Printers? Cost and Quality?

[emeraldgirl08]

I'm just wondering what types and brands work fine at a low cost and have been reliable with any of the Thinkpadders here

I'm needing a printer and I'm looking at the Lexmark Impact S305, Canon PIXMA MP490, and the Canon PIXMA MX330. The cost for these printers is relatively low-cost. The trade off I can see between the Lexmark and the Canons is there is no tiny LCD on the Lexmark. The Lexmark has wireless over the Canons. I'll be using this to scan documents, print school related reports, webpages, and word processing documents. The wireless is not a big deal for me and I'd be able to live without it. The tiny LCD preview screen seems like a must for choosing which pictures you'd like from an SD/multimedia card without having to turn on the laptop or desktop which makes the choice a "no brainer."

I'm open to any other suggestions. TIA.

[mklym]

Personally, I find that Canon printers have the cheapest operating cost, and consistently good quality prints. I have an MX7600 AIO that I use daily. For photos and large prints I use a Pixma Pro 9500, and when traveling I use a BJC-85 with the battery pack addon and scanner head.

A lot of Canons use the same print engine through a product like. The price indicates what features you get and the quality of the casing.

I will do a little research and send you a PM with the results.

[emeraldgirl08]

Personally, I find that Canon printers have the cheapest operating cost, and consistently good quality prints. I have an MX7600 AIO that I use daily. For photos and large prints I use a Pixma Pro 9500, and when traveling I use a BJC-85 with the battery pack addon and scanner head.

A lot of Canons use the same print engine through a product like. The price indicates what features you get and the quality of the casing.

I will do a little research and send you a PM with the results.

Thanks mklym!

[GomJabbar]

For inkjet printers, Kodak (recently - last year or so) boasts the lowest operating costs. I do not have a Kodak printer, but I bought a Canon PIXMA MP600 a couple of years ago. I am pleased with the Canon Printer, but the ink costs do run up.

http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsus/e ... able_value

[gb_ibmguy]

From my research, the newer Kodak's appear to have the lowest cost per page and have gotten good reviews. The Lexmarks seem to have rather high costs per page.
That being said, I just recently ended up with 2 HP Photosmart 2575 all in one's. So far, they have been good. Ink isn't too expensive and the printers were cheap on E-Bay. I'm not a huge fan of HP Inkjets, their quality seems to be a bit spotty, but if your lucky to get a good one, they work pretty good for the money.

[RealBlackStuff]

Unless you must have color, I would recommend a B&W laserprinter (like my Brother HL-5240) and a Canon LiDE scanner.
OK, it's 2 machines, but you can't beat the running costs of a laser!
And if one breaks down, you still have the other.

[virge]

Unless you must have color, I would recommend a B&W laserprinter

For sure! I got tired of paying for ink cartridges so now I have a Canon MF4150 all in one laser printer/copier and a HP inkjet. I only use color for the occasionally chart and photo. Laser is the way to go if you mostly need black/white. I am a fan of Canon and HP laser printers.

[msb0b]

The tiny LCD preview screen seems like a must for choosing which pictures you'd like from an SD/multimedia card without having to turn on the laptop or desktop which makes the choice a "no brainer."

Sounds like OP wants to be able to print photos occasionally. If only rarely, a photo processor in stores will be able to print them better than consumer inkjets though.

Out of the three machines in the OP, PC World has the PIXMA MP490 in their current top 10 list, and it is the only budget all-in-one on that list. However, it comes with the caveat that ink cartridge cost could be high if you print a lot. A fact no doubt exacerbated by having a tri-color cartridge. The MX330 is rated lower with the same caveat.

At this entry level market segment, manufacturers low ball on the price of the machine and make profit on the supplies. You can defray some of these cost by buying third party or refilled cartridges.

On a per page cost basis, b/w laser can't be beat. I just refilled my Brother MFC's toner for $18 that should last me 5000 pages of output. Add the cost of paper, about $3 per 500 sheets, the per page cost is still less than 1 cent. At the same time, I also got some ink cartridges for my Epson R340, mainly used to print CD/DVD and photo. A set of genuine cartridges would have cost $70, and a set of third party remanufactured cartridges cost $20. I would be lucky if I could get 100 prints out of them. The original cartridges lasted around 50 prints.

Another argument for laser: When you don't use the printer, toner does not evaporate into thin air like ink does.

[killer]

Another laser printer fan here.

I bought a Xerox 6110n printer 2 years ago after years of ink evaporation with ink jet printers which drove me potty ... and cost a small fortune in new cartridges.

Ebay has loads of genuine colour cartridges at rock bottom prices, however I have not had to replace the originals yet (I now have a full set of replacements in a cupboard).

The only error message I have ever received was that the toner waste bucket was full. I emptied it out into the dustbin, put it back in the machine, and that was that.

Life is so easy with a laser printer, especially a network printer like the 6110n.

[Navck]

For my experience in printers, you want to specialize in printers. I personally have a preference for Canon printers because of low TCO (Total cost of ownership). You can refill the ink really easily compared to other cartridges(Look for Durchstich Method), theres chip resetters out there.

However, one thing you want to do if you ever buy a photoprinter:
1. Buy the 100 dollar printer only thing
2. The massive, large format printers

Those are the only two things you should be really looking for a photoprinter. If you're paying 139 for one with a scanner and LCD screen? You just got ripped off there, generally those will compromise on something else (IE: Printhead) for the extra "features" you get.

My personal recommendation on a Canon for photo printing and fast plain text document printing would be the iP4500. Its fast, does a duplexing thing (Paper comes out partially, pulled back in and it prints the second side) and its not really bad.

Oh and if you need faxing capability, buy a multifunction machine and use that separately. Unless you're paying 400+ for the beautiful laser copier-faxer, you're getting to have compromises for a machine under 200.

All prices in USD* (2007 prices.)

[emeraldgirl08]

The Canons seem nice...

Now if I could only get my "For Sale" items in the Marketplace sold... I just might be able to afford one

EDIT:

Just got me a second-hand Canon Pixma IP4000. It's printing color but I think it's out of black ink. Will take a better look at it tomorrow after I've read the PDF for it.