Please recommend A3 photo and A4 colour laser + scanner

[Rikki]

Hi folks,

Been given the task of buying a new range of bits and pieces, the main parts are:

A3 photo quality inkjet
A4 colour laser printer
A4 colour scanner

I'd like to probably go for an Epson inkjet and scanner as Ive had experience before and know you can get good results even with compatible carts but what should I look for in a laser?

It has to be good quality, reasonably fast but quite economical on the replacement toners.

Recommendations for the two printers and scanner greatfuly received.

Kind regards,

Rikki

 

[wunkley]

Well, I just got me an Epson r2400 (A3+) last week. It...........is...........ACE. It's prowess in black and white printing was what swung it for me, but it's not cheap. (£500 ish). Ink is also v expensive, so I'm looking into getting a continuous ink system to take all the cost stresses and worry out of printing.

Have also just got me an Epson 3490 scanner. Not used it yet (need to scan in some negatives) but have read it's very good for the price (only cost me £55!)

 

[Rikki]

Thanks for that, I'll go check those ones out

Any ideas on a colour laser, thats an area Im completely in the dark about :S

R.

 

[startrek2]

i use konica minolta 2400w ,, i use it for sample shots on locations its not as fast as my oki but then you can refill them and it doesnt go thru ink like the oki ones do either, running costs full set of toner inks inc chips £130 printer is under £170 with 2 year warranty, its cheaper to buy another than buy a full set of genuine toners,
picture wise is usually only use 600x600 to save ink/toner, the proofs come out well and many people like the feel on good quality laser colour paper (dont use cheap paper) i only use 100gram bright white and they are good enough on location,

have a oki 5540 mfc lots quicker both sides (duplex) but VERY expensive and uses lots of toners the minolta for full refills does over 2 x the amount the oki does easily they oki is very toner hungry but it is a lot faster,

i actually use a hp b/w laser for day to day printing as its a lot cheaper to run yet again for black prints,

a3 and above i use photobox up to a4 i use kodak 1400 printer (12x8), dot scan other than simple stuff the oki mfc copes well for that,

hope it helps,,

by the by a samsung laser b/w is on sale in places for £50 thats a lot of black text for the money.

hope it helps

 

[Rikki]

Cheers for the reply. The colour laser will be used to produce little newsletter type things, sales broshure sheets and odds and sods so could be pumping out 50 copies of something at 8 pages a go. Thats why I was wondering what would be best for price on toners etc and of course quality.

R.

 

[startrek2]

Cheers for the reply. The colour laser will be used to produce little newsletter type things, sales broshure sheets and odds and sods so could be pumping out 50 copies of something at 8 pages a go. Thats why I was wondering what would be best for price on toners etc and of course quality.

R.

we print out 125 brochures for meet a 5 page a4 both sides folded, so its like 20 pages ,, the front cover is colour back & front so is inside (no duplex unless manual on minolta 2400W) on that page centre is color both sides,,
the 3 inside pages are black text ,, hp takes about 50 mins to do inside as it has duplex, minotlta takes about 2 hrs but this is because we usually do it in stages ie 33 pages then flip them cause as laser heats the paper a big run you get folded curve in so we kinda take this out by doing it in small batch,
the hp is ok as it grabs paper back in and does it henceonce out just turn it up so fold goes away withthe weight of them all.

minolta is deffo cheaper way, for such, also if you buy from ebay.com you can 2 lots of toner refills inc chips for what you pay here for one lot from the "toner" guys, even though they are small included 1500 at 5% coverages you can refill them to full sized toner 4500 pages etc,

quality wise the oki is slightly better on 1 on 1 test, but in 600x600 prints they all look good enough and sell, which is main point of it all.

and of course cheap as chips to start, (the oki is VERY expensive on toner even the toner people will tell you that it goes through loads for same job)

i have since got another 2400W i liked it that much is a little noisy but onsite it dont matter so now we use it one home network as main printer

 

[DannyDan]

Cheers for the reply. The colour laser will be used to produce little newsletter type things, sales broshure sheets and odds and sods so could be pumping out 50 copies of something at 8 pages a go. Thats why I was wondering what would be best for price on toners etc and of course quality.

R.

I have a Lexmark C522n, which can be picked up for about £300-350 and Lexmark are currently offering £150 cashback. Very cheap to buy and fast once it gets going, but the toners may be a bit expensive if you're mass-producing colour documents.