Want to Buy A Photo Printer for Kids

Mick Rice

Howdy - Sorry for the basic nature of the question but I want to buy printer for digital pics that my kids take - for them to use themselves. There seem to be plenty of decent printers around but many look really expensive to run in terms of paper and ink cartridges. Does anyone have a recomendation for one that would be ecconomical to run as I can see my (wonderful) children printing out reams of stuff without any regard to what it might cost.

Do any of these printers accept generic in cartridges or are you stuck with the propriatary versions. I'd need to select one that's generally available before santa arrives as well :-)

Thanks,

Mick.

pacman.podge

you cant go wrong with a canon. brother has one and has never given bother. you'll prob pick one up for 100e and it will be a good one. but keep in mind that that will be cheap part.. you have to buy special ink cartages which are costly and the glossy paper is also expensive! its ALOT cheaper to print them in the likes of one hour photo in chemists!!
Hope this is of help :rolleyes:

CabanSail

Buying the printer will be the cheap part of the exercise. Feeding a printer is what costs the money.

If you want true colour fidelity & long lasting prints then you will need to get good quality printer & buy the proper Inks & Paper. Then make sure the Monitor & Printer are calibrated. This is what I, and many here, would normally advise.


However .... I doubt that you are really too worried about many of the factors listed above. So for a printer which is basically going to be a Toy for the kids I would look at some of the sites that sell Generic Inks & seeing which is the best value for money. Remember that the amount of ink can vary in different cartridges, so divide the price by the quantity to find out what it costs per ml. You can then look for a printer which takes these cartridges. Cheap Gloosy Paper can be picked up at places like Lidl or Aldi for less than €10 per pack of A4.

Just remember that what is printed with cheap inks will fade over time.

Mick Rice

Thanks All - Yes, this will basically be a toy for my children and I realise that the prints will fade. As long as I can keep the digital originals for any decent shots that's all I care about. The kids like to print or draw stuff which they can then stick on the fridge or on their bedroom walls and photo prints will serve much the same purpose.

I've tried to look at a few Ink Supplies sites but if you have only a very little knowledge it's quite hard to work from ink cartridge back to printer.

A suggested combination would be very welcome...

nilhg

The biggest problem I see with your plan is that when using cheaper third party inks what tends to happen is that if the use is intermittent (weeks rather than days) the cheap ink dries in the print nozzles and the whole unit is basicly toast.

It's hard to suggest a generic supplier because even they may be changing their suppliers so what you get is never consistent.

Kodak has been advertising printers which are cheaper to run, might be worth a look

CabanSail

Try this search It should show the compatible printers.

Some printers have just a Colour and Black Cartridge.
Others have four Catridges, Cyan Yellow Magenta Black (CMYK)
The more expensive ones have seven or eight inks.

I would suggest one that just has 4 Inks (CMYK) as you then only need to replace an ink when that colour is exhausted. The one's with a Colour Cartridge have the CMY in there but it will be exhausted when the first ink runs out. The ones with more inks are for higher quality printing & are important if you want very good Black & White prints.

TPD

I have an Epson Picturemate 500, it does 6"x4" prints. The ink cartridge is one piece with 6 different colour inks inside, and each cartridge is good for around a hundred photos.

I got the printer second hand on ebay for €30ish + delivery, and the ink costs around £12 for two cartridges, again from ebay. The paper is readily avaliable, I have found that the 100pk which Lidl were selling for €7 (grey box) a while ago are very good. They'll probably come back soon enough.

The printer is easy to use, pictbridge compatible and has readers for a few different cards so you can put them straight in from the camera. There is a small colour screen on the printer for choosing photos to print, and some basic brightness etc editing. I think it can run on batteries too.

I couldn't say if the quality is perfect, but after cleaning and aligning the print heads (through on screen menu), there are no lines or smudges on the pictures, and they look very sharp.

Mick Rice

...thanks..I'll get on eBay as soon as the boss clears out :-)

LeoB

Has anyonr tried continuos ink supply to printer. It sounds a lot cheaper from what I hear and cuts down a lot on cost.