Are colour Laser Printers worth it?

[Soapy Sam]

I don't actually print much- e-tickets and hotel bookings from the internet mainly- but occasionally I print out a couple of colour photographs on my Epson R220 inkjet.
I have 2 gripes.
1. Photo quality is not as good as I'd like, though to some extent this may be down to choice of paper.
2. Although I rarely use colour, the cartridges seem to plug/ dry out / self destruct whenever I actually need to do something with decent colour quality.

So I wonder about getting a coilour laser printer. I see the price has come way down since I last looked (about 4 years ago), but I wonder about quality.

Are these just office Pie-chart machines, or can they produce good quality colour photos?

Do they need (or can they use) specialist papers- glossy photo paper and the like?

Anyone have an opinion?

[brodski]

It is usually much more cost effective to use a professional photo printing service (either high-street or internet based). If you use the right paper you can get decent results, but you will need to print as hell of a lot of photos before you have any chance of saving money as opposed to using a professional service.

[Soapy Sam]

That's a point I hadn't considered.
Saving money is always good, but the tendency of inkjet cartridges to dry up when not heavily used is costly too. It seems low-end CLPs are now not wildly dearer than good inkjets. I do need some form of printer. I need occasional colour- for maps mostly, but photos as well. Let's say I used a print service for photos, would a CL at (say) £140 be better value over 2-3 years and maybe 100-200 actual colour pages, than an inkjet I had to replace the cartridges in possibly as many as 3 times at £20 or so a time?

Or am I just seeking support for buying a new toy?

[Beanbag]

If you need photo quality, go inkjet, and a hi-end inkjet at that. For printing maps, I'd go color laser. For colored text documents, color laser. Just about ANYTHING not photo, color laser.

Me? I got a hi-end Epson inkjet, but I'm always shooting and printing digital photos at least once a week. Plus, it does printable DVD's, which I need for my video sidelines. I have to remember to print at least one color document (even in draft mode) per week to keep the cartridges from drying up and clogging. However, the majority of my "other" printing is on monochrome laser printer.

I've looked at color laser printers, and almost bought one instead of the Epson photo printer I have now. When I get around to replacing the laser printer I have now, I'll probably go color laser, with built-in duplex (2-sided) printing, as the cost has dropped below $400 for a good printer with these features. Then again, the first laser printer I bought cost me $2000 back in the Bronze Age, so I consider $400 a bargain.

Beanbag

[BenBurch]

Even for printing color things that are not photos, its almost cheaper to have the Walgreen's do it onto photo paper than to do it myself with the printer here.

[Zax63]

I agree that a printing service is probably the way to go for photos. If you need to print an occasional photo you may want to consider a small dye sublimation printer. My mother has one of the Kodak Easyshare printers and it really turns out excellent results.
You are limited in print sizes and they are not fast as they generally make four passes through the printer. Be sure to figure your cost per picture, I believe they all use proprietary supplies and they can be expensive.

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

I do lots of printing, both b&w and color, so I got a Xerox Phaser 6250. But it's too expensive for most people's needs.

~~ Paul

[Soapy Sam]

Thanks, guys.
I believe I'll stick with the Epson inkjet and use a printing service for photos.
I do get annoyed replacing ink cartridges that show empty but look 80% full though.