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Podolsky · May 9, 2005, 06:51 PM

I really do hate them because I have never found one that worked properly. But I need one! My second Epson this year has just died. So, I am not exactly running to buy Epson. I also thought their drivers and utilities were rather buggy. On top of it, I really rather not buy a printer that has like 5 or 7 cartridges that need to be replaced every few images for $15.68 each! They always seem to die right in the middle of the only thing you really needed to print! What I need is color (some) and BW (moderate ammount), but not necessarily photo quality (there is an oxymoron

I am open to suggestions. Thanks

tooki · May 9, 2005, 11:07 PM

You'll find that many people on this forum love Canon printers. They're fast, quiet, have nice drivers, and their ink is cheap and long-lasting.

Do a search for iP4000 and iP3000, those are two great all-purpose models.

tooki

Severed Hand of Skywalker · May 10, 2005, 01:29 AM

Originally Posted by tooki

You'll find that many people on this forum love Canon printers. They're fast, quiet, have nice drivers, and their ink is cheap and long-lasting.tooki

100% true.

Sage · May 10, 2005, 02:23 AM

I haven't used a Canon yet, but my HP printer has been chugging along merrily for several years now (veruses the Epsons, which seem programmed to self-implode after 12 months). The ink's not the cheapest, but the cartridges last forever. I'll concede that HP makes mostly ugly printers, but they're tough.

I'll have to look into Canon. I never really liked the physical feel of Canon printers though... the buttons always feel like they're going to fall off.

KSE7696 · May 10, 2005, 03:57 AM

I had an Epson 740i that did an amazing job considering it was a cheaper printer at the time. Once it finally bit the dust about 1-1/2 ago I got another Epson. I was very disappointed with the quality. The new printer cost a lot more and it was nothing like my old one. I finally got tired of it and baught a HP Photosmart 8450 just a few weeks ago and I am completely happy and overjoyed with it

Best printer I have ever had! The quality is great and is very quick and not too loud. I print a lot of photos and this is perfect for my needs. Hopefully it will last me a few years. The ink is about on par with other brands of printers. Not cheap, but not the most expensive by any means. The features on the printer are very nice as well.

im_noahselby · May 10, 2005, 04:29 AM

Originally Posted by Sage

I'll concede that HP makes mostly ugly printers, but they're tough.

I'll have to look into Canon. I never really liked the physical feel of Canon printers though... the buttons always feel like they're going to fall off.

I disagree with your comment regarding HP printers being some of the ugliest. In my oppinion, HP printers are some of the best looking out of the bunch (Canon, Epson, etc).

>>> but, you are right about Canon's printer buttons falling off. They are flimsly, cheap and an embarrasment to an otherwise good printer.

HP printers are good overall printers. They will get the job done and you will only have 2 ink cartridges to worry about replacing. If you plan on doing a lot of colour printing, than a Canon printer would be more cost effective, otherwise, an HP printer may be the way to go.

Noah

OreoCookie · May 10, 2005, 05:30 AM

Another vote for Canon. Never had any problems regarding quality.

Podolsky · May 10, 2005, 06:30 AM

Thank you all very much. I don't like to be paranoid, but I do feel the 2 Epsons that died on were engineered to self destruct. In both cases the printer end of the USB cable just decoupled from the printer...both were C80 models. But even bofore they self destructed they proved to be remarkably rotten printers.....

I am hearing (and listening!) to the votes for both HP and Canon. But, I am going to hope for a few more postings to let the crystal ball get a bit clearer.

Thanks!

ism · May 10, 2005, 07:39 AM

A Canon IP3000 and IP4000R here, both lovely. Great photos, have a scheduled quiet mode. Lovely things.

jamil5454 · May 10, 2005, 07:54 AM

I've got an old Canon S400. Does what I need it to do, however sometimes it will try to eat the whole paper tray instead of just taking one sheet at time. Hungry fellow.

macintologist · May 10, 2005, 08:47 AM

I saw this Canon laser printer that looked like the size of a normal inkjet printer.

If I ever buy a printer I would want a laser printer. Any good suggestions for cheap ones (I dont need color).?

Anyone know what that Canon model might have been?

tooki · May 10, 2005, 09:43 AM

Originally Posted by im_noahselby

If you plan on doing a lot of colour printing, than a Canon printer would be more cost effective, otherwise, an HP printer may be the way to go.

Err, Canon's black ink is 1/2 the cost of HPs.

tooki

nickw311 · May 10, 2005, 10:19 AM

I have one of the HP printer/scanner/copiers and I have been happy with it. The ink has lasted a long time and it is nice and compact

Severed Hand of Skywalker · May 10, 2005, 10:21 AM

Hp's have some of the highest cost per page because it replaces the ink head with every damn cart.

My Canon of 2 years hasn't even needed a head cleaning ONCE nevermind a replacement head.

eggman · May 10, 2005, 11:01 AM

My first color printer was an Epson, and it was a nightmare of fiddling with controls to get decent prints... and endless head cleaning.

I replaced it with a Canon i850 which worked like a dream for years. It literally just Worked Right. Over three years, I may have cleaned the heads three times. And beautiful prints every time... and just impeccable photo prints.

I decided to replace it with a Canon that has better text printing performance... while still doing gorgeous color: the Canon iP5000, which I was able to find at Fry's for $129... otherwise the iP4000 would have been my choice. And the iP3000 is a fine printer for it's price as well.

Another nice feature of these Canons is built-in automatic two-sided printing.

macintologist · May 10, 2005, 11:04 AM

What would you need color printing for? Printing photos? labels?

The way I see it, just get a normal laser printer since it's so good for printing text, and if you need to print color, go to a professional print shop and they will do it for you.

Goldfinger · May 10, 2005, 11:07 AM

I have a Canon IP3000 and I'm really pleased with. It's really quiet ! That's a big plus for me, because I hate noisy equipment. Quality is really good but I can't really say anything about full colour picture quality since I haven't printed any pictures with this printer yet.
Oh and you print on CDs with this printer

No idea if it's any good tough.

Podolsky · May 10, 2005, 11:34 AM

Originally Posted by macintologist

What would you need color printing for? Printing photos? labels?

The way I see it, just get a normal laser printer since it's so good for printing text, and if you need to print color, go to a professional print shop and they will do it for you.

My kids are always needing to print something color for projects. And while it doesn't need to be super high quality I do need color.

I also occasionally need to print larger size maps for my work. So, I was looking at HP 9800. does Canon make something that supports slightly larger paper?

I just went to Staples but their inventory is lagging by 6 months. They did not have any of the latest models in the store......

Thank you all

Severed Hand of Skywalker · May 10, 2005, 11:51 AM

Originally Posted by Podolsky

I also occasionally need to print larger size maps for my work. So, I was looking at HP 9800. does Canon make something that supports slightly larger paper?

i9900

http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/con...7&modelid=9870

eggman · May 10, 2005, 12:55 PM

Originally Posted by Goldfinger

Oh and you print on CDs with this printer

No idea if it's any good tough.

That's actually a sore point to those of us here in the USA, where apparently Epson has some kind of patent on printing directly on CDs... so even though the Canons are capable of it, it's undocumented and the drivers don't contain that option, nor does it ship with the CD/DVD loading tray.

Maybe that's what the "iP" in the name refers to.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · May 10, 2005, 03:53 PM

i can't really see anyone using that CD printing thing anyway, I mean you have to buy special disks and who wants to make a fancy cd face for anything other than a portfolio anyway?

OreoCookie · May 10, 2005, 04:09 PM

What's your budget?

eggman · May 10, 2005, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

i can't really see anyone using that CD printing thing anyway, I mean you have to buy special disks and who wants to make a fancy cd face for anything other than a portfolio anyway?

I print custom CD labels for discs that I send my clients at least 4 or 5 times a week. It provides a professional finish that my clients expect from a design professional.

Currently I print on adhesive labels, but that's certainly more time consuming and error prone than if I could just print directly to disc.

Podolsky · May 10, 2005, 07:07 PM

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

What's your budget?

Great info. Budget isn't a huge issue since most all injets are prety cheap. Severed Hand - regarding the i9000 - I may go for that, that is the one that jumped out at me. It has the same guts as the 8550but supports larger paper size. I have a lot of large, expensive paper laying around so I may go for that one. In fact, I will be getting the 8550 or the 9000. I just wish they would talk about BW printing which I do mostly. They just don't even get into any specs beyond the PPM.

Thanks all!

Cadaver · May 10, 2005, 07:12 PM

Another Canon vote. Quite pleased with my Pixma 5000.

azt33 · May 11, 2005, 03:36 AM

Originally Posted by macintologist

If I ever buy a printer I would want a laser printer. Any good suggestions for cheap ones (I dont need color).?

I'm currently using the HP LJ1010, which is cheap and works great! Never had any problems. I received my Canon all-in-one (MP130) yesterday, didn't really have the time to test it out though. But I'm guessing it'll be good enough for me, I just need it for the occasional copying and printing in colour (otherwise, the HP is sufficient for me).

bbales · May 11, 2005, 09:19 AM

Another vote for Canon. I have the Pixma 4000. Love it. I also still have an Epson C82 but when this dies will never buy another from that company. Bad drivers, bad ink prices...

And I had always used Epson before now. Just tired of the company as a whole.

Gankdawg · May 11, 2005, 09:47 AM

Another vote for Pixma 4000. I had an HP G85 and while I was very happy with the quality, the drivers sucked.

Briareus · May 11, 2005, 10:55 AM

Glad this thread popped up - my Epson CX5400 just decided to come up with it's own concepts of print quality and color consistency - less than a year old and a couple weeks into a new set of cartridges. Not worth fixing. Grrr.

Based on the unanimous positive comments in this thread and others here, I'm going to pick up an IP4000 today as I have to print a bunch of CD labels tonight. Will report back later.

eggman · May 11, 2005, 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by Briareus

Glad this thread popped up - my Epson CX5400 just decided to come up with it's own concepts of print quality and color consistency - less than a year old and a couple weeks into a new set of cartridges. Not worth fixing. Grrr.

Based on the unanimous positive comments in this thread and others here, I'm going to pick up an IP4000 today as I have to print a bunch of CD labels tonight. Will report back later.

It's sad what happened to Epson. I used to have an Epson 1200C scanner, Epson 850Z digital camera, and Epson Stylus Color printer. Now I prefer Canon for scanner, camera and printer.

Skip Breakfast · May 11, 2005, 02:24 PM

My HP LJ 1012 may not be color, but it's the fastest, most reliable, and least expensive printer I've ever purchased. I love it.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · May 11, 2005, 04:47 PM

Originally Posted by Skip Breakfast

My HP LJ 1012 may not be color, but it's the fastest, most reliable, and least expensive printer I've ever purchased. I love it.

Least expensive how?

Podolsky · May 11, 2005, 08:20 PM

Great thread and thank you all.

I decided on the Canon PIXMA iP8500 Photo Printer which I scored at Amazon for the low, low price of $308.62. I will try to get off on a good foot with this printer. but, my track record is SO BAD with printers that I'll probably be back in few months!!

Severed Hand of Skywalker · May 12, 2005, 10:00 AM

Originally Posted by Podolsky

Great thread and thank you all.

I decided on the Canon PIXMA iP8500 Photo Printer which I scored at Amazon for the low, low price of $308.62. I will try to get off on a good foot with this printer. but, my track record is SO BAD with printers that I'll probably be back in few months!!

When you get it play with it for a week and let us know what you think.

Too Artificial · May 12, 2005, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by tooki

You'll find that many people on this forum love Canon printers. They're fast, quiet, have nice drivers, and their ink is cheap and long-lasting.

Do a search for iP4000 and iP3000, those are two great all-purpose models.

tooki

I agree on Canon as well.

Stradlater · May 12, 2005, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by macintologist

I saw this Canon laser printer that looked like the size of a normal inkjet printer.

If I ever buy a printer I would want a laser printer. Any good suggestions for cheap ones (I dont need color).?

This one has been great:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...81463?v=glance

Podolsky · May 12, 2005, 12:38 PM

I will report back. It will arrive tomorow.

Thanks.

DaveNinja · Jul 12, 2005, 05:21 PM

Originally Posted by Podolsky

I will report back. It will arrive tomorow.

Thanks.

did it ever arrive?

turtle777 · Jul 12, 2005, 06:17 PM

Originally Posted by DaveNinja

did it ever arrive?

Must be real busy printing...

-t

Zoidberg · Jul 12, 2005, 08:32 PM

Another vote for the canons, I have the ip5000 and it's the best damn color printer i've ever used. The carts are relatively cheap, it gives you a large text black cart and a decent sized photo black cart, it's fast, whisper quite, and dead sexy.

TheMosco · Jul 12, 2005, 09:22 PM

Canon MP750. Fax, Scan, Copy, etc. 130 at amazon.

david33 · Jul 12, 2005, 09:57 PM

Originally Posted by Skip Breakfast

My HP LJ 1012 may not be color, but it's the fastest, most reliable, and least expensive printer I've ever purchased. I love it.

I completely agree. The HP 1012 is amazing considering its price. Plus, it's a real space saver. If you don't mind giving up color, it's an excellent option for B&W laser printing.

Zoidberg · Jul 13, 2005, 03:20 PM

Hehe, I have the 1012 as well, better get one now as it has been discontinued and being replaced with the 1020 at a higher price tage and less features. 2mb mem vs the 1012's 8mb, and no plastic shield for the paper supply.

indigoimac · Jul 13, 2005, 06:11 PM

Myself and a friend have Epson 740i's, actually he has a 740, but anyway we both bought them abot the same time...1999, 6 y/o and we both say that we've never had any problems, not the fastest, but the ink is cheap, styling isn't great but who cares, and they're basically indestructible! I must say that if I can get away w/ it I'll never replace it!

indigoimac · Jul 13, 2005, 06:16 PM

Myself and a friend have Epson 740i's, actually he has a 740, but anyway we both bought them abot the same time...1999, 6 y/o and we both say that we've never had any problems, not the fastest, but the ink is cheap, styling isn't great but who cares, and they're basically indestructible! I must say that if I can get away w/ it I'll never replace it!

ooopppsss... I guess I clicked twice!

tooki · Jul 13, 2005, 06:31 PM

You got lucky. My 740i developed an incurable clog after 18 months. Oh, and that ink is not cheap. My Canon costs about 1/2 as much to operate.

tooki

indigoimac · Jul 14, 2005, 09:27 PM

Originally Posted by tooki

You got lucky. My 740i developed an incurable clog after 18 months. Oh, and that ink is not cheap. My Canon costs about 1/2 as much to operate.

tooki

How is the ink not cheap? 31$ color or black at Office max and at my dad's university he can get them for 26$. The black generally lasts about 1.5 reems and the color as we don't print that much lasts about 6 months or 3 or 4 reems. If you don't get the idea we print a hell of a lot of stuff!

tooki · Jul 14, 2005, 11:19 PM

Canon's ink is much cheaper, roughly 1/2. The 740's black tank is 26ml of ink, for $26-31 as you said. My Canon uses a 27ml tank that retails for $14. I call double the price "expensive".

Of course, no inkjet comes close to the cheapness of a laser. Inkjet ink is, after all, far more expensive than vintage champagne...

tooki

P.S. The fact that you print a lot is why you haven't had clogging problems.

OreoCookie · Jul 15, 2005, 05:14 AM

Lately, the small lasers cost about as much as inkjets. This is especially true for some cheap color lasers. Having toner cartridges that last only around 1000 or 2000 pages is ridiculous.

turtle777 · Jul 15, 2005, 09:37 AM

Originally Posted by indigoimac

How is the ink not cheap? 31$ color or black at Office max and at my dad's university he can get them for 26$. The black generally lasts about 1.5 reems and the color as we don't print that much lasts about 6 months or 3 or 4 reems. If you don't get the idea we print a hell of a lot of stuff!

Talk about Apples to Oranges comparisons.

-t