Now that I see the prices, I think I'll vegitate in front of a computer while I wait for prints. If I need immediate 4x6s or an 8x12s (if I can fit it), I'll use my Photosmart 3210 AiO. Just mess with the settings a bit, and drain the tiny ink cartridges.

You can get a nice printer for proofing out and stuff for less than $100.00. I have two Canons and the only reason I have them is because of special needs that a commercial printer can't meet. Lacking that, I would go with a commercial printer, have a printer for kicking out gifts and 'give aways' and proofing.

You can get a monolight, or a nice lens, or a weekend at some place you want to photograph for the price of really decent printer. Inks? Non-trivial. Paper? Ouch! Time spent color manageing so that what you see on the screen is pretty close to what you get from the printer so you don't have to make adjustments and print again (serious money there)? Again non-trivial.

If it wasn't for the fact that I can make my printers pay for themselve, I wouldn't own either of them. One little proof printer and send the other stuff out.

Yeah, I'll look into mpix. Looks like a pretty interesting print site, cheap too.

Question on both of those websites mentioned:
Do the prices include the shipping? I didn't know how to find out besides placing an order!

No, the prices don't generally include the shipping costs. I think you need to place the items in your shopping cart to find out what shipping will be, as its dependant on the weight/type of items being shipped.

Heather, if you are referring to mpix, their shipping prices are here: http://mpix.com/about/Shipping.aspx

If you are talking about the ink suppliers, I'm not sure. If you tell me what sites you are reeferring to, I will find out for you.


Hope this helps.

I just recently used Mpix for the first time, really the first time ever getting my photos printed to be honest. The quality is really great, and super fast turnaround time. I ordered Friday night and got the package Tuesday morning via the 10.95 fedex next day or whatever it is. I too contemplated purchasing a printer, but after seeing the results, chose not to invest when I can just as easily send out my photos and have them back in a matter of days without having to worry about storing paper, cutting, or anything like that.

Also, as a sidenote, I did a lil experiment. I usually color correct all my photos regardless, but I wanted to see how mpix's color correction would work. So i ordered the non color correction prints as well as the color correction prints to see the difference. The images I did myself in CS4, corrected to my eye, turned out identical to the ones that they corrected. However, this takes time to do, so I also tried ones that I didn't color correct myself and had them do it and also got ones printed without their correction and i was impressed with the results. The photos all turned out great, and their color correction is included in teh cost if you use the non standard paper, and saves time in post.

I don't have much experience with other printers, but I do know that mpix is good. The very first thing I ordered from them was a 10x20 image matted on foam core with metallic paper and lustre and it was BEAUTIFUL. Very good packaging, crystal clear images, just perfect!

mpix also offers a calibration photo on cd and the printed image for like $3.00 so you can calibrate your monitor to their printers if you choose to do your own color correction, or even so you can just know that what you are seeing is the right color. I have yet to calibrate it as i'm buying a new monitor in a few days there is really no point.

Sorry for the confusion Chuck. Was talking about sites like mpix Thanks!

I really like my HP 8850. prints up to 13x19. colors are great. print speed is fast enough. handles small papers well. The price was pretty good, too. I think about $350 or $400 straight from HP (they shipped overnight for free). Only issue is that getting a printer that prints up to 13x19 ...it's huge. takes up 1/3 of my desk.

I have an Epson stylus Photo 1400 ($189.00 via Amazon at the time with free shipping) which has 6 cartridges handles up to 13" x 19" format and received a very nice review for a very inexpensive printer.

http://www.macworld.com/article/58913/2 ... n1400.html

I then bought a NEW DYE INK CISS CIS ink SYSTEM For Epson Photo 1400 on eBay for $40 and refill myself, http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0505268933 (my purchase)this works out really well.