What printer?

[AirStrike]

Hey all! Just chasing some advice on a new printer. Doesn't need to be anything to extreme, print colour at a decent ppm, print photos to photo paper at good quality, possibly something that will except SD cards, etc and finally something that won't cost $200 each time I have to replace the ink tanks/cartridges. Looking to spend up to around the $300 mark.

[dijm8]

im using an epson cx8300 pretty good all rounder does most things, best thing is the cartridges are fair cheap around 10-20 bucks dpends which shop u go to...

epson cx8300

[CSP]

I was the same... Prepared to spend about $300 to get a decent printer that could do everything I need it to do.

I was surprised when I went out and spent less than $200. I got a printer, scanner, copier, fax all in one. Prints bloody good pictures on photo paper too.

$149 from JB.

This one:
Canon Australia - PIXMA MX310 - Office

[AirStrike]

I was the same... Prepared to spend about $300 to get a decent printer that could do everything I need it to do.

I was surprised when I went out and spent less than $200. I got a printer, scanner, copier, fax all in one. Prints bloody good pictures on photo paper too.

$149 from JB.

This one:
Canon Australia - PIXMA MX310 - Office

Yeah heard and read good things about the PIXMA range.

[holdensupporter2005]

Yeah, Canon is the better brand to go with.
Canon & Epson use seperate ink tank systems, so you only replace the color that needs replacing. You will also find that printers that run the seperate ink tank technology mean that the cartridges are cheaper, this is because the print head is left in the printer and not on the bottom of the cartidge, so you are on replacing the ink and not the print head each time.

A couple of tips:

Never buy refill or generic cartridges, ALWAYS use genuine cartridges. Refill and generic inks are a different consistency and can damage your printer. You will also get less prints from a refilled cartidge and the quality won't be as good.

Steer clear of Lexmark printers, usually the cartridges for these can be very expensive - not worth the money!!!

I have a general rule that I use when selling printers. The cheaper the printer, the more expensive your running costs. For example a $50 printer, to buy a set of new inks you could be looking at around $30 each for a black and color cartridge, therefore it is cheaper to buy a new printer than buy a set of cartridges. Also the cheap printers often use smaller ink cartridges.

The more expensive the printer the cheaper your running costs.

[VrWagz1]

+1 for epson printers, i think there pretty reliable. I had a few reliability issues with canons in the past, but will still second them.

-99999999 for lexmark anything, there ink is rediculosly priced and the cartridges dry up if you dont use it for a month or so and you dont get many pages out of them

[Astranomical]

I'm an Epson man myself, I've had two over the past 10 years, and only ever had an issue with one, which was replaced immediately under warranty, though Canon is also quite good. HP is sort-of ok too for inkjets (though they are pure crap, I will admit, despite the fact that HP lasers are the absolute best you can buy)

Just whatever you do, stay the fark away from Lexmark. I swear BY Epson printers, whereas I swear AT Lexmark.

[Fr3ak+--]

i used to be a epson man aswell.. great printers..

at the moment i have a hp.. its good for what i payed for it which is $50

[crazyspoon05]

The Pixma's are great little units, I changed over from years of Epson printers to a Pixma about a year or so back and was very happy with the new unit

[Tom_1569]

I wont use Cannon as many years ago we went through about 5 in a year, due to different problems mainly printers kept jamming EVERYTIME, though im sure things have changed since then.

I had a Lexmark, actually I had 4 of them, they were cheap and I liked the quality, plus it was cheaper to buy the printer with blac + colour ink, then buying just the black ink haha.

Now using a HP multifunction, and I like it, ink is abit expensive but Its a handy unit.

I have a Epson 4 cartridge one, just a cheap multifunction for mum, ink's cheap, but **** me is it loud. I can here it from my room, and its a slow printer to.

[Full Spectrum]

How about just something dirt cheap, And very easy to use, Scan print copy....

Epson Stylus CX5500

[Tom_1569]

How about just something dirt cheap, And very easy to use, Scan print copy....

Epson Stylus CX5500

Haha, Thats the one I have here, Noisy as ****, and very slow to print.

[saber]

The canon Pixma range is great! I bought the Canon IP2000 3 years ago. Cost me $100 (down from $180). Did word documents, photo printing great, and never had a single problem with it in my 3 years of ownership. Cartridges are cheap for it too, can buy 2 cartridges (black, not sure for color as all I printed out was word docos) for $24 bucks.

My mum was so impressed with the printer she paided $100 bucks and bought it from me! So I went out and looked for other printers. I had my eye set on this one:

Canon Pixma IP4500
Canon Australia - PIXMA iP4500

It got good reviews from users, but then my girlfriend chimed in and demanded a scanner as well. So I thought, why not have the best of both worlds and ending up buying this:

Canon Pixma MP610
Canon Australia - PIXMA MP610 - Advanced

The reviews on this are even better than the IP4500. Prints documents in color at a fast rate, prints great color photos as well. Not sure if other printers have this, but the MP610 has 2 paper trays, a standard back loading tray and a pull-out internal tray. This internal tray is great for storing your photo paper in, as it prevents any dust from getting on your paper, and saves you the hazard of manually re-loading paper when you wanna print on the photo paper.

Thats my 2c.

[pow3rslave]

i got a canon mp600r cheap through a mate that was a reseller, it's freakin boneriffic.
wireless printing/scanning, fullpage photo/cd printing, prints fast too.
sd/mmc/cf/ms/usb reader, and mounts the cards as network drives.

[Full Spectrum]

Haha, Thats the one I have here, Noisy as ****, and very slow to print.

Very true, And i hate the green flashing light at night..
But past that pretty good quality on scans and prints.. Ink runs out fast.