I am on the verge of buying a Powershot A50 and a photo quality printer to be determined. I would appreciate any feedback on the following printers:

Epson Stylus Photo 750 Epson Stylus 900 Epson Stylus 1200 Lexmark 5770

Cost is, of course, an issue, so if you can give me your thoughts on price/performance that would be great.

Thanks in advance!

Andrew

-- Andrew Wang (AYWang67@hotmail.com), June 22, 1999

Answers

Epson photo series would be your best bet. However the Lexmark 5700 does a great job for a bit over $200 US. I have the Epson Photo EX and Lexmark 5700, Epson is more expensive product and if you pick high end of Epson, you got a real photo printer. I am printing at 1200x1200 resolution with Lexmark 5700 and I like that printer too. I have also used H.P. product line extensively, including the 600, 700, 800, 1100 and 2000 series (at work). I would not recommend the H.P. product line for high quality photo output (however I have to say H.P. has great printers for general purpose printing). I hope this helps. Good Luck.

-- Fred (tabarrok@frontiernet.net), June 23, 1999.

I'm not familiar with the Lexmark but in the Epsons the 750 and 1200 are photo quality (or as near as reasonably possible given cost concerns), the 900 is a good but general purpose printer. It won't have all of the photo qualities of the other two. It does have better speed (I think) in general use. The 1200 vs 750 question should be answered by the size of output. If you need the larger size, you'll need the 1200, if not, the 750 will save you some money. You might want to look at the different bundled software packages compared to your needs, I think the 1200 comes with a larger bundle. If there is a program included that you will need, it may cut some of the cost differential.

-- Craig Gillette (cgillette@thegrid.net), June 24, 1999.

Thanks for the input. Sounds like the Epson Stylus Photo printers are the way to go.

-- Andrew Wang (AYWang67@hotmail.com), June 24, 1999.

I think I found a great alternative. I ended up going with a Canon BJC-6000. Its specs are very similar to the Epson Stylus Photo printers (1440x720 resolution, 48 nozzles per color, six colors, etc.). I even compared photo quality printouts on glossy photo paper, and the quality was very comparable. The thing that made me go with the Canon, though, is the same thing that made me get my current printer, the Canon BJC600 -- the Canon uses individual ink cartridges for each of the six colors vs. the Epson's one black and on color cartridge system. This means when the half-tone cyan runs out, I only need to replace that one color, not wasting what's left of the others.

I've already made a printout of a picture I took of my dog, and it looks great!

To everyone who responded to my question, I really appreciate your input. Thanks!

-- Andrew Wang (AYWang67@hotmail.com), June 28, 1999.