NooB - Looking for Advice

JimmyO

Hi All,

I'm just looking for info on Home Photo Printers. I've seen the quality of some images and it's good but I've heard that they are not cost effective because of the price of ink.

Does anyone have an opinion/advice on this?

Should I invest in one (and if so which one) or just continue with getting them printed professionally?

Also can anyone recommend an entry level SLR?

rymus

I'd stick with the lab... price per print generally works out lower.

Cabaal

rymus wrote: »

I'd stick with the lab... price per print generally works out lower.

Have to agree with this, either local shops or the likes of photobox.ie will give you the best value

Thirdfox

You may get better colour fidelity if you're in full control of the printing process...but being a "noob" you probably do not need such accurate colour reproductions and a lab will work out to be a lot cheaper (especially online).

Chunky Monkey

Some of the canon printers have cartridges that you can get refilled at cartridge world which is many times cheaper than buying new ones each time. With regards quality, I have no idea sorry.

Stephen

I have a Canon IP5200, which has probably been replaced by a newer model by now but it produces great quality prints. Cartridges are outrageously expensive (€20+ each, and there's five of them in the printer) but spurious ones are available online. The only catch is you have to transplant the Canon chip from the spent cartridges to the new fake ones, which will allow you to print but loses the ability to see ink levels in the printer software. One of the five cartridges is a high capacity black cartridge for regular non-photo printing stuff.

I print onto Epson glossy 4x6 paper. I got a heap of it dirt cheap in some kind of special offer from spectra photo ages ago.

Online services are probably still cheaper though!

JimmyO

Thanks All!!!

I'll stick with the lab for now!

Borderfox

A full set of Epson R360 ink (6 of them) is €50 and I get about 40-45 A4's out of them, I think it works out at about €2 per A4. You can probably get the ink cheaper on the net too along with the paper. Good entry level SLR is the Canon 400d Nikon D40 Olympus E410 etc.

AnCatDubh

just an additional opinion on this - while i agree that the lab is probably the best option in terms of printing in bulk (which these days is probably > 5!), I think its always handy to have the capability to print at will (at home). I tend to get really nice results from an old (7+ years) HP desk jet something or other - infact i kept this when we got a new model last year and on occasion i use it to do anything from passport / driver licence photos to A4 enlargements of a family image. Anyhow the point is that while broadly speaking you will use a lab for the majority of your work, you probably should have something of reasonable quality that you can depend on should you have to (or want to) produce something at short notice/unusual hours/or just coz you couldn't be bothered battling with that wonderful pastime that we Irish have grown to love - shopping.