Which Photo Printer?

Soldato
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Looking to buy a new photo printer. It'll have very heavy usage. I'll be printing photos from my Canon Ixus 500, but my wife is doing an art HND and prints an insane amount of photos for sketchbooks and other projects.

Is the Canon Pixma iP8500 any good? Doesn't seem bad for £200.

Thoughts?

Tom
 
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Tommy,
Sorry to Hi-jack your thread but I'm in the market for a photo printer too.

And I have a question (Hopefuly we will both get something out of this).

When I checked out the spec on the ip8500.....
Exclusive ChromaPLUS 8-ink system for expanded colour gamut
- 4800 x 2400dpi, FINE technology & 2pl Micro-Nozzles
- Prints an A4 photo print in approx. 35 seconds



and compared this to the ip5200...

- Photo lab quality 4" x 6" borderless photo in approx. 36 seconds
- Photo quality: max. 9600 x 2400dpi
- ChromaLife100 system for long-lasting beautiful photos
- Single Ink system


Would this not make the ip5200 a higher res and therefore a better printer ? The speed of print would not really bother me. The ip 5200 sounds like a bargain at £82 Am I missing something ??

I know the IP8500 won an TIPA in 2005 award so it must be good,

Any help much appreciated and once again sorry to hi-jack the thread but I hope the some info comes in to help both of us.

Kieran
 
Soldato
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I was wondering something about the ip5200 and ip4200. The only difference between these 2 is the faster print speed and these are the replacements for the ip4000 and 5000 right which makes me wonder why the 4000 and 5000 are nearly twice the price on the canon outlet store?
 
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Depends on what size you wish to print.

If you only want 6x4, get a dye sublimation printer, the results far exceed inkjets and are pretty close to proper lab prints.

If you want bigger than 6x4 then use a lab, the cost difference, and quality difference if massive and youll find prints of say 9x6 @ 25p a lot better than several pounds a print on inkjet.
 
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To be honest, an insane amount of printing, well, you just can't beat the labs. v.good quality and cheapest.

After that if it's just 6x4 then a dye sub printer, only if you need to print the odd picture bigger or you need to tweak your prints just the way you like them (perfect that is :) ) then look for an inkjet printer.

Personally I can't fault the IP8500 (I own one), but try to print pictures in batches or the printer goes thru a self clean cycle every time and ends up wasting a lot of ink!. the 8 individual cartridges are great, because you only need to replace the ink that has run out, and I have left my printer unnatended for 4 months in the past and not had any problems with clogged heads afterwards.

The IP8500 can seem a bit slow due to the wait between prints to allow the previous photo to dry, they fail to mention this in reviews, but the quality is superb.
 
Soldato
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Awesome said:
Tommy,
Sorry to Hi-jack your thread but I'm in the market for a photo printer too.

And I have a question (Hopefuly we will both get something out of this).

When I checked out the spec on the ip8500.....
Exclusive ChromaPLUS 8-ink system for expanded colour gamut
- 4800 x 2400dpi, FINE technology & 2pl Micro-Nozzles
- Prints an A4 photo print in approx. 35 seconds



and compared this to the ip5200...

- Photo lab quality 4" x 6" borderless photo in approx. 36 seconds
- Photo quality: max. 9600 x 2400dpi
- ChromaLife100 system for long-lasting beautiful photos
- Single Ink system


Would this not make the ip5200 a higher res and therefore a better printer ? The speed of print would not really bother me. The ip 5200 sounds like a bargain at £82 Am I missing something ??

I know the IP8500 won an TIPA in 2005 award so it must be good,

Any help much appreciated and once again sorry to hi-jack the thread but I hope the some info comes in to help both of us.

Kieran

This is EXACTLY what I'm wondering. A better printer for £100 less, surely not? And it has wireless/ethernet!
 
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