Good color laser printer?

[gentlewhisper]

Hi guy,

Thinking of getting a color laser printer since they are so cheap nowadays. Any recommendations?

Thanks!

[Kursplat]

I have been surprised at how cheap they are now, and so many companies have cheap models.

Keep in mind that the color toners are not cheap. With the printer prices so low, that means you will almost spend as much for a set of toners as you did for the printer itself!

Also, since this post is in the "printing your photos" forum, I will comment that the photos printed on the color laser here at work do not look as nice as the same photos printed on the inkjet next to it.

Clipart, color text, charts and graphs, look great on the laser, but photos still seem to look better on the inkjet.

Regardless, I too am interested in hearing people's recommendations.

[Taminar]

But in four years, no one's had any recommendations?

I know toner costs more, but you'll get more copies out of a drum than with inkjet. It seems like I'm buying new ink cartridges every couple of weeks.

[Pony99CA]

I know toner costs more, but you'll get more copies out of a drum than with inkjet.
Besides, if the toner really costs more than the printer, just buy a new printer. ;) (To be environmentally friendly, donate the old one to a charity -- and get a tax deduction.)

Has anyone used the low-cost (under $200) Samsung ones? I'd be curious to hear how well those work.

Steve

[Jason Dunn]

I have an HP 2600n that's about two years old and I've been really happy with it - but I don't use it for photo printing, just for general-purpose printing. Everyone else is right though, the toner cartridges prices are expensive...but comparatively no more so than inkjet cartridges in my experience. The nice thing about laser toner is that it never dries up...I've been using the same colour cartridges for about two years now and the printer still prints colour great...and I have about 15% toner left in each of the three colours.

If you want to print photos, I recommend Epson. Their R series printers are fantastic:

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=63069504

That's a lot of printer for $99! They make good multi-function printers as well.

[Pony99CA]

Has anyone used the low-cost (under $200) Samsung ones? I'd be curious to hear how well those work.
Here's the one I mean, the Samsung CLP-315 (http://shop2.frys.com/product/5635761). Fry's is selling it for $130 until 12/30, I think.

Steve

[Daveducas]

I have a HITI 730 ps which uses a dye sublimation process ("uses a heating element to heat dye impregnated in a ribbon to over 350 degrees, at which point it turns into a gas and migrates into the surface of the specially coated photo paper. Temperature controls how much dye transfers at any point on the paper") no toner cartridges or inkjet cartridges.
the negative is that it needs to be in a dust free environment, or to be cleaned prior to use. Any dust on the ribbons show up as dust on the print. Usually one printing clears the dust.
The picture quality seems to be as good as photo processing.
However, it will not do 8x10. and it is pretty expensive ($.28) pre print.