Photo Printers pros/cons

[ChroniC]

Im looking to get a good quality photo printer, but am undecided on which is the best feature of owning one. The quality, or the price of ink.

My rents have an epson stylus photo r240.
The quality is fairly good, satisfactory at least.
The colour comparison isnt so great.
The ink is cheap, but runs out quickly.

Basically i was hoping someone has from experience an inbetween or has an opinion on the photoprinter they own.

1. Whats the quality like (max dpi)
2. With correct colour profile is it a good match?
3. Are the inks cheap, or lengthy?

Do you have to sacrifice quality for cheap inks, and visa versa?

 

[Chocki]

I used to own a cheap Epson photo printer which used combined cartridges. The quality was good but running costs were high (approx £30 per colour cartridge), I eventually gave it away!.

I now own a Canon Pixima IP8500 with 8 seperate ink cartridges. These last considerably longer than the Epson ever did and work out at about £6 each for the genuine article.

The quality is excellent and the printing speed is fast, but you don't want to be printing too many single prints as the printer goes through a head cleaning routine which is wasteful on ink, your better off keeping prints ready in a seperate folder then do a print run.

I'm more than happy with my IP8500 and have no intention of giving it away or swapping it for another printer yet.