Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4535 DWF
This is one of Epson’s new fleet of office inkjets, but is included as it still produces a more than reasonable photo. If you have a home office, but still want to be able to print images, it offers the functions of both. You can load plain and photo paper at the same time and the machine includes an ADF for its scanner and fax functions. There’s a PictBridge socket and fast print, with a 15 x 10cm photo coming through in under 45s. Photos look bright, but not unnatural, and running costs are very competitive. It’s available for under £200.
HP Photosmart 5510
It’s perfectly possible to get a good photo all-in-one for £60 at Internet discounted prices and this is a key offering from HP. Even though it’s inexpensive, it has some grown-up features, like wireless connection with WPS setup, touch screen control and memory card slots. There’s ePrint, too, if you like printing photos with little control, when you’re out. A 15 x 10cm photo prints in just over a minute and although you lose some economy through the lack of separate colour cartridges, running costs overall are fair. Photo quality is surprisingly good, though with a slight blue cast.
Next page: HP Photosmart Premium Fax CQ521B
COMMENTS
Rubbish Reviews
How long does a set of ink cartridges last in a turned off printer?
How much does a replacement set of print cartridges cost?
The major failing with the last 3 ink-jet printers I have owned (Cannon, HP and Kodak) has been that if you leave them untouched for 3 months then come back to print something the ink has dried all over the heads and you need to buy new.
Often a new printer is cheaper than a set of ink-cartridges.
Now I send them off to snapfish or take them to the local print-shop, it's cheaper and gets better results.
cost per print?
Your analysis is all well and good, but you give no indication of the total cost of ownership. (Ie cost of replacment ink), and consequent cost per page of printing.
Given that for example HP seem to follow a 'loss leader' approach with their printer pricing, to lock you into buying their expensive ink refills, the price of the printer is a small proportion of the cost over the life of the device.
Why not get someone who knows what they are talking about?
"Inkjet printers produce better quality photos than traditional silver halide" There was really no point in reading any more of the article if the writer has such a poor understanding of image quality that they seriously believe that statement.
Inkjet printing has many advantages over optical printing but quality isn't among them.
I bought an inkjet a while back and while it's pretty good quality, I mostly use it for printing out boarding passes and not much else. Consequently the ink runs out and costs a fortune to replace (it's a Canon).
If you want to print out photos, the best thing to do is to take your photos to a photo developers (remember those?) and they'll do a high quality print-out for not much cost.
Of course, if you print out all of your photos then this probably isn't so cost-effective, but if you print out one or two every now and again like I do then this is the way to go.
Get a cheap printer with cheap ink for those boarding passes.
Most importantly
Which one DOESN'T come with 100mb plus of bloated "drivers" that asks to download updates from the Internet every 5 mins?
