Printer/Scanner Questions

[Chainsaw_Willie]

Looking for advice on what photo-quality printer and what flatbed scanner to buy.

HP makes an "all-in-one" device that has the scanner and printer as one unit (Photosmart 2575) which would be nice, but I bought one from Costco, tried it out and got light lines through all the prints so took it back. If it was just that one unit that was defective I'd try it again... How is HP's reliability?

Had an Epson Stylus C80 that was a pain in the ass because the print heads would clog up and you'd use half a cartridge trying to unclog them and it didn't last very long, maybe two reams of paper before the print heads wouldn't align properly any more and high res photos would get lines through them.

Also had an Epson 1640 SU flatbed scanner that didn't last long either, maybe a few hundred scans over the 3 years I owned it before it started introducing neon pink and green lines into the scans.

Needless to say, I'm not real hot on Epson's products any more.

I have a lot of prints from film that I want to scan and really want a photo quality inkjet printer, but I'm not made of money either. Any suggestions welcome.

[Snow Dog]

Needless to say, I'm not real hot on Epson's products any more.

Needless to say, I'm not real hot on HP printers. The cartridges are expensive, all the colours come in one cartridge, and every printer uses a different cartridge so when your printer craps out you can't reuse the cartridge you just bought in your new printer. Some of the new cartridges have almost no ink (check the fine print).

I'm happy with my Epson C88 but I haven't had it very long.

[Chainsaw_Willie]

Epson's cartridges aren't expensive? The separate cartridges seemed like a good idea, and it was usually the black that ran out first making for cheaper replacement, but when all the colors ran out it got real pricey to replace them.

Anyway, if a new Epson device would fit the bill and give better service than the last two I had, I'm open to that.

Not sold on HP either. That's why I'm asking for opinions.

What about Canon or Lexmark???

Chalk up one vote for Epson.

Anyone have a printer and/or scanner they've had for awhile and gotten lots of use out of it and been real happy with it?

[mtbakerskier]

Rule number one, all in one fealios, dont do any of the three task well. In short they just suck all around.

2. Dont bother printing pics at home. It's more expensive, and the quality sucks. Take your digi files to a lab, its cheaper and hte quality is better.

3. Epson makes some realy good pritners, but they will bend you over backwards and fuck you in the ass when you have to buy ink. Coke would be cheaper. Canon and HP make some damn fine printers, and the ink is reasonable. I like canon.

4. Canon flat bed scaners are the best bang for the buck right now.

[Chainsaw_Willie]

Thanks mtbakerskier. I'll give the Canon offerings a closer look.