Want to buy AIO [Hardware]

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From: Bast on 14 Mar 2010 19:49

kony wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:18:33 -0500, "Bast"
> <fakename(a)nomail.invalid> wrote:
>
>> tried one of those artisans when they came out.
>> It worked, but went through ink like a sponge, and I thought it was
>> just stupid to dare charge users extra for the duplexer on a $400
>> printer
>
> It's not uncommon, I've a close to $1000 printer that costs
> a few hundred more for the duplexer.
>
>>
>> HP is now so pathetic for support I would never buy anything from them
>
> I don't expect support for anything anymore except custom
> software. All you can do is report a problem and hope they
> tell you if a new driver is coming out some month soon... or
> get a refund ASAP if a new product doesn't work out of the
> box.
>
>
>
>>
>> Ended up with a Canon 850, and been happy for over a year.
>>
>> But the best advice I can offer is that none of them are even close to
>> the quality they were 10 years ago.
>> Two years and you will likely be looking for a new one no matter what
>> you buy.
>
>
> ... that's why you have to spend more for the higher price
> tiered, higher duty cycle models, though I concede they
> aren't as good as they used to be either and with most
> consumer products I try to avoid all-in-one type products in
> general, though on printers having the one-touch copy
> (machine) button so the computer doesn't even need to be
> turned on can come in handy.

From: Bast on 14 Mar 2010 19:57

From: kony on 14 Mar 2010 22:24

On Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:57:58 -0400, "Bast"
<fakename(a)nomail.invalid> wrote:

>Sadest part is the really high end models are no better quality either.
>However a company that can afford them only lease for a year or so, so
>really could not care less if it can last 20 years.
>
>Sort of comical that many of us have 20+ year old dot-matrix units that
>still work great, but you can't get the ribbons for them anymore
>

I have a dot matrix in the basement and have no desire to
use it. Takes fan-fold tractor feed paper which is unwieldy
these days, and the cost per page is higher than an ancient
laser printer I hope to keep running as long as possible.

It's kind of ironic that I value my ancient laser printer
more than my fancy 2 year old high end color laser. The
latter consumes toner at an alarming rate, wasting hundreds
of dollars worth of color toner per year even if it's only
printing a lot of B&W text pages... so I seldom use it
anymore except for printing high color images.

From: Barry Watzman on 22 Mar 2010 20:09

I think that ruling out HP is a mistake. But, that said, very few if
any HP models directly print CD/DVD and duplex in a single pass.

On scanning negatives, that is not something that any AIO will do well.
The best film scanners are the Nikon scanners (now discontinued) and
the Epson flatbed scanners, but the stand alone full size scanners.
There is a fundamental difference there, the scanners in AIO units are
"CIS" technology, while high end stand alone scanners use CCD
technology. You also need a technology called "Digital ICE" to do a top
notch job, and I don't think that any AIO scanners have that.

AIO's are, by definition, compromises ... you give up a number of
things. In terms of film scanning, you will likely give up a lot,
although you may not realize just how much unless you get a chance to
compare the same slide scanned on multiple scanners.

BTW, 48-bit color is not necessary for top-notch scanning. The JPEG
format is limited (LIMITED) to 24-bit color -- and that's what most
digital cameras use, unless you save in RAW or TIFF (which only high-end
cameras even support). There are many other things (some of which are
nearly impossible to quantify) that go into the quality of a film
scanner, and color depth can be pretty far down on the list.

jw(a)eldorado.com wrote:
> I just bought an Epson Artisan 800 AIO. It arrived DOA, and I am
> returning it. Of course, Epson now says it is out of stock. I do
> not want HP. Have one and have had nothing but trouble, not to
> mention the fact that HP has discontinued support for the thing
> (C7280).
>
> Now I am scared.
>
> I want to buy (without breaking the bank) an inkjet all-in-one with
> the following features:
>
> scan including negatives 48-bit color
> print paper two sides up to 81/2X14
> print photos (4X6)
> print CD/DVD
> copy
> fax
> USB
> Ethernet CAT5
> wireless
> Optical res 4800dpi
>
>
>
> Anyone recommend and why?
>
> Thanks

From: jw on 23 Mar 2010 05:14

Thanks for your thoughts Barry.

Duke

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