Canon - PIXMA PRO-200

The post is nine months old. I have since bought a Canon Pro 200 printer, an eight-ink dye printer. Prints show no discernable grain structure whatsoever, they are every bit as smooth as the lab print. The printer is well supported by paper manufacturers, too, who all have ICC profiles for the Pro200. It prints well on both glossy and rag type papers (so long as they are coated, so photo papers only). The downside is that the ink cartridges are fairly small, and the printer runs a cleaning cycle if you don't print at least once every two weeks. The first set of inks will last me about one year, for about two A3 prints per month and various smaller prints. This is a very reasonable volume for me. Replacement ink sets run about €130.

You're asking about price per print, *including* the amortized cost of the printer. In the long run, ink and paper costs always dominate. Short term however, the price of the printer dominates. A more expensive printer, such as the Epson ET8550, will have very good long term cost, but the initial investment is steep. A less expensive printer, such as a Canon SELPHY, will have a modest initial price, but price per picture adds up much faster. The least expensive printer is Walgreen's, with no up-front cost, but high ongoing cost. A second consideration is quality. The more expensive the printer, the higher the print quality. The ET8550 will outperform Walgreens, producing richer colors and more detail. A professional printer such as the Canon Pro 1200, will be even better. The SELPHY does not match Walgreens. And then there's effort. Walgreens takes your JPEGs and prints them. SELPHY does, too. But a dedicated printer will require some fiddling with a computer to get good results. On the flip side, you get to play with various paper types and sizes. But make no mistake, this is extra effort. Personally, I went with a Canon Pro 200, which is roughly equivalent to the Epson ET8550, but cheaper to buy and more expensive to operate. It's all a matter of how much do you intend to print. I also have a much cheaper Epson XP8500, which prints better photos than the SELPHY, for less money, but can't match the Pro 200. I also have a SELPHY, which is nice for what it is, but can't match Walgreen. And I have an INSTAX printer, which fits in my pocket and prints adorable little polaroids. But quality can't match even the SELPHY. Depending on your needs, all of the mentioned printers are a good purchase. In your case, I'd probably recommend the Epson XP8800 as a cheap, good quality photo printer. You'll be able to buy six full ink replacements before you'll reach the cost of the ET8550, which should take several years. If you'd like to splurge, the ET8550 is definitely the better printer, with lower ink costs. And keep in mind that ink is only one part of the running costs. It's easy to get swept up in the marketing that an ecotank printer makes printing "free". But that's ignoring paper costs, which in my experience dominate printing costs in the long run. First party paper is reliable and good, but offers only limited variations. Third party paper requires matching printer profiles, which can be hard to come by for non-professional printers such as the XP8800 (but some paper manufacturers (Photospeed) profile for free, and there are cheap services for creating bespoke profiles).

Yes, it has made my photography hobby so much deeper. I bought a Canon Pro 200s 6 months ago and love printing and framing. Prints look so much better than on a display too. I also enjoy sending prints to family and friends. I'm really digging Canon Pro Luster 13"x19" and 8.5"x11". Never in a million years did I imagine modern photo printers could do what they do, it's impressive. Even little 4x6s are stunning, I always get compliments. I've always stuck with natural color grading and exposure, but recently been getting into curves. My challenge is to develop consistency for action shots, landscapes, and portraits when editing. I'm not gifted with these concepts so I spend of lot hours on my days off work just editing away and see what works. These are some prints I did today from a vacation back in May. Will be doing a 3x3 gallery. Not my best edits in post on a few, but I really like some of them. *

Just picked up a canon 200s on sale for 500 at best buy a few days ago. At that price or similar I am impressed, at full retail… maybe. But very happy. I know there are doubts about dye vs pigment but for most use cases I can’t imagine that being a problem. That said others in this thread are right. I have started buying different papers, metallic, gloss, etc. Which gets expensive quick. And the ink depletes fast when printing at 13x19 as I am finding out, particularly subjects like Astro with large swathes of single color….

Exactly as mentioned above; - CP1500 is perfect for 10x15 prints and it is cheap to run. approx 0.33€/print - G550 or G650 are a great option if you don’t want to deal with any cartridge printers as they both work work bottled ink - PRO-1100 seems overkill in this scenario, it prints up to A2 - PRO-200S or PRO-310 are better option as they give you more control over your prints with more colors to work with. Or if you find a PRO-300 on the cheap. Go for that. They are both cartridge printers. The cost of running is higher the a G650 but you do get better color reproduction. I hope this helps!

That model will consume inks like there is no tomorrow (ink cartridges and not liquid inks), besides there's always a risk when buying used printers. If you are okay with high ink costs and only & only if the printer has warranty left, go for it, else check for ink tank based printers.

I'm not from Europe, but 1 thing is universal, any "Cartridge" based printer will be cheap initially but will drain a lot of money in refills vs. an Ink Tank which shall be a bit pricey but super effective in the long run. Do check this video - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1B71C6BV7k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1B71C6BV7k) (Not mine, but super helpful, was amazed that a fresh genuine ink cartridge runs out of ink even if you print blank, yep blank pages) You can check with companies like Brother, Epson, Canon based on which one provides the best after sales service, stick with ink tank based printers :) I'm using them (Epson earlier & now Canon) for the past 6-7 years and never had any issues, besides the ink cost and per page cost is also cheap! Had to switch from Epson as it didn't do borderless printing (Must have for me as I grew)

I enjoy shooting and then tweaking in Lightroom/Photoshop and then I print out the best from the session to show my wife and family. The real good ones I frame but not too often. And pictures of family and friends I hand out. Sometimes I do a few prints just to check out my post processing. So as your efforts progress you may be printing regularly. Canon has the SELPHY which is about $130. I have the Canon Pixma Pro 200 which cost about $600.

Honestly for quality prints I would either use printing services or increase budget for dedicated photo printer (not just a normal printer that "can" print photos) - like Canon pro-200

Get the lawyer a laser printer. For your photography, a dedicated A3+ photo printer is a beautiful thing. I used a Canon Pro-100 dye based printer for years. Great output. I think the pro-200 is its successor. Recently I jumped to the Pro-1100 17” pigment based printer. Excellent again plus even better, to my eye, on matte and art papers with the pigment inks. The Pro-300 also uses pigment inks but is cheaper being a 13” model.

I did not wait too long to get the 200 when I found it 50% off. It’s going so well, so very glad I jumped into printing. I love curating the paper type to the image and have been told through class work at CPW that I seem to have a knack for it. It has become my favorite part of the entire process outside of just getting out to shoot. My signature prints are 13 x 38 pano papers from Red River. Hand down, I think the 200 is a great entry level pro printer to get started.

To be technically “fine art” they need to be pigment based ink so avoid the dye based printers (dye printers also limit which fine art papers you can use). A Canon Pro-300 would be my first pick, up to A3+ in size. Longer for Panoramics. Beware that proper photo printers must be used often (weekly or more) to make it worthwhile - otherwise the routine maintenance required will use up a lot of ink. I have a Pro-200 which is okay but a dye based printer so I can’t call anything I print “fine art”. I don’t use it often enough unfortunately (won it as a prize for a local photo comp back in 2021)