I am not a expert in printers. As a IT person i am required to hate them
I do proffesional photography. Sometimes i need to print my photographs. I usualy have it done via a friend of mine who runs a print shop and gets me some amazing looking photographs for cheap.
I am not looking for something for pro use. I want something to print and fill my photo frames. I want 2 printers
A4 desktop printer for photos. Print speed does not matter. Quality and reliabilty does. I also want something with cheap ink (not ink cartriges) to save on printing. Can be anything really. Bellow 500$
Small photo printer. I used a xiaomi ZINK one for some time before giving it because i didn't like how small the photos were. Is there a canon one that works with 10x15cm photos? It does not have to be portable but compact. And if it does not exist then maybe i will just stick to one desktop printer.
Videos
I want to print a bunch of photos to make photo albums. Physical albums feel different than just posting my pictures somewhere online. I've tried printing photos from my regular printer onto 4x6 glossy photo paper and it's been turning out hot garbage. I have a Canon Selphy printer but I usually use that as a gimmicky thing for parties to have photos On Demand along with my Polaroid. It costs me like 50 cents per print on the Selphy, which is kinda pricey for me.
I'm aiming to spend around <$200. Does anybody have any recommendations for a printer to just print small 4x6 sized print photos? Is it just economical to go to an online service like Amazon Prints or a store like CVS to print photos?
The only printer I would ever buy again is an epson ecotank one. They start at about $250 but the only one I have is about $400. There is no cartages and the ink lasts forever. Epson cant sell their printers for cheap and then make up the extra money by charging for cartridges that have DRM and lock up your printer once they pretended to be empty like other brands do. If epson ink is too expinsive you can just pour some cannon ink in there. I love this thing. It costs me $0.09 per 4x6 including cheap paper. At Walgreens it costs me $0.35 for the first 100 4x6s. Cannon also makes an ink tank printer. The brand is not important. Also the prints are fine. For $200 you are not going to find many printers that print much better than others.
It's probably better to use a service than to get an inkjet printer unless you plan to print regularly, since inkjets clog if you don't use them.
I love my Canon Pixma Pro-100, and I think it cost me (net) $100 after an insane mail-in rebate offer, which happens with the Pro-100. But it's probably massive overkill for what you want to do. It's a huge beast (prints up to 13"x19"), weighs 40 lbs., and the OEM ink set of 8 cartridges is about $100 (I use cheaper 3rd-party refill inks). But it does make very pretty prints to hang on the wall. Also, there's now a Pro-200. :)