seen rate the print quality amazing if a little slower than the Canon. As good as printers 2-3 times the price. It has a dedicated gray cartridge which really give great B&W printing. I imagine I will be doing some large B&W prints. Putting 6x4 card in is a little tricky, but no more so than the envelope thing for previous HP deskjets which I have owned a few of. No duplex though.
Canon is about 60 quid, HP about 120. From the reading I have done, epsons waste ink and are really expensive to run, plus the HP seems to be really well beahved (these are built into the print cartridge). I haven't found much about the canons other than they change their setup between models pretty much, the 4200 has chipped carts.
) Bear in mind cheap lasers are only 50 quid so the canon and a cheap laser is less than the HP.Anyone got/used these printers have anything to say about them, even though it's twice the price and looks fugly, the HP may edge out the Canon, unless someone can convince me otherwise.
I was looking at a scanners and it seems with out spending funny money (9950f / v700) the canon 8400f looks OK for scanning a few negs / slides and prints in to edit and print on my new printer.
otherwise what epson scanner would you suggest. I was looking on ebay and saw a few older film scanners going for around a 100. Any recommendations to do this (e.g. Nikon Ls30 or coolscan 2000) and a cheap 30 pound scanner for prints, or will e.g. the 8400f canon produce better results.
Thanks for reading this I know it's quite long but I have been reading about these things solid for 2 days now and wanted to ask some questions to people who may have more hands on usability.
Cheers