Budget (B/W) Printer?

I'm the new owner of a K10D and new to digital period. My main interests are in black-and-white portraits and landscapes and I was wondering what might be a good entry-level printer to get me going. At the moment I wouldn't want to spend much more than two hundred pounds or so. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Ed

Not sure if it's worth. If you want a enough quality pictures you need an inkjet printer, which consumes an ink a lot. I'd suggest Canon Pixma series (ie iP5300) - it has separate ink cartridges, which are not integrated with the printing head and you can buy a cheap refills (not original). You will also need a photo-paper (I'd also suggest a replacement, not original brand). You can also print colour pictures there.

But check if it's not cheaper to print them in a foto-hub (ASDA, Tesco, or another one).

Based purely on my own experience I tried non branded paper and ink and the results were mixed on my Epson printer. I now use only Canon paper and ink with my Pixma and the results are pretty predictable.

Sadly the inks aren't cheap although 7dayshop sometimes has paper buy one get one free.

Mike

I think it is better use the printer manufacturers ink and paper to begin with. I have tried using 3rd party inks from a variety of sources and the results have been second rate.

I have a HPC5280, all in one. I got it because I couldn't afford two printers, one just for photos, and because it can use a special grey cartridge for b/w photo printing.
I am happy with it - the blacks are black, the whites white, and there is no colour cast if I use HP paper, or matte paper, which is what I use most for b/w printing. Some other brands of glossy paper give a bluish tinge to b/w photos, so I stick to HP if I am printing on glossy paper. The matte paper is just from a local shop, no brand.

The choice of paper is important - most will give a colour cast as they are intended for colour printing.

If you are thinking about buying a canon printer then it is worth looking at the canon outlet shop on ebay:

Canon Outlet

These are called "refurbished" but my experience is that they are in a new condition with a sealed print head and a complete set of new cartridges and may well be shop returns when a newer model comes out.

Some care is needed to make sure not to get carried away in a bidding competition and end up paying more than a new one.

I recently bought an ip4500 for £42. Which was less than a set of print cartridges at high street prices.

If you are just doing B&W then a simpler printer like the iP2500 might be an alternative. This only has 2 ink cartridges, black & colour, and go for around £20-25.

Glyn

A Canon iP4600 looks good, but I'm not paying £999 for one

shim

I second that.
Because of the special grey cartridge for black and white printing (available for 7600, 8000 and 9000 Photo smart printers) these are in my opinion the best quality budget printer you can buy within your price limit. Straight out the box super neutral Mono prints.
Highly recommended. And because each cartridge has its own print head, you have less problems cleaning your print head,(nozzle clogging)
This saves a lot of expensive ink.

Martin.

And I third that!! I found a HP photosmart 7850 for £30.
I use mine to print from scans of my negs, shot on a Spotmatic.
I can also recommend the Plustek 7300 scanner, it only cost me £80 and the output is as good as my friends Nikon Coolscan V.

Phil

Its the B&W thats going to ruin your budget, for decent output you really need a printer with extra black/grey cartridges. There are plenty of printers out there below the £100 mark that will produce tremendous colour prints, many of which will accept re-fillable cartridges, continous ink systems etc etc. the problem with these of course is getting a B&W print without a colour cast. I'm not saying B&W prints are impossible on these printers but you have to take into account the number of wasted prints you turn out trying to get a print without a cast.

The Epson R2400 is probably about the best I've heard about (and high on my shopping list), unfortunately its double your budget

or the Canon i9950/9900 pro for non colour cast B/W prints

Spider...If I get a new canon this year(change every two years)you can have my i9950 for the cost of petrol to run it up to you, and any spare inks I'v got at the time.
Approx £45 all in

Thats a very generous offer Tel, I may just take you up on it if my current printer holds out long enough, I currently have an Epson R300 with a continous ink system, problem is the print head is not sealing when it comes to rest, resulting in the ink flowing back into the reserve tanks, must be about three or four years old now so not done too bad, thinks its cost me about £36 in ink so far

You do know theres a continous ink system available for the Canon i9950

You do know theres a continous ink system available for the Canon i9950[/quote]Yes I did but I'm going to wait until the next Canon but saying that it might be a A2 Epson yet
I'll get in touch when I get the new one and you can say Yes or No, it will be to good just to skip it.

Thanks for the help so far. I can qualify this a bit by saying I'd only need up to A4 size. If I accidentally shoot a few masterpieces I want in larger sizes, I'd farm them out. Thanks again.

Printware has an HP 8750 for 199 pounds, plus VAT, etc. This is less than half of what I've seen it for other places. Has anyone dealt with them or know of their reputation? I mean... half?