New Printer Reqd - Suggestions?

[james4eva]

Hey guys, my printer has expired so I'm looking for a new one.

I don't want to pay a lot and I'd like one that takes compatible inks (again to save money).

I want one that prints directly onto discs (and if it were a scanner too it would be a bonus!)

Any suggestions?

I've looked at the Epson R220 which seems a good buy, pity it isn't a scanner too.

Thanks.

[gregtherotterius]

Go for the latest R240, it looks exactly like my R340. :bigsmile:
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/99634
Also SVP has a Continuous ink system for the epson R series, that I plan to get as soon as Im done with with regular inks.
http://svp.co.uk/products-solo.php?pid=1171 Hopefully they will be getting more in.

They've fixed any problems with the cd tray as far as I can see. The only difference between the 240 and 340 is that the 340 takes 6 inks instead of 4 like the 240. Obviously you save money by having to replace less inks.

The R240 does also a max 19ppm while the 340 does 15 ppm. Not surprising really as its more of a photo/dvd disc printer than an office printer in my case, and obviously its using more inks.

The resolutions are also the same.

I got some 5 by 7 premium photo paper a month ago as epson had just started producing this size and it came with buy 1 pack of 50 sheets get one free, I got it from pixmania.co.uk. The quality is very good.

Some might not like the basic software that it comes with for printing cd's but its fine for me. I just edit my picture in photoshop, crop it, and then fit it to size in the epson program. Stupidly enough, when I got it, I didnt realise that in the Inner/Outer settings for where the printer was meant to stop printing onto the cd, I didnt realise that you had to measure the <<<<the hole in the centres diametre>>> even though it does say 'diametre' lol, and for the outer settings, to measure the width of the entire discs side to side's, printable diametre. Doh. Got it working now of course. And of course you can save your settings for different printable disc inner/outters.

Another cool feature if you want to use this as a photo printer and not only for a4 printing and cd printing, is the expansion slots. You can even plug in a usb memory stick and use the display to choose colour saturation etc.

Well hope that helped.

And what do you use a scanner for anyway?? I suppose you cant compare a 5mp digital camera to a amazing scanner, but whenever I back up my dvd's I just use good lighting conditions and my digital camera to make a cover, it works well, alot better than downloading the cover.

[Dismembered_Ninja]

You could try the Epson RX420, Canon MP500 or the HP Photosmart 2575 if you wanted a scanner on it. You would probably be happy with all of the above.

Epson R220 is better than the R240 for the simple reason of it having 6 inks rather than the 4. Gives a much rounder colour spectrum if you are going to print photo's.

[FreqNasty]

Canon IP4200 or IP 5200. Both are excellent and use 5 individual ink tanks. If you want 8 inks then get the Canon IP8500 but it is quite a bit more expensive. The Canon MP830 has printing (including discs), scanning, copying and faxing

The Epson R250 or R350 are good. The Epson R800 has 8 ink tanks, but again, you pay a premium for it.

[james4eva]

And what do you use a scanner for anyway??

Thanks for the replies guys, I'll check them suggestions out, and greg, the scanner bit is just for every so often, such as scanning old photos to print out or save to disc etc etc.

Edit: Checked out all the above but unfortunately it appears as though none can both scan AND print to CD (except the MP500 which is a little more than I really want to pay :)).

[gregtherotterius]

seriously man, get a cheap scanner off ebay, heck I want to get rid of my scanner as it doesnt scan black and white negatives well enough for me. I mean I know its not convenient space wise, but if it's only for once in a while, I'd just get a cheap scanner and a good printer.

[JayC30]

greg the R240 does not have the ability to print on discs. Epson is phasing the ones that do out, therefore james you will be lucky to find an epson with that ability. My friend and I got the last 2 in Manchester and even SVP no longer has them.

EDIT: Just checked on the epson site the R340 still has the ability to print on dicsc, it will be a tad more expensive thought than the R220. After checking it looks like £150 is the average price for a R340.

R220 still available on Currys website.

[gregtherotterius]

WTF?? ROFL omg that sucks. soz about the mistake.

[JayC30]

I didn't know it didn't have the facility until I saw one in the shop and had a closer look at it. They most probably got fed up of people getting intouch over problems with it as it is entry level photo printer and decided to change it and leave it in the more expensive models.

[james4eva]

Cheers greg/JayC, I might go for the R220 as I have seen it like you say in Currys and possibly PC World.

The comp inks are cheap too.

BTW, I found the MP500 for a little over £100 but the price of ink is phenomenal, no compats that I can find!