Recommend Colour Laser Printer for photos

blazerdc78 · 28th June 2003

Hi all,
thinking of sourcing for a colour laser for printing photos. Need advice. Anyone has any experience in this. Looking for 1 that is low in terms of unit cost per page (taking into account the toner and drum unit)
Is there any websites that I can refer to. How much will the printer, toner and drum cost? Many thanks.

Wai · 28th June 2003

A4? A3? low end? high end?

quality of color laser on plain paper can match inkjet on coated paper, and water proof too!

but for best quality, inkjet + good glossy/matt photo paper still the better than color laser

blazerdc78 · 28th June 2003

Hi, thanks for your reply. A4. it will need to print a few hundreds over a few days. Looking in terms of keeping costs down in the long term. Do you know roughly how much it costs per A4? What will be considered high end? Any recommendations?

Wai · 28th June 2003

cheapest one is the latest HP 1500L, only got USB port, ram not upgradable, and it is a GDI printer, only <$1500

better one got TRUE PCL support and PS emulation

eg. HP 2500, it is networkable, u just neeed to plug in a print server card, ram is upgradable too but using 144pins notebook ram

high end one got True PCL support and True PS support

eg. HP 4600, got 2 paper tray + 1 manual tray...networkable and ram upgradable using 168pins SDRAM and very informative + interactive LCD screen with white backlit, most user friendly color laser printer i have ever tried, u can even install an harddisk so that u can store the print job in the hard disk....then u can print without using a computer

this 4600 also got a bigger brother...5500, which is a A3 printer

generally, HP laser are more ex...but print quality and color accuracy will blow any other brands into water (esp for photo). less consumable need to be replaced, and the build is SOLID...fast printing speed and fast startup time....

Xerox - color inaccurate, slow startup, slow printing and toners are VERY EXPENSIVE ($350+ for each color IIRC), Xerox printer is HUGE and damn heavy...almost break my table into half...lots of consumables such as fuser, imaging unit and toner

Epson & Minlota - based on same engine, toner is cheaper, but the color is fake + too high contrast.....good for printing drawings but not for photo becos the colour is too contrasty and fake. These two brand generally cheaper among the rest, speed is good too, but the printer is NOT user friendly and driver is very buggy

Lexmark - not very good after sales service from my experience, the technican tried to smoke his way thru when the printer got problems. quite bulky and toner is expensive....driver quite good but the front panel not very user friendly...the photo quality a bit washed out, printing speed is good but startup is slow

these are just my general impression of the printers from each brand...why not u tell me what are the brands that u are interested?

blazerdc78 · 28th June 2003

Hi Wai,
you got PM.

28th June 2003	#1
blazerdc78 New Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 4	Recommend Colour Laser Printer for photos Hi all, thinking of sourcing for a colour laser for printing photos. Need advice. Anyone has any experience in this. Looking for 1 that is low in terms of unit cost per page (taking into account the toner and drum unit) Is there any websites that I can refer to. How much will the printer, toner and drum cost? Many thanks.

28th June 2003	#2
Wai Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: South Pole with Penguins Posts: 5,122	A4? A3? low end? high end? quality of color laser on plain paper can match inkjet on coated paper, and water proof too! but for best quality, inkjet + good glossy/matt photo paper still the better than color laser __________________ We are HDD of PC & FT are MB add to storage; so PC never hangs with enormous storage capacity - LKY Last edited by Wai; 28th June 2003 at 01:27 AM.

28th June 2003	#4
Wai Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: South Pole with Penguins Posts: 5,122	cheapest one is the latest HP 1500L, only got USB port, ram not upgradable, and it is a GDI printer, only <$1500 better one got TRUE PCL support and PS emulation eg. HP 2500, it is networkable, u just neeed to plug in a print server card, ram is upgradable too but using 144pins notebook ram high end one got True PCL support and True PS support eg. HP 4600, got 2 paper tray + 1 manual tray...networkable and ram upgradable using 168pins SDRAM and very informative + interactive LCD screen with white backlit, most user friendly color laser printer i have ever tried, u can even install an harddisk so that u can store the print job in the hard disk....then u can print without using a computer this 4600 also got a bigger brother...5500, which is a A3 printer generally, HP laser are more ex...but print quality and color accuracy will blow any other brands into water (esp for photo). less consumable need to be replaced, and the build is SOLID...fast printing speed and fast startup time.... Xerox - color inaccurate, slow startup, slow printing and toners are VERY EXPENSIVE ($350+ for each color IIRC), Xerox printer is HUGE and damn heavy...almost break my table into half...lots of consumables such as fuser, imaging unit and toner Epson & Minlota - based on same engine, toner is cheaper, but the color is fake + too high contrast.....good for printing drawings but not for photo becos the colour is too contrasty and fake. These two brand generally cheaper among the rest, speed is good too, but the printer is NOT user friendly and driver is very buggy Lexmark - not very good after sales service from my experience, the technican tried to smoke his way thru when the printer got problems. quite bulky and toner is expensive....driver quite good but the front panel not very user friendly...the photo quality a bit washed out, printing speed is good but startup is slow these are just my general impression of the printers from each brand...why not u tell me what are the brands that u are interested? Last edited by Wai; 28th June 2003 at 02:28 AM.