Photo Printer Recommendations

My wife and I are being asked more and more to take photos for local functions like the Company Christmas Parties, School fundraisers (pics with Santa), ball teams, etc. Some of these require that we produce photos on the spot so the printer search begins...

We think we need a printer that will produce lab quality color output on standard photo papers for sizes up to 8x10. Of course it would be nice if it was fairly fast, so the kiddies and parents don't have to stand around too long, and as economical as possible with respect to inks and upkeep. It must be portable and reliable and easy to use.

Any help appreciated. If you think my wish list is faulty please let me know. What do you recommend?

There three companies to chose from: HP, Canon and Epson.


All three now offer pigment based printers and most here would probably recommend pigment over dye printers for the longevity of the prints. You do have additional choices as to the max size print you can make with the smaller format printers being less expensive. With the exception of the dye-sub printers that typically do 6x4 prints almost all the inkjet printers, including all the pigment printers, begin at the 8.5x11 (8x10) print size as the max. The next step up is usually 13x19 and there's 24" wide and larger going up to the recently anounced Canon iPF9000 that will do 60" wide. So you need to figure out the largest print size you need and work from there.

Perhaps the best choice for the lower end is the Epson R2400 (13" wide) at about $850 or the Epson 4800 (17" wide) at about $1800. Similar to the Epson 4800 is the new Canon iPF5000 (17" wide) also near $1800. The Epsons are 8-color pigment printers whereas the Canon is a 12-color pigment type.


Brian

Here is a good thread on on-site printers from the Fred Miranda site:

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic2 ... /0#3561598