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I am unable to chose between the Cannon ip8500 & Epson R800 printers prints from both look excellent to me .One thing that I can’t compare is cost per A4 print. May I ask what is everyone’s experience as far as print costs are or would you prefer not to know Looking forward to your replies as print cost will persuade me and I need to settle my printer lust.

The Canon uses dye based inks vs. Epson's much longer lasting pigmented inks. Canon says "Canon's dye inks produce more vivid colours, reduced graininess and better contrast photo quality when compared with the flat and lack-lustre pigment-based inks used in some photo printers" but I don't believe the R800 or its big brother the R1800 are those "some printers" that they are refering to. The Epson's have 8 individual ink tanks and produce exquisite color. Of course I'm prejudiced, I have an R1800.

I think you'd get beautiful prints from either printer, but the Epson prints would last much longer.

Loz

I have the Canon ip8500 and love the quality of its prints. I've had it for several months and used it a lot. Trouble is it's next to impossible to tell you what it costs per print (my best guess is around $0.50 per A4) since the cartridges all run out at different times. I've yet to replace the green and only just replaced the red, but I've gone through 4 or 5 photo cyan and photo magenta in that tome. I suspect it's the same for the Epson.

Loz, I suspect Stubbsy is right about costs. I guessed my R310 was about a $1 per A4, the R1800 (identical to the R800 inside) is much better, but how much I don't know. Have a look for an online comparison as they will at least use the same methodology and print to compare (important as black is cheaper on the Epson, handy for my moon shots ).

Like Steve, my decision wasn't based on print costs as there is no clear winner here, but on longevity of prints. My thoughts were that if I was going to pay relatively big money for a printer (an R210 can be had for a bit over $200 and gives great A4 prints, my R1800 was over $1k), I wanted to be able to give the prints to people and not have them fade. So I went for what I thought was the best solution, not the most cost effective as the pricing is so close.

Is buying an R800/R1800 cost effective when compared to prints from a camera shop?

Do the camera shop prints have the long life of Epson's pigment inks?

Why is the sky blue?

Heath Bennett wrote:Is buying an R800/R1800 cost effective when compared to prints from a camera shop?

Do the camera shop prints have the long life of Epson's pigment inks?

Why is the sky blue?

It's depend on what and how do you want to print your photos, with A4, A3 or super A3 size, the cost of printing from your own printer is lot cheaper and you can manage, control them inhouse.

I tend to agree with Bird dog. From my experience it is around $1 per A4 sheet and between $2 and $3.30 per print in ink.

In Canberra at the moment A4 prints are $4 with classic colour printing technology.

The trouble is when they print at the lab they don't use the good paper that you can get from Ilford or others to use in your R800. They use a lighter weight.

The good thing about the lab colour prints is colour fastness is known. You have less risk giving a client a commercial print.

The R800 lets you do your prints any time and you have the added benifit of controlling brightness and contrast. I have found the labs print late afternoon shots way to light. Only you know the light conditions at the time of the shot.

24 cm of rain last night. Send more please.

Graham