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Best High-End Photo Printer?

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Simon Courcha

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I'm looking to replace my now out-dated HP 720c with a high-end photo printer. Although A3 print facilities would be nice, I cannot see myself needing to print that large very often. Therefore, A4 borderless printing is as big as I'll need. For reference, I'm printing output from a Olympus C-4000z.

What model would people recommend? Print quality is the prime concern, reliability the second. I'm not that bothered about speed or being able to print straight from cards etc.

I've been leaning towards the Canon i950. Is it that much better a printer than the i850. Is the extra expense justified?

I'd be very interested in people's advice!

Thanks.

Simon C
http://www.eyematter.com
 
Recently purchased a Canon i950 (upgraded from an old Epson Stylus 800) and I am thrilled with its color printing capabilities.

The other day I printed some 4x6 pictures (on glossy photo paper) shot with my old Sony FD 91 (640 x 480). I was absolutely astonished at the results...looked as if they had been taken with a high end 35 mm and produced in a professional photo lab.

I researched a lot of printers and made the decision to purchased the i950 when a professional reviewer (on DPR) said he judged all other inkjet printers by the i950.

Just purchased a Canon S400 camera to replace the Sony FD 91 and the quality prints I'm getting using the i950 are absolutely fantastic!

If you decide to purchase the i950 I think you will be VERY happy with your decision.

Phil Tatum
Kentucky - USA
Simon Courcha said:
I'm looking to replace my now out-dated HP 720c with a high-end
photo printer. Although A3 print facilities would be nice, I cannot
see myself needing to print that large very often. Therefore, A4
borderless printing is as big as I'll need. For reference, I'm
printing output from a Olympus C-4000z.

What model would people recommend? Print quality is the prime
concern, reliability the second. I'm not that bothered about speed
or being able to print straight from cards etc.

I've been leaning towards the Canon i950. Is it that much better a
printer than the i850. Is the extra expense justified?

I'd be very interested in people's advice!

Thanks.

Simon C
http://www.eyematter.com
Click to expand...
 
Simon Courcha said:
Thanks for your input Phil. That certainly sounds encouraging! It
looks like the i950 might be the one to go for, unless anyone else
has another opinion?

Regards

Simon C
http://www.eyematter.com
Click to expand...
I'm happy to say my i950 has been a nice surprise!
It prints FAST and quiet and the quality is fantastic!
The prints are better than film and you can hardly hear it print.
A 4X6 in 30 sec. This is a winner.
--
Cliff Whitney
 
Simon Courcha said:
I'm looking to replace my now out-dated HP 720c with a high-end
photo printer. Although A3 print facilities would be nice, I cannot
see myself needing to print that large very often. Therefore, A4
borderless printing is as big as I'll need. For reference, I'm
printing output from a Olympus C-4000z.

What model would people recommend? Print quality is the prime
concern, reliability the second. I'm not that bothered about speed
or being able to print straight from cards etc.

I've been leaning towards the Canon i950. Is it that much better a
printer than the i850. Is the extra expense justified?

I'd be very interested in people's advice!
Click to expand...
I recently bought an HP 5550 for photo printing to supplement my HP 722C (five years old and still running like a champ). This a general-purpose printer that can also use special photo cartridges for six-color printing. (HP also makes dedicated photo printers, e.g. 7150, 7350, 7550, which use the same print engine.) I looked long and hard at the Canon i950 as well, but decided to go HP for some of the following reasons:

1) No chance of permanent clogging, since the print heads are integral to the ink cartridge. (I have never had a clogging problem with my 722C.)

2) Six-color print quality comparable to that of Epson and Canon models. An example of this can be found at http://www.dp-now.com/cgi-bin/forum/forum.pl/noframes/read/5661

3) Good life expectancy with HP OEM ink and paper (see http://www.livick.com/method/inkjet/pg2d.htm ). I had heard about fading problems with Canon printers and recent postings to this forum seem to bear this out.

4) Cheaper initial outlay. In Canada, an HP 5550 (even with an additional #58 photo ink cartridge) is over $200 less expensive than a Canon i950. In my own case, taking advantage of sales and rebates, the difference was more like $275. (These figures are excluding taxes.)

Of course, there are drawbacks to the HP:
1) HP OEM inks and paper are very expensive.
2) The HP 5550 is apparently much slower than the i950 for photo printing.

3) The HP 5550 does not do borderless 8.5"x11"prints. Note however that its new replacement model, the HP 5650, apparently does do full size borderless.

For five-year old technology, my HP 722C is darn good at photo printing but my HP 5550 is much, much better.

Tony
 
I totally agree, HP printers are much more reliable and don't have clogging problems like Canon and Epsons printers, and you listed reliability as 2nd place, so this makes canon and epson out of question since they will clog one day or another.

I really like my Deskjet 5550, the print quality is amazing and with my duplexer (was included with my older Photosmart 1100) it prints both sides of the page automatically, it really saves a lot of paper when printing long web pages.

The inks may be expensive but I refill the cartridges up to 20-40 times each before the nozzles clog and then I buy a new cartridge. They are also the easiest cartridges to refill.

It might not be the fastest printer in photo quality mode, but for black and white text it is very fast at almost 17 pages per minute. Also since it has pigmented black ink (as well as dye black ink for photos) it can print text that looks like it's from a laser printer making it great for both text and photos.
Cerfcanuck said:
Simon Courcha said:
I'm looking to replace my now out-dated HP 720c with a high-end
photo printer. Although A3 print facilities would be nice, I cannot
see myself needing to print that large very often. Therefore, A4
borderless printing is as big as I'll need. For reference, I'm
printing output from a Olympus C-4000z.

What model would people recommend? Print quality is the prime
concern, reliability the second. I'm not that bothered about speed
or being able to print straight from cards etc.

I've been leaning towards the Canon i950. Is it that much better a
printer than the i850. Is the extra expense justified?

I'd be very interested in people's advice!
Click to expand...
I recently bought an HP 5550 for photo printing to supplement my HP
722C (five years old and still running like a champ). This a
general-purpose printer that can also use special photo cartridges
for six-color printing. (HP also makes dedicated photo printers,
e.g. 7150, 7350, 7550, which use the same print engine.) I looked
long and hard at the Canon i950 as well, but decided to go HP for
some of the following reasons:
1) No chance of permanent clogging, since the print heads are
integral to the ink cartridge. (I have never had a clogging problem
with my 722C.)
2) Six-color print quality comparable to that of Epson and Canon
models. An example of this can be found at
http://www.dp-now.com/cgi-bin/forum/forum.pl/noframes/read/5661
3) Good life expectancy with HP OEM ink and paper (see
http://www.livick.com/method/inkjet/pg2d.htm ). I had heard about
fading problems with Canon printers and recent postings to this
forum seem to bear this out.
4) Cheaper initial outlay. In Canada, an HP 5550 (even with an
additional #58 photo ink cartridge) is over $200 less expensive
than a Canon i950. In my own case, taking advantage of sales and
rebates, the difference was more like $275. (These figures are
excluding taxes.)

Of course, there are drawbacks to the HP:
1) HP OEM inks and paper are very expensive.
2) The HP 5550 is apparently much slower than the i950 for photo
printing.
3) The HP 5550 does not do borderless 8.5"x11"prints. Note however
that its new replacement model, the HP 5650, apparently does do
full size borderless.

For five-year old technology, my HP 722C is darn good at photo
printing but my HP 5550 is much, much better.

Tony
Click to expand...
 
jp said:
I totally agree, HP printers are much more reliable and don't have
clogging problems like Canon and Epsons printers, and you listed
reliability as 2nd place, so this makes canon and epson out of
question since they will clog one day or another.
Click to expand...
For the last year or so, I had sorta been hoping that my HP 722C would bite the dust, so that I could justify a new printer purchase to my wife. No such luck - the darned thing's built like a tank. :-) (I managed to convince her to let me buy a new printer anyway, in exchange for her going wild at the yarn store.)

I'm not convinced that the 5550 has the same build quality as my 722C (which cost 4 times as much originally) but I have to admit that the new auto-calibration and paper-sensing features are pretty slick.
jp103276 said:
I really like my Deskjet 5550, the print quality is amazing and
with my duplexer (was included with my older Photosmart 1100) it
prints both sides of the page automatically, it really saves a lot
of paper when printing long web pages.
Click to expand...
One feature I use a lot on my 722C (and which I was glad to see is still supported on the 5550) is software-assisted double-sided printing. This works great - all the odd (or is it even?) pages are printed first, a message pops up prompting you to flip and reinsert the paper, and the printing resumes. Works like a charm.
jp103276 said:
The inks may be expensive but I refill the cartridges up to 20-40
times each before the nozzles clog and then I buy a new cartridge.
They are also the easiest cartridges to refill.
Click to expand...
Where do you get your refill kits? My first (and only) attempt at refilling the color cartridge for my 722C was a complete disaster and I've sworn off this entirely.

Tony
 
Cerfcanuck said:
Cerfcanuck said:
I really like my Deskjet 5550, the print quality is amazing and
with my duplexer (was included with my older Photosmart 1100) it
prints both sides of the page automatically, it really saves a lot
of paper when printing long web pages.
Click to expand...
One feature I use a lot on my 722C (and which I was glad to see is
still supported on the 5550) is software-assisted double-sided
printing. This works great - all the odd (or is it even?) pages are
printed first, a message pops up prompting you to flip and reinsert
the paper, and the printing resumes. Works like a charm.
Click to expand...
The printer also supports fully automatic double sided printing, it turns the pages around by itself with the duplexer!
Cerfcanuck said:
Cerfcanuck said:
The inks may be expensive but I refill the cartridges up to 20-40
times each before the nozzles clog and then I buy a new cartridge.
They are also the easiest cartridges to refill.
Click to expand...
Where do you get your refill kits? My first (and only) attempt at
refilling the color cartridge for my 722C was a complete disaster
and I've sworn off this entirely.
Click to expand...
I get them at TheInkPlace.com, are you sure it wasnt the black cartridge you tried to refill? That was a pain to refill, the color was as easy to refill as the ones in the 5550 due to the sponges inside tha prevent the ink from leaking by absorbing it. What problem did you have?
 
Simon Courcha said:
I'm looking to replace my now out-dated HP 720c with a high-end
photo printer. Although A3 print facilities would be nice, I cannot
see myself needing to print that large very often. Therefore, A4
borderless printing is as big as I'll need. For reference, I'm
printing output from a Olympus C-4000z.

What model would people recommend? Print quality is the prime
concern, reliability the second. I'm not that bothered about speed
or being able to print straight from cards etc.

I've been leaning towards the Canon i950. Is it that much better a
printer than the i850. Is the extra expense justified?
Click to expand...
Some people say that fixed printer head are not good, that in long term the one fixed on the ink cartrige are better...

Me I think they are wrong...
  • The duration of Fixed head life can be shorter, but often the cost/page are lower, then it cost less to change the printer after a few year.
Don't forget a important thing, look at the cost/page to print... if you print a lot, then the price of the ink is more important then the price of the printer.
  • Search on computer forum to see the evaluation of printer. They show the overall quality and at what cost.
 
stephl said:
stephl said:
I've been leaning towards the Canon i950. Is it that much better a
printer than the i850. Is the extra expense justified?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Look there : http://www.tomshardware.com/consumer/20030509/index.html

I found a review on the canon i950

and they compare this printer to the
  • Canon i850
  • Canon i550
  • Canon s900
  • Epson Stylus Photo 820/ 830
  • Epson Stylus C82
  • Lexmark X5150
  • HP Photosmart 7350
  • HP deskjet 5550
They have lots of other review. This web site is good for Hardware like this one for photography :)
 
jp said:
jp103276 said:
Where do you get your refill kits? My first (and only) attempt at
refilling the color cartridge for my 722C was a complete disaster
and I've sworn off this entirely.
Click to expand...
I get them at TheInkPlace.com, are you sure it wasnt the black
cartridge you tried to refill? That was a pain to refill, the color
was as easy to refill as the ones in the 5550 due to the sponges
inside tha prevent the ink from leaking by absorbing it. What
problem did you have?
Click to expand...
IIRC, I didn't get any ink coming out at all, for one of the colors, even after carefully following the filling instructions. :-(

Bear in mind that this was a cartridge for an HP 722C, not an HP 5550, so your experience may not be comparable.

I'll probably stick with the HP OEM cartridges for "important" prints that require permanency and maybe try refills for "throw-away" stuff. The fact that cartridges are so easy to swap makes this quite feasible.

Tony Hart
 
I did have a 722 two printers ago, you did refill it BEFORE it was out of ink right? If you wait that it's empty then the nozzles will be permanently damaged. It sounds like this is what happened, you must always refill before running out of ink so I refill every 50 4x6's to be sure.
Cerfcanuck said:
jp said:
Cerfcanuck said:
Where do you get your refill kits? My first (and only) attempt at
refilling the color cartridge for my 722C was a complete disaster
and I've sworn off this entirely.
Click to expand...
I get them at TheInkPlace.com, are you sure it wasnt the black
cartridge you tried to refill? That was a pain to refill, the color
was as easy to refill as the ones in the 5550 due to the sponges
inside tha prevent the ink from leaking by absorbing it. What
problem did you have?
Click to expand...
IIRC, I didn't get any ink coming out at all, for one of the
colors, even after carefully following the filling instructions. :-(

Bear in mind that this was a cartridge for an HP 722C, not an HP
5550, so your experience may not be comparable.

I'll probably stick with the HP OEM cartridges for "important"
prints that require permanency and maybe try refills for
"throw-away" stuff. The fact that cartridges are so easy to swap
makes this quite feasible.

Tony Hart
Click to expand...
 
jp said:
I did have a 722 two printers ago, you did refill it BEFORE it was
out of ink right? If you wait that it's empty then the nozzles will
be permanently damaged. It sounds like this is what happened, you
must always refill before running out of ink so I refill every 50
4x6's to be sure.
Click to expand...
Yup, in retrospect, that's probably what happened.

Thanks for the explanation; it makes sense that a lack of liquid coolant would cause the print heads to burn out. :-)

Tony
 
Simon Courcha Hi ya!

I too am very happy with my HP7150 I also have a Nikon CP5700 so my 8X10 pictures print out great! So do the smaller pictures! I have had HP printers for years and they have aways done a great job with no problems at all. I now have 2 HP printers my 952C is used to print everything but pictures! Also 1 more thing about my 7150, B&W's print great too on Matte paper! Have fun......................Lamont :> )
 
What refill kit do you use to refill 5550 carts ?
jp said:
I really like my Deskjet 5550, the print quality is amazing and
with my duplexer (was included with my older Photosmart 1100) it
prints both sides of the page automatically, it really saves a lot
of paper when printing long web pages.

The inks may be expensive but I refill the cartridges up to 20-40
times each before the nozzles clog and then I buy a new cartridge.
They are also the easiest cartridges to refill.

It might not be the fastest printer in photo quality mode, but for
black and white text it is very fast at almost 17 pages per minute.
Also since it has pigmented black ink (as well as dye black ink for
photos) it can print text that looks like it's from a laser printer
making it great for both text and photos.
Cerfcanuck said:
Simon Courcha said:
I'm looking to replace my now out-dated HP 720c with a high-end
photo printer. Although A3 print facilities would be nice, I cannot
see myself needing to print that large very often. Therefore, A4
borderless printing is as big as I'll need. For reference, I'm
printing output from a Olympus C-4000z.

What model would people recommend? Print quality is the prime
concern, reliability the second. I'm not that bothered about speed
or being able to print straight from cards etc.

I've been leaning towards the Canon i950. Is it that much better a
printer than the i850. Is the extra expense justified?

I'd be very interested in people's advice!
Click to expand...
I recently bought an HP 5550 for photo printing to supplement my HP
722C (five years old and still running like a champ). This a
general-purpose printer that can also use special photo cartridges
for six-color printing. (HP also makes dedicated photo printers,
e.g. 7150, 7350, 7550, which use the same print engine.) I looked
long and hard at the Canon i950 as well, but decided to go HP for
some of the following reasons:
1) No chance of permanent clogging, since the print heads are
integral to the ink cartridge. (I have never had a clogging problem
with my 722C.)
2) Six-color print quality comparable to that of Epson and Canon
models. An example of this can be found at
http://www.dp-now.com/cgi-bin/forum/forum.pl/noframes/read/5661
3) Good life expectancy with HP OEM ink and paper (see
http://www.livick.com/method/inkjet/pg2d.htm ). I had heard about
fading problems with Canon printers and recent postings to this
forum seem to bear this out.
4) Cheaper initial outlay. In Canada, an HP 5550 (even with an
additional #58 photo ink cartridge) is over $200 less expensive
than a Canon i950. In my own case, taking advantage of sales and
rebates, the difference was more like $275. (These figures are
excluding taxes.)

Of course, there are drawbacks to the HP:
1) HP OEM inks and paper are very expensive.
2) The HP 5550 is apparently much slower than the i950 for photo
printing.
3) The HP 5550 does not do borderless 8.5"x11"prints. Note however
that its new replacement model, the HP 5650, apparently does do
full size borderless.

For five-year old technology, my HP 722C is darn good at photo
printing but my HP 5550 is much, much better.

Tony
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
If you don't want to go above 8x10 at home, then I would suggest a DyeSub such as an olympus P 400 "although it only prints a 7.64x10" or the Kodak 8500.
P 400 you can print at $1.48 per sheet "US money" (Glossy only)
8500 you can print at $1.75 per sheet "US money" (Glossy or matte)

I'm using the P 400 right now and I love it, I've never had a quality problem. Ive had mine for over a year now and I averaged between 100-200 prints a week. "I am now starting to see signs of wear and tear"

I'm now getting ready to order the 8500 because of the matte prints.
 
If you get the black ink cartridge for the 7150 it will be much better than your 952 for text. The quality will be much better and it will print a lot faster.
Lamont E. Earles said:
Simon Courcha Hi ya!

I too am very happy with my HP7150 I also have a Nikon CP5700 so my
8X10 pictures print out great! So do the smaller pictures! I have
had HP printers for years and they have aways done a great job with
no problems at all. I now have 2 HP printers my 952C is used to
print everything but pictures! Also 1 more thing about my 7150,
B&W's print great too on Matte paper! Have
fun......................Lamont :> )
Click to expand...
 
The i950 is a beaut if you don't mind your pictures printed with disappearing ink.
 
Disappearing ink... Do you mean the quality of the printout will not last unless it is in some kind of protective layer? Then which printer will do much better in that regard among ink jet printer in the market? I am also looking for a quality photo printer. I am not looking at dye-subs.

Thanks
Len W said:
The i950 is a beaut if you don't mind your pictures printed with
disappearing ink.
Click to expand...
 
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