Colour printer and scanner recommendations?
 

I'd appreciate advice on
(1) a colour printer for printing photographs
(2) a scanner.

Budget: I'm assuming about £150 each.
Thanks.

I've just bought a HP deskjet 950C, £140, excellent. Have an Agfa snapscan 1212u, which is excellent as well.

I have an EPSON 1240U PHOTO Scanner which cost about £135.

It is COMPLETELY, and I may say, superbly compatible with my EPSON STYLUS 760 printer. The photo reproductions are superb.
That was on offer at Jungle.com at £86!

I am very happy with both.

[This message has been edited by InFinRetirement (edited 28 April 2001).]

Neutral - I've had a HP Scanjet 4200C USB and an HP DeskJet 710 Series printer for a while. The Scanjet is excellent (thought it won't do slides/transparencies - next time I'll go for one that can), the DeskJet prints photos beautifully but slo-o-owly. The DeskJet does need Windows and isn't supposed to be networkable (tho' with a few tricks it networks reasonably). If you plan to network the printer then ask _specifically_ [HP had their warning that this was not a netprinter in teeny weeny little letters on the box and nowhere else]. Both now obsolete of course. Be warned, if you're going to print a lot of photos then consumables (ink and glossy paper) get mucho expensive.

Lexmark Z52 for printing photos, its fantastic if you print a set of pictures and show them to someone they dont even reliase it from a printer. Also if you you use Lexmark paper it almost waterproof


:) :)
:) :)

I'm sitting at the pooter beside SR71 who warns that he bought a Lexmark Z11 and is very far from happy as it was dirt cheap to buy - but that the ink cartridges cost a bl00dy fortune http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/frown.gif

ExSimGuy has a point, when looking at buying a printer you need to look at the running costs as well. The Epsons are good for photographic work but get through ink cartridges a lot quicker than the HP. Although the epson ink cartridges are cheaper than the HP you get through twice as many. The HP for me came out on top due to it's versatility in that it too produces excellent photo quality print outs but it also produces very good text docs as well and was cheaper to run. I looked at a few websites, that did reviews and running costs etc, so for my needs the HP came out better.
The hardest thing was to try and get somebody to do a demo of the prints from printers. Pcworld used to have little booklets with (alledged) printouts but don't seem to do those anymore. When I asked for a demo, oh no Sir we can't do that, can't remember the lame excuse they gave. I said to the bloke here's the keys to my car you can have it for £10,000. I'm not buying anything without seeing it first he retorts, exactly I said and went off elsewhere where they did show me printouts, and it was cheaper as well. Oh and by the way my cars only worth about £1500 at the most.

I've got an HP Officejet G85 the prints are breathtaking as is the cost of the ink, that's why I run an HP laserjet III alongside!

I have an epson GT7000 scanner, an epson film scanner and an epson 600 printer. They're all good and all very compatible, all using epson software. For instance, you tell the scanner what final size you want to print out, and at what resolution, and it scans at the required resolution. The photos are just like real prints and seem to be colour fast. The only minus is that results are best on epson paper. The HP at work seems to cope better with plain paper.

As for cost I don't keep a detailed record. I usually use non-epson cartidges which work as well and are available widely at about half the epson price.

Just to throw another spanner into your decision making - I used to have an Epson 750 (photo) which, although I didn't do a lot of photo printing, I thought was superb. after 18 months I discovered that the print heads needed replacing at huge costs. I then bought a Lexmark Z52 and am V happy with it. Although the cartridges are slightly more expensive, each time you replace a cartridge, you get a new printing head (terminology may not be correct as I'm no computer buff) so the print is as good as when you first bought the printer! OK, I've only had this one a few months but my old Lexmark 150C which is about 7 years old still produces great B/W text! I may have just been unlucky with the Epson but getting a new print head every time you replace the cartridge seems a good idea to me - try and find someone who can demonstrate one for you and you'll be sold (great speed too!)

Buy a scanner with a tranny adaptor if you have an old slide collection. happy with my epson 1200 photo @£200

I'm very pleased with an Epson Stylus Photo 750 & Umax 6400 scanner.

The big difference between Epson and HP printers is that with HP, each new ink cartridge comes with new print heads, so you avoid the print head issue above.

The 750 prints great digital pictures on "photo quality ink jet paper" and A6 cards. I say that because photo paper is too expensive. Combine this with laminating, and you get great results.

The scanner comes with a IEEE1394 card, and works well with the digital camcorder - that was the main reason for going for it. It was a cheaper option when planning to start DV editing.

Have heard great things about newer generations of Epson printers, but as usual it's best to see it in action before deciding. Bear in mind the cost of consummables though.

Best of luck!

Nobody refilling their ink cartridges??

Bit fiddly but slashes the costs for me.

I'd also be interested in preferred brands of glossy paper. TIA.

PC World were selling the Visioneer 4400 USB flatbed scanner for £39.99 in Exeter last week. I bought one and it's great!