Personal computing discussed

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etilena
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Personal Laser Printer

Wed Apr 02, 2003 7:05 pm

Planning on getting a Laser printer, here's the model I'm looking at.

http://www.canon.com.au/products/printe ... p1120.html

I just need to print plenty of black and white stuff (colour is more luxury than necessity :wink:) and the speed of this machine is much better than what I have currently. I'd just like to find out other people's experiences with their printers. Any suggestions?
*yawn*
 
nrobison
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Wed Apr 02, 2003 7:12 pm

Looks good, except the feed mechanisms on these "top loading" lasers can be buggy (multiple pages, twisting, etc.).

In my book, the way to go is still to find a 4-year old HP LaserJet 5p/6p or 2-year old HP-looking Lexmark. The things run forever, toner cartridges are big (you don't pay for the printer over and over through toner), and general engineering is very reliable. In some (most?) cases a used mid-range product is better than a new low-range.
 
mac_h8r1
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Wed Apr 02, 2003 7:21 pm

I just got an HP 1200 Series LaserJet printer. It's fabulous. It's got a real feed tray[250 sheets], 600x600 crispness and is really quick. You can't go wrong with the Microsoft of printers.
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etilena
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Wed Apr 02, 2003 7:32 pm

The HP1200 did catch my eye, but it's a litte beyond my budget. It costs twice the amount of the Canon LBP1120.
*yawn*
 
element
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Thu Apr 03, 2003 5:43 am

HP laser printers are top notch. Highly recommendable.
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YBK
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Thu Apr 03, 2003 7:52 am

I have a cannon s520 and is a really good printer. I got it for around 400 AUD a few months ago. Now the prices have really come down. It is very good on ink. The cartridge costs 20AUD for black and lasts me for around 1000-1500 pages. And it prints faster than most cheap laser printers. I think it should be faster than the printer you specified. S520 prints at 14ppm. Its pretty fast I can tell you that. And believe me the draft quality (really good for saving ink) looks as good as normal on most inkjets. :) If you really want to buy a laser printer go fot it. And getting a cannon means its great. And by the way I will never ever get an HP or Lexmark printer again. They waste soooo much ink!

I almost forgot, its very hard to tell whether the print that come out from the s520 is from a photo lab or a bublejet. The good thing is you don't have to buy 6 colors to get that quality. :)

A good link, :)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... 5-1330%20P

Jee these things get cheaper every second. Check out the price. Less than 100AUD. The specifications, printer pics and everything you need to know is their.

Good luck :D

Did I mention, it prints borderless. 8)
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etilena
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Thu Apr 03, 2003 8:03 am

Hey thanks YBK, I never considered the higher end Canon Bubblejet series before. And 14ppm, that's like wow :o

Some places currently selling it for $289AUD now, not too bad a price, and way cheaper than the laser printer I'm looking at, $399AUD.

My experiences with HP are mixed. Used to own an old HP 410c, it used to 'eat' more than 'feed' paper. :lol: Though HP printers now are pretty good I reckon, friend has a HP1000 now, which is really quite good I think, but also pricey at $499AUD.

I'll do a little more research, probably get a printer at swap meet on Sunday.
*yawn*
 
Aphasia
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Thu Apr 03, 2003 4:26 pm

You guess should maybe know that canon printer is actually the same mechanics as in the last HP model(1100).

Canon and HP has an exchange deal where canon helps HP with some stuff and a year or two after HP puts something to market, canon get a license to sell their own printers based on that same tech, without royalties. And ive heard Canon usually makes the things a little better so they are a step up from where HP had the same stuff. On the other hand so has HP already moved on to the next gen(1200) by that time.

One problem with that laser is that the mechanics can after the rollers gets a bit worn take several papers in a row when feeding. But i know HP had a free kit and canon has probably fixed that....

Can anyone tell i work with servicing printers among other things. :D
 
BigGeek
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Thu Apr 03, 2003 4:45 pm

I have purched 14 brother 1440 HL and all of are user who have one have loved them. Dell had a great deal on them and I think Newegg carries them to. If you decide that you want to go Lazer I think the Brother are the best bang for the buck.
 
YBK
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Thu Apr 03, 2003 5:08 pm

Aphasia wrote:
You guess should maybe know that canon printer is actually the same mechanics as in the last HP model(1100).


Hi canon uses a completly diffrent type of ink than HP. Canon do not sell you the head every time you get a cartridge. With HP evertime you get a cartridge you will have to get a new head, equating to much higher prices. In a simpler way, HP through out everything when you have to get new ink, while canon keeps everything it needs to have the tank inserted in it their.

I think canon uses a much better ink system. Canon are the ones that created the seperate ink tank system. If HP or lexmark can come up with a better ink consuming printer, I would be shocked.

etilena, you can also consider the i810 bubljet. From what I read its a really good color printer and prints (my memory) 20ppm. But it is more expensive 399AUD. But it doesn't look like you print color. So the s520 might suit you well. Tom's hardware has very good reviews about printers. They compare canon bublejets with epson, lexmark and HP.
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Aphasia
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Fri Apr 04, 2003 1:26 am

Hi canon uses a completly diffrent type of ink than HP. Canon do not sell you the head every time you get a cartridge.
Since when did Canon and HP start to use ink in their laserprinters :-? :D

You did notice the topics question was regarding laserprinters, right.
 
YBK
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Fri Apr 04, 2003 1:36 am

Yes, but I was pointing towards an alternative. Higher end bublejet printers can perform better than most lower end laserprinters. Not always more expensive is better. And I was talking about the bublejet as etilena looked interested in getting it.
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Steel
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Fri Apr 04, 2003 10:24 am

I don't know... for even moderate printing volume, lasers beat inkjets any day. You'll get a lot more pages per toner cartridge than you would with an inkjet cartdridge and you rarely get the advertised maximum print speed on an inkjet (in my experience it's usually half). The inkjets are cheaper up front but you usually wind up paying more in the long run.
 
Aphasia
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Fri Apr 04, 2003 2:39 pm

I bought a HP laserjet 5L when it came in what.... 96' it costed me about $360 including a toner... and with my moderate printing volume, it still runs fine, and i cant get that toner to go out on me.... i just cant.
But ive actually changed to a HP LJ 6p since then... which i got for the meager sum of $30, including two trays and 2 toners. Only one caveat, it got a small grey dot about that is 1 mm2 every 12cm on the page. But i can live with that as a new fuser costs some $150+.
 
etilena
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Fri Apr 04, 2003 7:55 pm

Thinking of the long term. The Canon S520 printer isn't too bad, and it can reach at least 10 of th 14ppm stated. It only slows down due to some cleaning process halfway to prevent the colours from leaking to another page. And I've noticed that they're phasing out the stock, cause they're putting it up for grabs at various shops now.

I don't require fantastic quality of print, 300dpi is adequate in my books. The only thing I don't like about inkjets is they smudge if you don't let it dry out first or if you pour water on it.

Currently own a Canon S100SP (farcry from what I'll be getting :o ). It really doesn't print much, at most 100 pages per cartridge, which sucks, and cartridges are about $15 a piece. That was why I wanted to go with the LBP 1120 in the first place, a $100++ toner cartridge could give me 2500 pages roughly, that really saves.

And thanks everyone for their opinions, really great help.

I would also like to ask, what's the fuser's function in the laser printer? Does it break down often and why is it so expensive to replace?
*yawn*
 
Freon
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Fri Apr 04, 2003 8:18 pm

I would suggest the investment in the 1200 or 6L. I wouldn't touch a Canon inkjet with a 10 foot pole. In fact I'm not sure I'd touch a Canon anything.

If you want a high end inkjet, the HP 2230 is pretty decent. It will match a low end laser on speed. It was designed for small office use (~5 users, a few hundred pages a day). Its replacable heads will extend its useful life, too.

I think pretty much anything will annihilate your 300dpi requirement. I'm not sure you can buy a printer lower than 600dpi these days.

Good luck, and go HP.
 
YBK
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Fri Apr 04, 2003 11:41 pm

Freon, I don't see why you should not like canon printers. And i have had my printer for a fair while and still haven't had had to clean the head.

Canon all the way!

Booooo ink consuming HP and Lexmark
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Steel
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Sat Apr 05, 2003 11:15 am

etilena wrote:
I would also like to ask, what's the fuser's function in the laser printer? Does it break down often and why is it so expensive to replace?

The fuser is what heats up and "melts" the toner powder to the paper (which is why you use cold water to wash toner out of clothes). In my 8+ years dealing with laser printers it seems to be only the really old ones that lose their fuser (I'm talking about HP LaserJet II's). The newest one I've seen a dead fuser on was a LaserJet 4.
 
Aphasia
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Sat Apr 05, 2003 4:11 pm

Well, a fuser is usually made for around 200 000(depending on paper quality etc, different for scandinavia and the US) pages in a row, at which it should be replaced, if you are lucky it can certainly function for another 100 000 pages, although warranty is out, even if you get the occasional dud, usually, you only need to replace them if you burn something stuck in them, like a inkjet overhead film(not made to withstand the heat) or something else. If you know what to do you can actually take a away a burnt overhead by disassembling the fuser into parts, as the rolls is often made of a non stick plastic as teflon, the OH film usually melts onto it self, and you can gently cut it away without damaging the fuser roll.

But as Steel said, they usually dont die on their own, except after they are worn down, but as most companies usually dont use their printers as much as they should(way to many printers on to few people) the dead ones is often HP3s and 2s and some 4s. Except for faulty handling of course.

How does a laserprinter work in short.
You have a toner container, which contains ..... yepp, toner. The toner is often made up of hybrid particles with one magnetic part and one pigment part. Then you have a roller, picking the toner up, and another roller most often called a drum, or photodrum. The Laser "prints" the letters on the photodrum, in which the parts where the laser went over, gets statically charged, and from the toner roller, those spots draws the toner to themselves(toner having one magnetic part). Then rolls them down to the paper where they deposit the toner particles(in older hp colour laserjets you also have a transfer belt in between the drum and the paper), the paper with the toner then goes through the fuser, which melts the toner onto the paper through heat. After that it rolls out and you have your finished printing.

HP's toners(for their black and medium printers, not the colour or bigger models) have the drum and toner roller inside the toner cartridge, and is often made for short usage and are the drum is light sensitive, while kyocera have all parts separate, and makes a non light sensitive and more durable drum, that more seldom needs replacing, although kyocera require a lot more service in that they you have to change 3-5 parts for every one cartridge for the HP. But each part is way cheaper. Two different philosofies which also goes again in how the different ink cartridges for inkjets is. Canon vs HP vs Epson.

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