My Printer Died

[rpcrowe]

My old friend, an HP Photosmart 7960 has finally bit the bullet. This printer had a serendipitous relationship with a dirt cheap brand of inkjet paper which was often sold by Fry's Electronics as a loss leader. It worked OK with other brands and types of papers but never worked quite as well as with the Fry's loss leader paper. I would purchase large quantities of that paper because Fry's would sell it for one U.S. Dollar for 25 sheets of 8.5" x 11" glossy.

I am looking for a replacement printer. I have been offered an Epson R1800 printer which has been used very-very sparingly. I will probably need to send it in for service since it hasn't been used for a couple of years and I would expect that the ink jets are clogged.

Would it be worth getting it serviced (I don't know the cost) or should I consider buying a new printer.

If so, which model would be the best? I don't do a tremendous lot of printing but, I am lost without a photo printer right now. One of the things I do with a printer is to print flyers for each rescue dog to gain attention. These flyers in pet supply stores and grooming salons really work.

I'd like to keep the cost of a printer under $500 USD. I am open to any brand. I would like the easiest one to use...

There is a $200 rebate on the Canon Pro 9000 Mark II which reduces the bottom-line price to $299. That seems like a pretty good price. Am I required to use Canon paper with the Pro 9000 Mark II or are there other brand papers avaiable?

[Snarkbyte]

B&H currently has a $200USD mail-in rebate on the Epson R3000 (until March 31), which brings the price down to $600USD. I know that's a little over your budget target, but the Epson R2880 and R3000 have outstanding reputations, and I found the price irresistable (I ordered an R3000 Thursday). This may be overkill for your purposes, but I'm pretty excited about finally getting my own printer. Sorry, I don't know anything about the Canon, just thought I'd pass along the info about the deal on the Epson, for anyone interested.

[proseak]

How much is the used Epson, and can you try before you buy?

If it's cheap enough, some of the posts here might be useful;

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...8&changemode=1

[Carl in Louisiana]

I have used canon printers for many years now. The main thing I like the most aside from the great print quality is separate ink tanks/cartridges. No wasting of ink because one color runs out. I had one that a print head was messed up on and the cyan color would dry on the head and it would not work. Took the head out cleaned it with alcohol put it back in and it worked fine until I let it set for a day or two and would have to clean it all over again. I have a Pixma MP620 now that I bought brand new for $100.00 and it will print 4X6 color pictures that look good enough for the family album. It also prints document, scans and copies. If I continue to get into photography I will be getting a better printer for that but I will be keeping my MP620 also. Best Buy (not trying to make a sale just where I found mine) will run sales on new ones coming out or older ones moving off the shelf for the newer ones. Try cleaning the print head with alcohol if they will let you and it should do a self cleaning of the heads before going into online print mode. It just may work.....lol

[Geoff F]

I had the Canon 9000 but it suffered print head leakage problems after what I considered to be relatively light use so I'm now using an Epson R1900.

Both printed well. The Canon was particularly good at greens and never suffered from ink clog problems. My current Epson is good on reds but ink clog is 'a fact of life'. However, the auto clean mechanism works fine so it isn't too much of a problem.

I wonder about the cost of purchasing the Epson 1800 plus a recondition compared with a new 1900.

[DanK]

I have the Pro 9000 Mk II. So far it has been great, but I have not had it long. If the print head goes (it hasn't on my older Canon, which I have had about 4 years), it is user-replaceable. You are absolutely not restricted to Canon papers with it. In fact, I have never used Canon papers with my 9000, although I did use them with my older Canon printer. I have used Moab and Red River papers so far. Both have ICCs online for this printer, as well as specification of the appropriate media setting. so far, I have used a variety of matte, fine art, lustre, and canvas papers from them, all with good results.

The first choice, IMHO, is dye or pigment. Pigment has the advantage of much longer print life. Dye has the advantage of no clogs, even if the printer is left unused for months at a time. For me, dye was the way to go, but most people end up choosing pigment.

[rpcrowe]

I opted for the Canon Pixma Pro 9000 Mk ii printer which I got from B&H Photo in NYC for $399 (USD) plus about $44 shipping charges.

There is a $200 rebate in effect which reduces my bottom line price to about $244. That is considerably less than I expected to pay (I had budgeted $500). The printer was originally $500 plus whatever shipping charges would have been added. The fact that I am an out-of-state buyer eliminates the almost 9% sales tax in California.

There were several other reasons other than the price that influenced my purchase. The Canon Pro 9000 Mk ii is an inexpensive printer to operate. It is less expensive to operate than the Pro 9500 because it is dye based rather than pigment based. I found a website that estimated the printing cost for various size prints and the 9000 Mk ii averaged about 2/3 the price of equvalent size prints done by Epson printers. The pigment based prints of the 9000 will possibly last longer than older dye based images but, Canon states this about their present dye based technology:

"Using Canon paper and ChromaLife100 inks results in prints with 100-year fade resistance when stored in an archival photo album."

It also seems like the 9000 Mk ii is relatively easy to set up and operate and it gets very good reviews all over the internet including about 4.5 stars out of 5 on amazon.com. The major failing of his printer seems to be in printing B&W prints. I don't foresee much need for printing B&W.

[Shadowman]

When evaluating a printer I always consider output resolution, compatibility with current operating system (if you have Windows 7 make sure they have a compatible driver), paper size, and most importantly-printer cartridge costs and if they can be purchased by single color or if all three have to be replaced when one runs out.