I just went to Harvey Norman after work (large computer chain) and they had the Konica Minolta 2400W (just announced late last year) on sale for $499 AUD and also a Lexmark 230? for $299! Now for colour lasers, this is unheard of! Usually B&W lasers are around $599.
I'm still not sure regarding the quality of laser for photos though... they had some plain paper photo samples there, but they looked kinda grainy to me. I wonder what you use for photo prints with lasers? Inkjet paper? Or is there a special type?
Hm... anyway, I was quite tempted to pick one up, but I think I need to do a bit more research first...
The best I have seen come out of a color laser is around the quality of a high end newspaper. Even the glossy prints aren't that good.
And the cheapest I have seen over here is $400 USD for a color laser. B&W are as low as $149.99 USD.
The resolution for laser printers (including color) is no higher than 600 x 600 dpi. Even cheap ink jets are twice that at least.
I have one for everyday b&w printing. It's a much cheaper option for everyday printing. But my aging Epson 780 is much better for photos (when I can get it to print).
--Don
Hi All,
Just reading old threads...
I have had a lot to do with both mono & colour printers, both laser & inkjet...
I constantly use very expensive colour laser printers, and I can say that to date OKI are much better for printing photos (even on plain paper) than HP for instance. Now we are talking some serious $$ for these printers, sub $10K, and the consumables can cost up to $5K for a full set of drums & toners...
Personally, I use my home printers for the odd colour word doc with some pics, but that is about it. If and when I want to actually print a photo, I go to Harvey Normans or somewhere that have the little do it yourself photos kiosks and pay 38c per print.
So save your $$ and go to a print shop, much better overall I think.
Cheers,
Atlas
I was also looking at photo printers, but in the end (for me) decided that shops are the way to go (due to economy of scale [if that even applies here? hehe])
When I was in Malaysia I got some 8R prints
(cheaply) 
very happy!
Colour laser is good for word documents - but useless for photos. I have a great B/W laser for all my order forms and contracts and use a Canon i9950 A3+ inkjet for my prints.
8R is 8" x 10"
but this was 8Re, not sure what's the dimensions
where I get my pictures printed currently is a small shop where they tell me, they have a "chemical printer". Now I've come accross that expression here and there, but now real explanation, of what it is. does it involve immersing paper in solutions somehow, like conventional developing? I also looked at mural size photographs in an exhibition the other day, where it said, what kind of prints they were. among those were
pigment print
chromogenic print
digital color / bw
Cibachrome
I tried to do some googling, with littel success on what theses things actually mean.
Anyway, I am satisfied with the results of the chemical at the shop and a slightly cheaper Eckerds (Pharmacy chain) inkjet printout looks just ugly compared.
How many pictures do you actually have to print (per week/month/life) before a printer amortizes?
uli
Gidday Uli,
I have not heard of that type of printer.... Unless you are in the photo business fulltime printing 9tax write off), I could not see it ever being worth the expense of doing it at home.
But it all depends on how long you want to wait before your next trip to the shop to print...Of course there are many paces now where you can send your prints online and get them posted to you... I guess it all comes down to convinience....
Cheers,
Atlas