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Would you still buy a printer nowadays?

dirk

dirk

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May 15, 2002
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Photo inkjet printers are fine, if you use them often.

But what if you have only around 30 images to print per year. Is it worth it in you view, consdering the rsik that the ink is drying inbetween?

And what about the costs? paper, ink and printer are not cheap...
 
A good question as there are other routes. My experience during a bit of a cessation in activity during COVID was interesting. I print more than 30 A3 prints a year but not a lot more than 300. The Epson P800 printer that I use lay there for more than six months never switched on and I did wonder what would happen on using it again. However after one clean of the print heads it worked perfectly. I do use Epson inks.
So I think that it is only a matter of the balance of the cost against the convenience and control you have with your own printer.
 
Yes I would definitely buy another printer.
Because you can't miss that, can you?
I am very satisfied with my old Canon.
 
I like the independence of owning a printer. I believe I will always own a photo printer in some form and a daily workhorse type printer. It may not make sense in todays world but I don't always make sense.
Keeping fun. (-:
 
I agree I much prefer to print at home, I have full control over it & instant results in front of me
 
I used to print at home for our photo workshop's annual exhibitions. This involved fairly infrequent printing & often needed an entire set of cartridges to unblock the heads at the start. On two occasions it needed a complete new printer :(
Some local discount supermarkets started offering quality affordable photo printing (34p each for A4 in archival quality), so for years I just ordered prints from them.
Now both these services have stopped. I'm not sure what I'll do in the future, but a new printer for a few hundred photos is not sustainable!
 
I don't know the brand of printers you have used in the past, but I've (touch wood) never had a Canon printer block in 30 yrs of using them - that being said it always hurts when you turn it on and it does a full head clean and you watch the ink levels diving!
 
coldcoffee said:
I don't know the brand of printers you have used in the past, but I've (touch wood) never had a Canon printer block in 30 yrs of using them - that being said it always hurts when you turn it on and it does a full head clean and you watch the ink levels diving!
Click to expand...
My old printers were initially Hewlet Packard then Epson (once I started printing CDRs). The HP models never had major issues with blocked heads as the print heads were part of the ink cartridge. The last one used two entire sets of cartridges without clearing the blocked head. I suspect my intermittent usage was a big part of the problem.

I do have an old Canon bubble jet lying around at work. Perhaps I ought to give it a try :)
 
I don't print enough to make it worthwhile. If I want to print a photo, I go to Walgreens (local drug store/convenience store for those not in the USA) where they do a nice job and I can choose how large or small I want the print to be.
 
I prefer also to use the services of my local drugstore, however I print infrequently. I always used to worry about colors not matching, but the most recent batch of prints I did looked great. Ownership and upkeep of my own printer, along with ink and paper costs, were too much for me.
 
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