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Canon PIXMA MP560 Wireless Inkjet All-In-One Photo Printer (3747B002)

I had a HP office jet printer before this and was very unhappy with it. I decided to try this printer. I dont know if my expectations were low (I dont think so). This printer has exceeded all my expectations so far. Photo prints are great. SW is easy and friendly to use. Have had no issues setting it up or using it. I can print from computer, scan to computer, scan to USB, scan from computer, all using wireless.

Have nothing but good things to say about this printer.

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HP Photosmart A646 Compact Photo Printer (CC001A#B1H)

Super easy to install…even running vista 64 bit (a 2 minute download from the HP site)…installed on other machines with no problems, just plug and play.

Very easy to use, both my nephew (5) and my mother in law (77) had no problem using this…and using all the photo add-ons, like the draw function, the frames and the clip art.

Photo quality is pretty good. Colors are very saturated, but black is not true black, but so close you won’t notice unless you try. Occationally skin tones have gone very orange. I’m not sure if it’s a function of the printer, the cameras or the computer….seems if you have some true white in the feild, and not much orange everything is fine.

Speed…well, in practice a 4×6 takes about a minute and a half….a few have taken a bit longer. I have not had the chance to print any 5×7 or 4×12′s yet.

Ink useage isn’t horrible, but the “valu pack” that HP sells with one cartrage and 144 sheets of paper…well, it might say the cartrage is formulated to print all 144 (or at least suggest that) it only prints about 50 4×6′s….I’ve seen a few store brand cartrages that say they will fit this printer…havent’ tried them yet, but at about half the price of the HP cartrage, it’s worth a shot.

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Canon Selphy CP780 Silver Compact Photo Printer

I bought this printer for “grandma” so she could print pictures of her grandkids. She just got a digital camera and needed something to print out the pictures. She says she is electronic challenged. I set it up for her and showed her how to print pictures. She started printing and used up the five cards/pictures she got with the system without any help. I had to run to the store to get more paper/cartridges. She was very impressed with the quality of the picture and the ease of use. Grandma just turned 77 and loves the printer!

I deducted one star due to the need to use special printing paper.

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Canon PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II Inkjet Photo Printer (3295B002)

Excellent printer. Only complaint is spending this amount of money why would Canon not include a USB cable?

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Canon Pixma mini320 Compact Photo Inkjet Printer (2172B002)

I’m very happy with the quality of the prints that come out of this little printer. I have a Canon MP560 (multi-function) as well and the quality is nearly if not as good. I set it up without being connected to a PC, and it was easy. The only concern I have is with the casing that it’s in. The plastic is thin and cheap. For being a ‘portable’ printer, you would think that they would build it to take at least a little abuse. ]]> http://www.pictureprinterreview.com/reviews/top-5-picture-printers/feed/ 0 http://www.pictureprinterreview.com/articles/tips-for-buying-a-picture-printer/ http://www.pictureprinterreview.com/articles/tips-for-buying-a-picture-printer/#comments Sun, 07 Jun 2009 08:01:28 +0000 Kent Disandro http://www.pictureprinterreview.com/?p=22 Are you planning to buy a picture printer? If you have already done some hunting around you know what’s in store. Are you yet to shop around? Let me tell you that you will be amazed at the variety. Variety not just in brands but in prices too. When you go shopping there are a certain things which you need to check when buying a photo printer. And when I say certain things I don’t mean company name or the price.

That is a mistake which many shoppers make when they buy a printer. All they look for is a brand and price tag. If they find a good brand with a price that suits their budget, they are ready to check out. That is okay as long as you are buying printers just for text. But that is not a good way to buy a picture printer. There are many small details which you need to look for when it comes to printing a good quality photo. Because that is what we are looking for when we buy a photo printer.

Now the quality of the photo depends upon the technical aspects of the picture printer and that is what you should look for! A good print will depend on the quality of the image the picture has, the resolution, banner size, how many pages it can take, dimensions of the print and even the speed with which it prints. These things should be the determining factors. So determine your budget and then compromise on these features.

A general desktop printer has 8.5 inch wide paper but that is not the case with a photo printer. Each printer has its own size intake. Some printers take standard size, others letter size, then some take banner size paper and the compact ones take 4” x 6” paper. The size of the paper is pivotal in the price of the printer.

Other than that, it is important to look out for whether it has the facility to print the pictures directly without the using a computer. Yes there are photo printers in which you don’t need to transfer the pictures to a computer. All you need to do is connect your media card or camera to the printer.

If you wish to have this feature check whether the printer you are looking at has a slot which accepts media cards. Not all printers have this feature. Even some of the high end printers don’t have this feature. Another thing to keep in mind is to not fall just by the label of the printer which simply says high speed. Check the exact speed of the printer.

Gone are those days when you need reels in the camera to capture the glorious things around you. Then wait for the reel to get over. That was the easy part. The next is removing the reel and go to the photo shop to develop the pictures. And after doing all of this, you are disappointed when you see the pictures. Why? Because your favorite picture did not come out clear. Too bad!

Things have changed with the digital camera. All you did was click click click to capture your special moments. And now with picture printers you can even print it immediately! For those of you who are wondering what is a picture printer it is a special kind of printer. It is designed in such a way that allows you to print high quality digital photos. And you can print these photos on photo paper.

A picture printer is the same as an inkjet printer but with increased nozzles. The extra nozzles lets the printing droplets be as tiny as 1 picoliter. This is where many companies even fool consumers. Many inkjet printers now available on the market claim to be photo printers too. A photo printer is also an inkjet printer and there are no such specifications that can challenge these printers. However these ordinary but overcharged printers do not give the same quality as that of a picture printer. So beware! It’s just a marketing gimmick!

The new-fangled picture printers are very compact and light weight. You also have printers which let you print pictures straight from your camera. That is correct! You don’t need to connect them to your computer, its just click and print.

Mostly the compact models don’t need computers and they print 4” x 6” photos. There are even larger ones. The three brands Epson, Canon and HP are leading the consumer market in picture printers. Many of them are available for less than $500.

A few of the best rated picture printers are Canon Pixma IP8500, Epson Stylus Pro 4000, Canon Slephy DS700, Sony PictureStation DPP-FP30, Epson Picture Mate and Epson Picture Mate Deluxe. These picture printer companies claim that the photos printed will last for more than 100 years.

Now with this long life of pictures you can take the picture of your Grandma knitting your sweater. Then show it to your grandchildren when you tell them stories about your own grandma. Is there any better way to build your generations memoirs!

They are multifunctional and user friendly. Many users like Kodak picture printer for many reasons and one of them is their economical prices. It is one of the least expensive ones available on the market. Here is a list of the Kodak photo printer series.

One which many users like and recommend is the Easyshare G610 printer dock. They print good quality pictures and at a very good speed. So if you don’t like to wait for your prints this will just do it for you in 60 seconds. The pictures will not be damaged by water or fingerprints.

Then there is Easyshare Dock Series3. It can be used without a PC. Just connect your camera to the printer and print your favorite picture immediately. The pictures that you get are not just waterproof but they are also stain resistant. Now you can preserve your pictures for years to come without any worries. It has imagelink print system and PictBridge compatible device.

Then there is the Easyshare Printer Dock Plus Series 3. A good portable picture printer by Kodak features many new technological stuff in it. It is the advanced version of the Easyshare Printer Dock Series 3. So it will have most of its features and much more than that. Being portable makes it wireless capable. It has Bluetooth and is Wi-Fi capable. It can be used even without being connected to a PC.

With just a touch of the button you can transfer your pictures to the PC and arrange it to your required size and print. It prints up to 4 different picture sizes. It even reduces the red eyes in the pictures. So you can have a natural picture. And like the Printer Dock Series this printer also has the Imagelink print system and PictBridge.

The EasyShare G600 Printer Dock is one of the best in the Kodak series! It is easy to use, easy to carry and prints very good quality prints. It’s so easy to use and user friendly that with just one touch of the button your picture is printed. With a 60 second printing speed it makes wait times seem like nothing. The photos are brighter and the red eyes which you get in many photos from other picture printer are reduced in the prints.

When you are in the market to buy a picture printer, I highly recommend checking out Kodak Printers.

Generally when we need picture printers for a very good quality picture we use the special picture printers. These printers are capable of printing pictures only. They are designed with a technology known as die-sublimation. That was a big draw back as one cannot print text documents in these printers. That means you require another print for a text printing. Many users don’t like the idea of having two different printers.

The photo smart inkjet printers were basically printers to print text. They did print pictures as well but the pictures were not of that good quality. They could print pictures because the companies increased the resolution of the printer. And that is how they could print pictures.

The Epson Stylus Pro 4800 is a new printer which has all the features of a photo printer. It even has 8 color cartridges like other color printers to give good quality pictures. However instead of die sublimation technology it uses inkjet technology in its printer. So you can even print black and white text documents in this printer.

Knowing the technical details is quite important when buying a good printer. So here are the technical details of Epson Stylus Pro 4800. It has a maximum resolution of 2880 x 1440 with 3.5 picoliter drop size. Has a printing speed of 50 seconds for 8 x 10 inch prints. It is compatible with both PC as well as Mac and has USB and FireWire interfaces. It is 17” wide and can support any media type. The UltraChrome K3 ink gives excellent color quality and is scratch resistant.

There are some other features of this photo printer which you should know. It supports 4 different ways to load media. It has a good capacity for papers in paper tray and it even cuts the sheets up to 17 x 22. The printer has automatic head cleaner and head alignment technology.

When you buy this printer, the 8 color cartridges are included in it. The printer has 3 level black inks set which enhances the quality of the black and white prints as well as delivers high quality text documents.

This way you can get dual benefits from a single printer, the picture quality of the picture printer and the text printing of the inkjet printer. The only issue with this is the price of this printer that comes for $1900!!

The CD-200 Canon has a compact flash disk slot which can identify images from cameras, TV, VCR, DVD and virtually any device. That is why it has been named CD photo printer. They are compatible with older version on windows like Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Mac.

It can print on a 4 x 6 sheet, glossy paper and sticker sheets. It has die sublimation technology. This technology is the reason why a photo printer gives better pictures than inkjet printers. The printing capability with the resolution of 288 x 144 dpi and 24-bit color gives very good quality pictures.

Then there is the Canon PIXMA series of picture printers. The Pixma series of canon are the printers preferred by many Canon users. The Canon PIXMA delivers good quality prints and is priced way less than its competitor Epson. Other than the good quality, price has played an important role in the sale of Canon Pixma.

The newer versions are compact and print very good quality pictures. They have a resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi. They can print directly either from the camera or by USB. Not all but most of the PIXMA printers have a USB card slot in it. So you can print the pictures without computers.

Canon PIXMA IP6600D is the new addition to the Pixma series. It can be used without a PC too. You can print pictures from the PC or from the camera. It also has wireless technology making it a wifi printer as well. You can even edit your pictures to make them look prefect like professionals. It reduces red eyes, has facilities to correct image, crop the image or make any other corrections. This picture printer even has chrome life system with which keeps your pictures intact for years.

Another good one in the Canon PIXMA series is Canon Pixma IP8500. Along with printing great photos it does it at high speed. But this one does not have the media card slot in it. So you can’t print pictures from the memory card. This is one thing which keeps many buyers from buying this printer

There are many more in Canon series like Canon Slephy DS700 and a few more. But you have some of the best ones to choose from. Go get your picture printer today.