Multi-Function Printer: Cannon or Epson?

the_syco

From doing a search here on boards.ie going back a few years, it seems that Lexmark printers are cheap, and their cartridges are still pricey. Lower end Canons (and most other brands) are meant to be dire for ink economy. Apart from that, Epsons seem have gotten good ratings, esp for cheap cartridges.

So, I'm looking at Kompletts range of Canons and Epson's, and wondering which one to get? This will be used by the family, as the HP 990cxi printer (about 7-10 years old) is going faulty.

Needs to have an ethernet connection, so that the family PC doesn't have to be on whilst printing from a laptop. The ability to print from SD cards would also be nice. Going multi function so that we won't need the seperate scanner any more. Would prefer a Multi-Function that would have the scanner on top (as opposed to one that you feed the paper into), as I often scan stuff from manuals, golf brochures, etc.

One or two catch my eye, but I'm looking at feedback from people who may either own one of them, or have some insight on the average price of cartridges of either Canon or Epson from using their printers.

Bob the Builder

General Rule of thumb (in my experience):

Epson: We have less repairs. Ink cartridges run out fast, but they're priced similarly anyway, so they're on par with any other make. As for photos - if you're printing photo's, aim for a six to eight cartridge printer, they're more accurate and you dont have to dump cartridges just because one colour is gone.

As for Canon: We have feckloads of repairs, so we only get them into our shop if people actually request them. The ink for them tends to be expensive for what you get, but generally, the print quality on everyday documents is second to none, but unless it's actually designed as a photo printer, the photo print quality leaves a lot to be desired.

Also, I don't know about you, but I tend to find a load feeder essential on the printer, as well as the flatbed scanner/copier.

This seems a nice printer, the Epson Stylus DX9400F. Note that copy quality or printing quality isn't great.

the_syco

nevf wrote: »

Also, I don't know about you, but I tend to find a load feeder essential on the printer, as well as the flatbed scanner/copier.

This seems a nice printer, the Epson Stylus DX9400F. Note that copy quality or printing quality isn't great.

By load feeder, I take it you mean a tray from which it can take paper from, then yes. That'd be needed.

As for the one you linked, nice but no network interface. Currently have a small print server, but it doesn't handle too many excel sheets. after about 10 pages, you have to manually restart the print server, or it stops half way though the 2nd page Thus, I'll be going for a printer that has a network port.

Overheal

you can save on ink economy easily thought with refill kits and refurbished cartridges. I just got 4 cartridges off swapink.com for 60% off retail and free shipping.

yoyo

For Epson INK, A m8 reccomended me Just Media, a irish company, got 18 inks for my printer (3 sets of 6) and seem to be working great for €50, also epsons seem to score well in the photography tests as they have a higher than average DPI, although afaik canon may be on par these days, my aunt is having trouble with a canon if thats worth considering, I never had problems with epsons (Always baught epson!)

Nick