can anyone recommend a good photo printer in the $300 price range?

I want high resolution...speed and versatility is secondary.

 

I have the Epson Stylus Photo 785EPX. Not exactly an expensive printer ($150) but its the best photo printer I've found around that price. Resolution is printed at 1440 dpi, speed is decent unless your printing a page-sized photo on max resolution. Black looks a little discolored when printing photos, but otherwise doesn't bother me much.

 

My gf has bought this printer by Lexmark, it was about $120. We asked one of the workers in there and he swears that this is the best quality photo printer they carry. Then I asked why would Canon charge $400 for their printer over there and Lexmark charge $120 for one that's even better. He then said, it's just the brand...the guy lectured us about printers some more blah blah blah. He sounded like he knows printers, so my gf bought it a week later. I saw some samples and that printer kicks a** for such a cheap price!

 

ok, I'm getting into the tech details of it here, but if I'm going after best resolution/print quality, should I be looking at the printer with the best resulotion (2440x1440, etc.), number of inks, ink drop size (ex: 4 picoliters), or what?

 

If you're going to get into that level of detail, you need to tell us for what purpose you will be using this printer. If you're just going to use it to print the occational digital photo, you'll be more than happy with any of the sub-$300 printers from Epson, Canon, or Lexmark. For this kind of use, 1440x720 resolution is indistinguishable from the 2440x1440.

If you're going to be using the printer for professional output (possibly for sale) then you'd want to look at print life as well, and I believe that Epson has the distinct advantage in that area, though their best long-life printers are above your $300 limit, but not by much.

 

yeah, even though its for home/personal use, I am pretty picky about details. For instance, if I want to print an 8x10 color photo, had have it indistinguishable from an 8x10 I had developed in a photo lab, I suppose I'd have to get a pretty high quality printer.

I saw that Epson has one that prints 5400x720 (or something like that)...I've never seen a printer in the 5000's range for resolution. Is it really that much better than the 1440 or even the 2400?

 

Read Review in latest PC Mag

 

Epson's the way to go for color photo printers. You should PM RHES2K. Je works for Epson and can tell you all about their different printers.

 

I agree with the above post. If you are looking in that price range I would look at the Epson Photo printers. I have had a couple Epsons and have no complaints. The HP inkjets are pretty good also.

 

You mentioned photo printers. Have you looked at dye subs? I think Olympus has some dedicate dye sub photo printers. Sony has a model too, I think.