their "best buy". Once again they are looking at the cost per page for both
text and photos, as well as print quality and features.
Keep in mind that Consumer Reports is odd in that they don't do what
any 'resonably educated consumer' would do - use a price search engine
to find the lowest online, out-of-state shops to buy the printer and ink
from. Nor do they tell the users that the price of printers actually
makes home photo printing extremely expensive for most home users (vs.
printing images at Walmart, Ofoto, and other places where you don't have
to factor in the cost of the printer itself).
eg. Today, you could walk into any store and buy a Canon iP4000 for
$149.99 retail, or buy it at buy.com for $133.99 + $20 rebate, or
amazon.com for $139.99 + $20 rebate + $35 amazon.com visa card
first-time use rebate.
Inks go even cheaper -- and we all know makers get up to and well
over 50% profit on tiny ink cartridges (see Computer Reseller News
magazine ads; ie. rip us off!).
Oddly, CR doesn't even point you to excellent deal websites like
www.fatwallet.com/forums/ -> hot deals where often you can buy a new
printer for <$50 (price of a new set of cartridges, so might as well get
a free printer tossed in the deal which has everything).
eg. the latest post yesterday for a iP5000 for $107.98 AR/PM/Coupon.
eg. the 6 day old post for the iP400 for $78 AR/PM/Coupon.
-----------
Let's think about this.
$150 iP4000 printer CR would buy. Typical yield of most photo
printers of about 50 letter photo prints per set of cartridges. Let's
say 50 letter photo paper sheets for $30.
TOTAL cost of ownership = $180 for 50 photo prints. Or $3.60 per
print for the first 50 prints.
A 2nd case, smart buyer picks up the printer for $78 AR/PM/Coupon.
Same $30 for paper. $78 + 30 = $108 for 50 photo prints. Or $2.16
per print for the first 50 prints.
$180 - $108 = $72 dollars.
$9 for each cartridge using a price search engine (vs. $12 regular
pricing). You can spend the $72 and a few dollars more on another 50
photo letter sized prints for about the same $180 as CR would have spent.
So, CR makes 50 prints for $180; you make 100 prints for $180 - but
CR won't tell you how to do it!
(If you're printing 4x6" prints, you can make 3-4x as many as above,
so then the figures become more like 150-200 4x6" photo prints for $180
CR; you make 300-400 4x6" photo prints because you know how to find the
lowest prices.)
200 / 24 frames of 35mm film on a roll = about 8 rolls of film printed.
300 / 24 frames = about 12 rolls.
400 / 24 frames = about 16 rolls.
Let's say you're like most users - be smart and buy the printer cheap
at $78, use up two sets of ink cartridges while making 300 4x6" photo
prints on a budget of $180 or so.
When do most people take and develop more than 1 roll of film per
month? (300 4x6" prints; about 12 rolls of film equivalent printed from
above) (or basically, take one picture per working day of the month for
an entire year that you =want to print=?)
CR doesn't take this into account. They only give you a simplistic
straight cost per print based on price of ink + paper alone, but don't
consider the price of the printer, nor how many prints most people will
take and make over a year.
Most users will benefit more from the cheaper online prices because
they'll not only be taking 1 or less rolls of film equivalent number of
photos per month, but also be making less than that in prints. They'll
save a lot vs. buying retail... but sadly, still be spending a lot more
than printing at Walmart,Costco,etc (due to the cost of the printer
added to each inkjet print price).
eg. for $180, at $0.29 per 4x6" print made at these retail locations,
you'll have to make 620 prints (or 25 rolls equivalent) before you even
spend more than the photo printers for home use!
(factor in time spent fiddling with home printers vs. simply dropping
off a flash card or uploading images from your computer)
