Chuck talked about cameras and how to buy a camera, in previous posts. I’d like to talk about printers, and in particular, printers that are good in rendering photos. There are different types of printers, such as Inkjet, Dye Sublimation, and Desktop Photo Labs. For our purposes, let’s discuss inkjet printers.
Inkjet printers have come a long way since they were first introduced. Not only has the quality gotten better, but prices have decreased. Last year, dye sublimation snapshot printers were all the rage. Now, the emphasis is on archival quality prints.
How do you go about choosing a printer that is right for you? The first step is to decide what you will do with the finished prints that you make at home, on your photo printer, or if you even want to be bothered to print photos at home. You will save some money by printing yourself, but many times problems with printer or computer settings, not having enough ink, and color differences between monitor and printer will nearly drive you to drink.
Not to mention having problems downloading photos to your computer, resizing photos, and the overall time consumption involved. But considering the fact that you don’t have to buy film, pay for film processing and go pick up the photos from the local photo store, you do actually have the time to print your own photos, if you want to.
What size photos will you be working with? If you are using small pictures in a photo album, you don’t need a printer that will print 16 x 20 prints. If you will be printing poster size prints, you will need a really good photo printer, and an expensive 8 MP or better camera.
Do you want to be able to print on location? If so, you will need a printer that can print from your memory card and/or your laptop computer, with a cigarette lighter power source. If you have a desktop computer, you may prefer to have a larger printer right next to the computer so you can print photos and other office papers.
What brand name photo printer should I get? I can’t answer that one for you, since it is very much a personal choice. But I can tell you that Hewlett Packard (HP), has 9,000 patents related to imaging and printing. I’ve said before that I like Epson. Some other companies that manufacture printers are: Panasonic, Sony Electonics, Dell, Olympus, Fuji, and Kodak, among others.
Here is an excellent article on choosing a printer, and the difference between the types of printers available.