back to article Ten... all-in-one inkjet photo printers

Most inkjet all-in-ones are capable of printing passable photos, but some are geared up specifically with this in mind and feature memory card slots, high resolution printheads and wireless connectivity for printing from mobile devices. Some even have direct-print to DVDs and CDs as well as scanning from slides and negatives …

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  1. Richard Lloyd
    Unhappy

    Would have liked to have seen some 'normal' inkjet all-in-ones as a comparison

    Apart from the fancy pop-up LCD displays (are they needed when you've probably previewed the pic on a phone/camera/tablet/desktop already?), what's the difference between an colour inkjet photo printer and a "normal" colour inkjet printer?

    It might have been nice to incude a few "non-photo" colour inkjets in the review, load them up with photo paper and see what sort of job they do. With the price of photo paper and inkjet cartridges already very high, I've got to question spending anything more than 100 quid on any sort of inkjet printer.

    Me? I've got an HP colour all-in-one inkjet printer, but no somewhat pointless colour pop-up LCD on it. Price? 25 quid directly from hp.com - throw in some photo paper and it does a good enough job at printing photos. No printer here costs under 80 quid, the difference of which could go on buying a reasonable number of cartridges and photo paper.

    1. Mr_Blister

      Re: Would have liked to have seen some 'normal' inkjet all-in-ones as a comparison

      Canon Pixma MG2155 for £28 from Costco UK a couple of months back, and they still have them in stock for approx £33. This has everything except the colour pop up screen and WiFi, otherwise it is an amazing machine for the money. I cannot seem to find any reference to the MG2155 on the internet, but you can easily find it if you search for the 100% identical MG2150.

    2. N13L5
      Pint

      Inkjet printers are the biggest scam of the century, right behind 'independent' central banks

      License to print money...

      here, have another inkjet printer..

      We'll sell you a few droplets of ink every month into eternity...

      And if you don't print much and save your ink, we'll sell you even more, cause if you don't use it, the cartridge will just dry out on its own...

      Fabulous!

  2. Fuzz

    differences

    The differences are explained right at the start of the article. A photo printer generally has more than 4 inks, some offer CD/DVD printing and some have negative/slide scanners.

    The truth of all this though is that printing photos at home is a waste of time and money. Online photo printing services can have the pictures out to you next day and they'll be better quality and cheaper than you can possibly achieve at home.

    When my current printer dies or the ink becomes hard to find I'll be getting myself a laser, probably black and white, and all my photo printing will be done online.

    1. The Serpent

      Re: differences

      I agree, though I do keep a very cheap Epson scanner/printer for the rare occasions when I have to have a copy of something straight away (also kids don't have the patience to wait for a new Thomas the tank engine poster or similar). Funnily enough I have never required a built-in screen. I get the impression those kind of devices are mainly aimed at people who don't actually want to use a computer at all (or shouldn't).

      1. frank ly

        @Fuzz & The Serpent Re: differences

        Can you tell me which offline photo printing service you use please? I tried using Boots (who subbed out to another service) two years ago and I was not impressed by the incorrect hue rendering on most of my close-up pics of flowers.

        (Such as pale green becoming pale yellow, strong yellows having a definite orange tint, etc). I did tick the box that said 'no auto-correction'.

        I have a fantastic close-up of a bumble bee feeding on the edge of a sunflower and the only way I've got reasonable colour rendition is to print it on my cheapo Dell laser colour printer (which has other photo-quality deficiencies).

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: @Fuzz & The Serpent differences

          I use - and recommend - Photobox for offline photo printing.. one of the earliest in the UK market and I've never had anything other than excellent quality and excellent service from them.

  3. Tony Carter-Inman

    When is £300>£499?

    Why does the article claim the Epson PX820D is the most expensive (at £300) when the Canon Pixma MG8250 is £499?

    Is the Canon that much better than the Epson for almost twice the price?

    1. John H Woods Silver badge

      Re: When is £300>£499?

      MG8250 is £220 on Amazon at the moment. Was it ever £499?

    2. Trevor Marron

      Re: When is £300>£499?

      It is the most expensive Epson in the test. Although it is NOT the top of the range, that is (AFAIK) the Stylus Photo PX830FWD which is currently on Amazon UK at £179, well below Epson's £300 RRP.

    3. JeffyPooh
      Pint

      Re: When is £300>£499?

      If you're price conscious (as you should be), then you'd be crazy to compare prices of the printers themselves and not spend at least twice the time comparing the cost of the ink. If you actually use a printer, the cost of the ink will swamp out the price of the printer itself several times over.

      1. tfewster
        Facepalm

        Re: When is £300>£499?

        And Reg Hardware is less than helpful:

        Cost per page: Brother printers "as low as Kodak"; Kodak ESP "no lower than Brother"; Kodak Hero "Lowest" @4.1p

        Print Quality: Brother - "ragged?"; Kodak ESP "better than Brother"; Kodak Hero "the same on all papers"

        Fortunately you can get the info on the Kodak ESP 3.2 from from http://www.reghardware.com/2012/07/07/review_ten_budget_inkjet_all_in_one_printers/

        As always, a summary table would be helpful (And would make recursion obvious)

      2. RICHTO
        Mushroom

        Re: When is £300>£499?

        Quite - the most important piece of information for every printer is missing - can you get OEM ink for it? Otherwise, dont touch with a shitty stick.

        I currently use a Canon IP4000, an I865 and an IP8500 - and pay less than £1 per ink cartrirdge.

        1. Trevor Marron

          Re: When is £300>£499?

          I have refillable cartridges for my Epson, they work out at about 30p a fill!

  4. Dick Emery

    Printing your own is only way

    Being a photographer who likes to post process a lot I sometimes have weird crops etc. I like to control how these are printed and how accurate they are in colour saturation and hue etc. Most print services don't offer much more than size and borderless or matt or glossy.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Really miss my Kodak dye sublimation printer

    I bought one of these cheap devices some years ago, fed up with infrequent use of inkjets resulting in frequent blockage and poor performance. Sadly Kodak have stopped making supplies for it. Does no one do anything other than grotty inkets any more?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Really miss my Kodak dye sublimation printer

      Actually, thinking about it maybe it's not dye sublimation, it uses a spooled cartridge that transfers the colours thermally one by one. Still much better than squirting ink drops.

      1. frank ly

        Re: Really miss my Kodak dye sublimation printer

        Have you tried eBay or an internet search for the various after-market suppliers and cartridge refurbishers? Everything to do with colour print consumables seems to have a supplier for refurbished or alternative items.

    2. RICHTO
      Mushroom

      Re: Really miss my Kodak dye sublimation printer

      Try a Xerox Wax Transfer printer like the ColourQube 8570DN. I picked up a year old one for £100 on eBay and use it for all my volume printing. It has a great glossy finish.

  6. Katie Saucey
    Stop

    ackkkkk

    These things still exist!

  7. Gene Cash Silver badge

    Printing on glass

    Probably not useful for the over-the-pond group, but I use fractureme.com. It's a stupid name, but they print on glass and apply a backing (or not) of your choice. I've done a dozen or so, and they seem to respect how you want your colors & saturation. If I want it quickly (or poster-size) I'm lucky enough to have an independent print shop a couple blocks away.

    So do any of these all-in-one POS work when one part craps out? Friends have various brands, and they do stupid shit like refusing to scan or fax when it's low on ink, or refusing to print if the scanner part develops a mechanical issue.

    1. RICHTO
      Mushroom

      Re: Printing on glass

      They are actually based over the pond in the USA, so not a problem for those guys. They charge a lot to ship to the UK though so won't be ideal for most here.

      1. RICHTO
        Mushroom

        Re: Printing on glass

        Some local options here:

        http://www.acrylic-glass-photo.co.uk/en/acrylic-glass-photo/241000.xhtml

        http://uk.whitewall.com/products/LumasecLight

        http://www.pixum.co.uk/poster-canvas/gallery-print.html

        http://www.posterjack.co.uk/

  8. gfx
    Stop

    Why?

    Why do you recommed HP inkjets? I have a previous incarnation of the photosmart and it gives ink cartridge low and empty messages within a year after only 25 prints (probalbly mostly status pages) So the true cost per pages is much higher than the couple of pennies. Every time you put it on (not often) it squirts ink down the drain.

    I recommend a black and white (Kyocera or Samsung) laser and an online service for anything photo.

    1. Tapeador
      Stop

      Re: Why?

      A laser printer in the home, pumping out toner clouds to breathe in? Hm.

      Besides which any original toner/drum cartridge will typically cost as much as about three inkjet printers put together.

      Some inkjets (such as HPs with disposable printhead cartridges), are very hackable in the sense of diy injecting of ink into cartridges (although do check before buying that the model you're looking at fits in that category). I agree and sympathise with anyone like you who says they're very expensive if you use original supplies. The answer is: don't.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    Epson Stylus SX435W

    I read the review and can't see why anyone would spend the extra, I did own a HP Enterprise wireless printer (£50 on sale in Tesco last year). But couldn't find any print cartitridges for it, during the mad search I came accross the Epson Stylus SX435W for £45 in Sainsbury's.

    It uses WIFI to connect to your router and sets up a print server, so any machine can connect in your house network without needing complicated drivers (HP and your 100mb windows driver!).

    The scanner detects multiple images and will scan them separately (since I am scanning in my photo collection this is invaluable). The scanner maxes out at 500 dpi and windows 7 finds the driver automatically.

    It has a little LCD screen allowing you to perform setup, maintain, photocopy, scan & print operations. There is also a SD card slot for those inclined.

    The ink cartridges are separate and a full pack costs £27 in Tesco and the form factor is tiny (smallest all in one I have ever seen) and it does only take between 50 - 100 pages at a time. I'm also not certain about the photo printing quality because I have only printed documents.

    All that for £45, why would you spend £300? If your working in an office you won't be looking at simple inkjets unless your a small business and frankly if your worried about queues forming due to slow printing times, you could by 6 of these for the cost of one of the reviewed ones.

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