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Bob Morales posted:
Absolutely real, and apparently it's easiest to do on Epson printers. I've looked into it, and every time, I just decide to continue on with lasers only. Even with my wife being a photographer, it's simply cheaper for her to order prints from labs than to maintain her own printer, and she has no need for being able to print a photo instantly. Plus, the pro labs offer options no inkjet can, like metallic prints. On that note, I've also been very happy with Brother lasers. I'm on my third now - I started with a HL1440 that I got for dirt cheap due to finagling some combination of employee discount and customer offers. I hammered the hell out of it and somewhere around the third toner replacement it started putting gray lines all over the page, and a new drum didn't fix it. The rest of the printer still works fine, and my mom still has it just for printing out things she doesn't care about. I replaced it with a refurb HL5240, because it was simply cheaper to do that than to keep playing find-the-broken-part on the HL1440. I've had it a bit over two years, and in that time never managed to actually use up the starter toner. The only reason I've just replaced the HL5240 is because my wife does need to be able to print out advertising / other materials in color, and copy shops still charge an arm and a leg to do it. So we picked up a HL3040CN. Assuming I get 1000 pages out of the starter toners (they're rated more like 1500, and I've found Brother to be conservative), I could throw the whole fucker away and still pay less than I would have at Kinkos to print. It's the first networked printer I've ever had...the 1440 and 5240 I had shared via a Linux server and CUPS (by the way, Brother has awesome Linux support). I didn't bother going for wireless because my printer sits a foot above my router / cable modem / switch pile. Print quality is great, and photos are actually remarkably good; nothing I'd frame or anything like that, but great for flyers / handouts. The only downside to it is nobody seems to make remanned toners for it...yet. There are refill kits, though. If they work out, a very conservative price per page would be $50 for 2000 pages.
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Apr 18, 2010 08:46
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I think a color laser AIW - if such a beast actually exists - is going to be pretty large. Partly because such a device would essentially be a low-end color copier. The HL-3040CN I bought is a decent bit larger than the 5240 it replaced, which is considerably larger than any of the modern compact lasers like the 2140/2170.
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Apr 19, 2010 03:15
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Are the mailings heavily photo based or are they more line-art and graphics with light amounts of photographs? If it's the latter, bite the bullet and get a color laser. Even with a CIS you have to use the gently caress out of an inkjet to keep the heads from drying up and becoming trash, and the chassis itself won't stand up to that kind of abuse.
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Jul 14, 2010 00:03
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Landerig posted:Color might be an issue, but I may be able to live without it. I guess if I really needed a color photo I'd go to a printing place. This is the number one thing to remind yourself. It's actually cheaper, especially for 4x6s. Are you dead set on getting a multifunction? You should be able to pick up a decent separate scanner and printer for even less than the $200 all-in-one.
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Sep 29, 2010 17:17
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TomWaitsForNoMan posted:Thanks, any recommendations? I like my HL3040CN a lot. The only people who can call an inkjet a 'value' proposition are the pro photographers who need direct control over their printing process first, photo quality second, and price per print a distant third. Even with a CIS, it won't approach the price per print of a color laser, and if you ever have the printer go idle for a long time you'll burn a lot of that ink up. A color laser can sit idle as long as you want and come right back every time. Avocadoes: Unless the toner in the 2170W is unusually small, you're probably up for at least another ~500-1000 pages.
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Jun 14, 2011 21:08
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Color non-Brother toner cartridges seem to be relatively rare and don't seem to cost any less than the $50/cart you can get them for at Amazon. With as much as I spent on / like my HL3040CN and as relatively cheap a $50 cartridge is for the printing I do, I just bite the bullet and buy OEM ones.
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Feb 16, 2012 22:52
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Are we talking about line art illustrations? Any laser should wipe the floor with that Canon. Also, I had a 6700. Loved it but that and the 6600 seemed to be Canon's bastard child line, never as much support or love as the higher or lower end printers.
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Feb 22, 2012 17:16
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I have the 3040CN, which is that minus wireless (I do now wish I had the wireless version, but a WRT54G fixed that up). Print quality and speed is nice, and the color looks drat good for anything that isn't a photo. Photos are alright to look at but they don't hold a candle to anything you're going to get from an inkjet or an actual lab. The toners seem remarkably small, or at least the starter toners do. I'm only at 1117 pages on mine (723 color / 394 monochrome), and I've had to replace the black toner (went 'low' at page 650, replaced at page 992) and the yellow toner has been low since page 799. Magenta just kicked over a low alert at 1074. On the plus side, it looks like remanufactured toners (as opposed to refill kits) are finally widely available and dirt goddamn cheap. I bought Brother toners for the black and yellow because at the time, refills were also nearly $50 each.
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Jul 24, 2012 00:01
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Nostalgia4Dicks posted:But most importantly I want something that doesn't gauge you on ink so horribly. That's where they all make their money, so no, that doesn't exist. Unless you are printing photos all of the time you will come out way, way ahead by buying a B&W laser and having literally anyone print your photos for you.
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Jan 22, 2015 23:42
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You don't want an inkjet, you want a laser. Seriously.
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Mar 4, 2015 21:47
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Ink for all inkjets is roughly equally expensive, so we go back to the classic "how often do you need to print in color"? Color lasers are an option if you don't care about perfect photo reproduction, and they're slowly getting cheaper. Still more spendy to buy / feed than a B&W laser, but still much cheaper long-term than almost any inkjet. If you do care about printing photos, unless you have a legit business need to print your own in-house, you will really come out ahead sending them to a lab (anything from Walmart to WHCC is still going to be cheaper than running an inkjet, with better results).
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Mar 5, 2015 00:49
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How important is the photo quality on the printouts? Are you expecting to use photo paper and get something at least passable as an actual photo print, or does it just need to be an image on regular paper? I've got a Brother HL3040CN, I'm sure there are newer versions of it out there. Works well enough and I think I might still be on the original magenta toner. But you'll never mistake its output for a photo printer when you print an image. If you need proper photos, you might be happier just getting a monochrome laser and paying to print photos at a local store.
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Jan 24, 2016 16:07
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vivisecting posted:If I don't buy a colour printer, my parents will nag me: "you just bought a printer, what kind of printer doesn't have colour?? Why won't you print our photos? After everything we've done for you..." Also my niece likes to print off dress up dolls and whatever. I was going to say "a printer that costs less than half the price" but wow, that printer (on Amazon US, at least) is about a third less than what I paid for my HL3040CN, which lacks the duplex and wireless. Clearly the color lasers are starting to get down in price.
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Jan 25, 2016 01:30
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Seems like those EcoTank printers help keep the cost of ink sane, but I don't think they'll solve:spog posted:Fed up with: blocked nozzles Isn't that just a reality of low print loads on inkjet printers? I mean I guess with cheap ink you can just run more clean cycles, but still. I'm overall happy with my HL3040CN, though honestly we so rarely actually need the color of it that I wish I had a smaller B&W instead. The color is nice to have but you'll never mistake it for a photo printer. 99% of what I print with it these days is shipping labels, so it is extreme overkill anyway.
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Oct 11, 2016 22:47
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