Best printer for home photo quality with a good price?

[Ravenit]

Im after a good home printer that will do photo quality prints. Im not really concearned with speed just quality for 1 off prints every couple of weeks.
I was looking at the Canon 7100 or the epson760 but reading all the threads on epson head blockages that is not good. As I dont want to run the printer every week to keep the head clean.

Also is there much difference in print speed from parallel to usb thanks im open for any options.

 

[Stosh]

I would look into the low end HP printers. I have the HP 693 series. Bought it a few years ago. Very nice printer. I'm pretty sure USB would be faster than a parallel

 

[SKORPI0]

I use a Xerox DocuPrint C11. Prints 1200x1200 dpi (Photopaper/Color) and for sale about$149. Was also able to re-ink the empty color/B&W cartridges easily. Could not tell the difference between original ink and ink from refill kits.

Printed a scanned photo (150 dpi,5x 10 inches) with Photopaper and it took about 20 minutes. Have no problem about head cleaning.

 

[kabelogo]

i use epson 740 and have NEVER had a problem at all. i love it, and it is so affordable these days.

 

[Hotpepperz]

I have an HP Deskjet 932C. I love it and the pictures are stunning. I printed a few pictures on glossy paper I scanned and they looked like the Photos I scanned. It took a bit of tweaking on the image to get it exact...but I got it. You can see a few lines if you are 2 inches away looking crosseyed, but for $200 I got more than I expected.

 

[Ravenit]

Wow so many to choose from thanks for the replys I think I will just have to go into some shop when Im on holidays and ask for a demo on some of the printers mentioned above, as where I live there are no Computer stores. Small Town
Holidays in 4 weeks yipeee
Thanks

 

[bluezebra1098]

I've got the HP 952C and with photo paper the prints are impressive.

 

[PCAddict]

The Epson 740 is a good choice, but so is the HP 842. Both are $149 in my area. I have used both.

 

[bonkers325]

try the hp 930c
not bad
and good price

 

[randomlinh]

i have an older HP 832c. I tried it out on some glossy Kodak paper. Printed a full sheet, and it looks nice. But if you held it in your hands, you can tell it's a print. At 4x6 images taken w/ an canon s10.. it was VERY nice. A little closer inspection, you can tell it's digital, but still. I dunno the quality of the paper tho, but things still looked "speckled."

 

[Ravenit]

Bluezebra
I am also looking at the HP952C Can you notice its a print in High resolution. I want to get as close to photo quality. Also have you used refills with it.
Thanks

 

[NeoSolo]

Epson740
pro
color/photo are really good on photopaper
text good on inkjet paper
con
not so good on regular paper both color and text
ink goes out fast.
some people have problem with ink going dry

HP lower end model compareable to price of epson 740 ( i am not sure on the model number)
pro
B&W/text is better than Epson
better on ink useage
con
color/photo not good as epson

 

[upsource]

The Epson Stylus Series, the 740, 760 and up do a very good job with photos on good paper. I have the 900 and it prints photos VERY close to Kodak's stuff.

 

[Mark R]

The Epson printers (eg Stylus 740 color) have fantastic photo quality. However, you only get good quality on coated paper. Output is poor on normal paper (worse than other types of printer).

Text quality is poor, especially on normal paper.

The stylus line has several serious problems with it - unfortunately I didn't know until I bought a pair of 740s. I've already consigned one to the bin, and the other has problems, unfortunately, I can't afford to replace it at the moment.

Ink dries in the nozzles with alarming regularity; the printer wastes ink like crazy; ink tends to leak onto the platen rollers; leaving big streaks down your printouts; the paper feed mechanism tends to break causing the print head to jam occasionally.

I recently saw a test print from an Epson stylus photo 870. It was simply awesome. However, inspection of the printer suggests that the same design flaws exist - as a result, I cannot recommend it.

 

[AMB]

I now have an Epson 860 and very happy with it, have you thought of the Epson Stylus Color Phot 750, I do not think that there is a big difference between the two.

With reference to the ink jets clogging up, in my old Epson Stylus 400, I only had blockages when I used 3rd party consumables which I have chosen not to buy now.

 

[Mem]

I agree with Members here ,go with Epson 760 or higher models,btw I`m using the old Epson 600 it`s still printing good photo images.

 

[Vette73]

I've owned a HP, epson, and a canon. HP cost more than you get. Epson is good at color but a little low on the black but fixed that with the new ones. My Canon 6000 does really good with color and black and they have new canons coming out now so even better than mine I bet.

 

[JGDRN]

where can I find glossy papper for the pictures?

 

[Tikerz]

Go for an Epson Photo 870. A little pricey, but you won't regret it. The best photo print quality I've ever seen and super quiet also. Epson sells a roll of photo paper that's 4 inches wide so you can print 6x4 photos. Got my own photo development center with my new Sony S70 3.3 mega-pixel digicam