OT: recommendations for laser colour printers

I need to buy a laser colour printer with duplex and a network connection; it will be for home and light business use. Any suggestions of which to avoid and which to look at? Are laser photo prints any good?

Dave

Reply to
NoSpam
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Can't give you any recommendations but before you buy check out the possible options for refillable/reconditioned toner.

These are not available for all printers at competitive prices

tim

Reply to
tim....

get a secondhand pro one. And the get it competently serviced. Ricoh pretty good.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

And don't be tempted to use 3rd party colour toner. Or you may end up with and expensive bill. DAMHIKT.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Well, not that it does the duplex thing, but it has network capability which is very useful:

Hewlett Packard CP1515n

I would recommend you check out HP products to see if they will do, the prints of pictures are, to me, really rather good indeed. They are not as good as a 'proper' photo printer (naturally), but for most situations, they are fine. Of course, like all things digital, the better the source file, the better the end result.

Reply to
David Paste

As already suggested, a reconditioned professional printer. They are faster and rather more likely to have recycled cartridges available for them.

The colour is good for non-critical applications but, even using special laser photo paper, four colour printing is never going to be as good as the six or more in dedicated photo printers.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

I have a Samsung CLP 310 series printer and have no problems with it. It prints really well on quality hi-white paper but don't try to use glossy or photo paper on it - lasers generally don't like it. My wife prints photos on ordinary paper and then laminates them. A full set of toners (1 high cap black and 3 ordinary colours) will set you back just under £100 from Amazon but they do last well. It doesn't do duplex internally but it is easy enough to push a pile of paper through twice. Shop around, Amazon are good but there are a few good specialist suppliers out there - Printerland come to mind.

Lawrence

Reply to
Lawrence

I got a Dell 5100cn from FleaBay, and it's very good ( but bulky).

Has duplexer,and ethernet connectivity.

I did just replace the toner with non-dell, we'll see how that goes.

No, laser not great as photo printer. Colours flat and dull. But then I don't miss wasting half an ink cartridge trying to clean the blasted nozzles.

Take the photos to boots etc for printing.

See also:

formatting link

Reply to
Ron Lowe

These are more for documents than photis, but you may be happy with photos.

I noticed this one on HUKD that may be just what you want:

formatting link
is included. Cashback deal from HP until 31 Jan, so you'll need to get your skates on.

Reply to
GB

Yes, I've heard good things about the 1515n but duplex is a "must have"

- I'll explore further.

Reply to
NoSpam

Do the laminated laser photos look reasonable? good enough to stick in an album or frame?

Reply to
NoSpam

(that link is very good)

Reply to
NoSpam

I'll second that. The wife and kids gave me a CLP-310n for Christmas before last. It's been unobtrusively effective ever since. The n is the networked version - worth it.

As is common, the supplied toner cartridges are skimpy ones, but the proper "full" sort are OK. It's not cheap to run - colour printing isn't, really. What it's really good at is not being used for a week or two and not drying up in the meantime.

Reply to
Skipweasel

Thanks. That's interesting but the price has gone up and it doesn't have brilliant reviews.

Reply to
NoSpam

Oh yeah, I wasn't recommending the 1515 for you - duplex, etc, just recommending the brand. I forgot to mention that I worked out that colour prints cost in the region of 6p per page, and as others have said, the sheer joy of not having an ink cartridge to fleece your wallet every now and then is almost religious.

As for laminates in a picture frame... well, if I were to put them in a frame, I wouldn't laminate it, and for run-of-the-mill images, this could be OK. Due to the nature of the toner, the finish is sort of 'shiny eggshell'!

But for quality prints, as another poster says, get them done properly by a photo printer.

Reply to
David Paste

For any volume of printing then the Richo alfico range are quite good (and cheaper to run per page). Often available second hand. They also tend to get rebadged under various resellers brands like Infotec.

For small cheap and disposable, then some of the samsung ones - but only for low volumes.

Most are good enough for estate agency type prints - i.e. a bit better than newspaper colour photos - but not glossy etc unless you go for one of the very posh ones with oil and lacquer finishing capabilities. Even then they are still not as good as a good inkjet of dye sub etc.

Reply to
John Rumm

Two lasers. One B&W, one colour. The consumables cost and the reliability (mostly reliability) still favours B&W.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Ditto about laminating laser prints; not exhibition quality but surprisingly good, also cheap and durable. I have a Dell 1320c; very cheap network printer (but manual duplex).

Reply to
newshound

Well, buying the original toner can leave you with a large bill....

Compatible toner cartridges for our (cheapy admittedly) Dell 1320cn are about 1/5 - 1/4 the price of the Dell ones (and the prints are fine). It'd be cheaper to buy compatibles and a new printer than to buy Dell ones.

Reply to
chris French

Skipweasel :

I second that last point. As a rather occasional user of colour, after years of frustration with dried-up ink cartridges I bought a Konica Minolta 2400W laser. It's still working well on the original toner after five years.

Reply to
Mike Barnes

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