Printer Advice

Umiq88

I've a broad range of requirments and have done a lot of research but hoping to get some practical advice here. I've decided one printer won't cover all my needs and will get a cheap Brother mono laser for high volume day to day printing. I'm also looking for something for occasional colour printing and photos. I would also like a scanner but it's not essential. Value for money is more important than price. I like the idea of intank printer but I'm scared if I don't use it often enough it will dry up and I'll have an expensive door stop. If anyone has different advice I'd wecome it.

Does anyone have any recommendations I'm drawn to Canon for some reason. Photo quaility needs to be good enough for framed photos but most of the time these will be taken with smartphones so don't need anything near professional.

alias no.9

Inktank printers are for the most part based on the cheapest / crappiest printer (sub €50) with a fairly generous lifetime of ink for most people added in. Great if you do lits of printing but if you don't print very often, you'll be a long time recovering the upfront price difference.

If you don't print very often, I'd avoid anything that comes with 4 separate cartridges because most of the ink will be used up just keeping the printhead clean.

Umiq88

Best fit I can find is the TS5150. Its a lot less that I was expecting to pay but I don't see any benifit it the more expensive printers for my needs.

Anyone got any experience with this printer or advice?

CabanSail

Best fit is to get the Mono Bulk Printer as described and then take any Photo's to get printed elsewhere.

Photo Printers at home cost more than you get charged by a professional printer. The only reasons to have one at home that I can see are;

1. Printer control is part of your creative workflow. So having the use of those elements are important for the final output.

2. You do work which has very tight time factor so being able to print immediately is important.

The output you describe doesn't seem to fit either of the above. The choice for you is where you get them printed. The cheap kiosk will be grand for some stuff but if you want a quality product then pay the extra for a bespoke professional.

Heebie

Having a good archival quality photo printer at home for "occasional use" is crazy. You'll go to use it and find that some of the nozzles in the print head are no longer working or that an ink cartridge has died out etc...

If you do choose to buy one, make sure it uses pigment-based inks, and not dye-based ones. Lifespan of a print on good paper is many decades, even centuries, vs months to a few years.

Value-wise you're better off getting the occasional print done at a photo lab that uses wet-process printing. (Imaged to photographic paper then processed in an RA-4 or similar process... most labs have equipment that works this way nowadays... I personally prefer Fuji Frontier equipment over Noritsu or AGFA, out of the big 3 manufacturers)