Color Laser Recommendations

[mgraham]

We're looking for a good, dare I say great Hi-Res Color Laser printer for home use.

I have a scanner that can read film negatives at 2400dpi and am looking for an output device that can do these photos justice.

Thanks in advance.

 

[FaiTHLeSS]

A good colour laser for home use, it will cost alot of money not just 100's but into the 1000's you would be better off just get a high quality ink jet printer and using some sort of photographic paper. But if you want a really high quality print out go with something from xerox or lexmark.

 

[kiddpete]

I saw a few favorable reviews for the 'Minolta QMS Magicolor 2300 DL Color Laser Printer', but Amazon has some reviews that say photo quality is not great. It goes for about $800. If you want a photo printer, laser is not the way to go. You can get an Epson 2200 for about the same price, and it is reported to be outstanding. If you want a good general purpose color laser, the Magicolor would probably be a good choice.

 

[Engleberth]

Give more weight to a personal recomendation that to a review. The QMS Magicolor 330 got raving reviews & voted the MAC best printer awards .... who voted you ask cos it was not the users or the bulk of them anyway. The review came out before many machines had hit the field and 95% of people I've spoken to disagreed with the review rating & the actual machine operation. The Moral is reviews are worth Jack - anyone can ensure a machine gets a good review.

 

[nicksims]

Here is my "personal recommendation." I agree with the non-laser route. We have an HP 4550 color laser. Pretty good at first. Forgetting about maintenance, the pictures were pretty decent. Then we just picked up a Xerox 8400. I can't vouch for volume yet, but I can say it is much faster and more accurate in handling paper (as well as thicknesses, styles and dimensions). The color matching and sharp images were a huge jump in quality.

The laser has been demoted to back-up and definitely not used for certain projects. I have too many opinions on the wonderful upgrade to the Xerox, so I'll hold back.

Nick

 

[bisawest]

All though ink for the xerox (solid ink blocks) is expensive, the machine is much cheaper to operate from a consumables stand point. I would also agree to better images, although... solid ink is not "fused" to the paper like in a laser, so it is possible to scrape it off the paper ( with some effort) Not sure about how it would act with photo paper. Definately try that before you buy. My company allows potential buyers to "demo" a printer for a certain amount of time, to see if they would like to buy it. Maybe somebody in your area would allow you to do this, so you could put the machine through some good tests. I hope this helps. Have a nice day!!!

 

[nicksims]

I agree with what bisawest added. The ink is not cheap- we definitely have to shell out some cash to keep backup sticks in stock. But, fewer major cash parts to replace. And not as hot as the laser's fuser (so no curling of the pages as often happens with our laser).

As for the glossy papers- well we are still experimenting with what works best. And yes, you can, sometimes, scrape the ink. But for most papers, I've found you have to try pretty hard.

Can you tell we are much happier with this printer? We've had it for about 4-5 months now.

Nick

 

[XeroxTech]

If you print quite abit (1500+) pages a month you can get the 8400 from Xerox for free. They have a program.

http://www.freecolorprinters.com

 

[printerman]

for easy of parts, I suggest a Lexmark or HP..although HP does not have true PostScript..2400dpi, your looking at high end colour lasers, with optional 2400dpi. For regular home use, its hard to justify huge expense. As someone mentioned earlier, a good quality ink with coated paper, maybe cheaper for you. Usually the inkjets can be refilled with water based ink. The separate printheads have to be HP. Good luck!

Roy Hanson
Technical Support
eco-toner systems, inc.
London, ontario, Canada
printerman@isp.ca