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Need some photo printer buying advice?

I'm on a teachers budget, so I don't want to go over $200 (prefer lower), but I'm getting lost with the reviews. I've looked at:
-Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition Personal Photo Lab Color Inkjet Printer
-Photosmart D7160 Color Photo Printer
- Epson Stylus R340 Color Photo Printer
-Canon Pixma iP6600D Color Photo Printer

Can anyone offer advice, or other suggestions? I like the individual ink tubes, or any way to not spend a ton on ink. But I need good picture quality. Thanks for any help.

The best photo printers on the market right now according to PC Magazine are HP and Canon. Epson users have trouble with ink wastage (while the photos turn out quite all right) and Lexmark printers are just wrong. You're right though, there are tons of different photo printers out there.

In my personal opinion, for someone who wants to print several photos, the new HP Photosmart printers are the best anywhere. You mentioned that you wanted individual ink cartridges, and that is a good idea for someone doing a lot of color printing, whether photos or color documents. A lot of the newer HPs have this individual ink tank technology (not all of them do, though). My recommendations for a photo printer to you are these (all these printers have individual ink tanks, an LCD screen for viewing/editing photos without a PC, memory card slots for you digital memory card, and awesome photo quality):

HP Photosmart C5180- this is a great photo printer that also scans and copies. You are able to make copies of your existing photos with the high copy resolution on this machine and not lose the sharpness of the photo (although the colors Will Not be exactly the same). Retails for $199 (it's on sale at Best Buy for $179 this week, I know I bought it)

HP Photosmart D7160- though this machine does not copy or scan, it does do regular document printing and photos as well at very fast speeds. If you do not want to copy or scan, this would be the printer for you. If you like high-tech gadgets, the D7360 (a step up from the D7160) has a touch screen. The D7160 retails for $149, the D7360 retails for $199 (but is also on sale for $159 at Best Buy this week).

HP A617- this printer only prints 4x6, 4x12, and 5x7 photos. If you want to do larger photos this would not be the machine for you. Also, this printer does not have the individual ink tanks. However, this printer is small and completely portable. Retails for around $179.

The reason I recommend the HP printers is because of 1. photo quality and 2. ink costs. Canon and Epson ink costs are outrageous, really. When you figure in purchasing all the individual ink cartridges (around $15 each for the color and $18 for the black), and the purchase the photo paper (anywhere from $10 to $25) it gets really expensive. The HP 6-cartridge systems however have ink and paper that can either be bought individually, or in a pack that includes all 6 cartridges and 150 4x6 photo papers for $37 (about $50 savings altogether).

These photos will come out photo, smudge, and fade resistant for 100 years according to the package. The photos are much better than the ones you get at Wal-Mart, and last longer too. Another added bonus is the fact that these HP printers have 6 colors instead of 4 colors like many other printers have (the Epson R340 I believe uses 4). The 6 colors will give you better color variations.

Anyway, the printer I would recommend the most is the C5180 since it is handy to be able to copy and scan. If you do not need those options, the D7160 does just as good as far as photos are concerned, or even the D7360 if you want to spend the extra $10 at Best Buy this week (the touch screen is kinda cool). Anyway, I hope this helps.

There is currently a lawsuit against Epson because their ink cartridges waste a lot of ink. See www.epsonsettlement.com. I would also stay away from ink refills because the ink is a much lower quality, meaning your photos will not lack the color quality, fade resistance, and water resistance of genuine brand inks.

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