Thoughts from the Gadget Gaggle?

[Beccaberry]

I'm looking to purchase two photo specific printers for my classrooms...I'm looking at these two:

HP Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web All-in-One Printer

or this one

HP Photosmart C3680

Thoughts on which one would be better? Or perhaps another all together? Would *like* to stay under $400 each if possible, but I'm open to other suggestions if you think it's worth it. Thanks for advice!

[uscwest]

I'm looking to purchase two photo specific printers for my classrooms...I'm looking at these two:

HP Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web All-in-One Printer

or this one

HP Photosmart C3680

Thoughts on which one would be better? Or perhaps another all together? Would *like* to stay under $400 each if possible, but I'm open to other suggestions if you think it's worth it. Thanks for advice!

Donna does the picking on our printers and she won't go near an all in one. She tends to lean towards EPSON.

[Beccaberry]

The all-in-one bit isn't a necessity (it just seems to happen these days) as all I want is a photo specific printer (we have all other manner of printers on campus). The most important thing is having one that balances quality/cost AND is networkable with my new MACS

[Keith]

As John and Donna say, the all in ones only go to a certain level of quality with photos. They're definitely OK->GOOD these days, but if you want good->great you need a dedicated photo printer.

Now, I've said that to countless people who've then bought all in ones anyway and laughed at my perfectionism in other words, "good" is all that many/most people need!

A few other random notes though

1. photos use a heck of a lot of ink and so ongoing consumable costs easily outweigh purchase price very quickly (though I realise its sometimes easier to justify ongoing higher ink prices than a higher initial outlay)

2. Kodak are doing a real push on ink pricing and consuming saying that their latest all in ones consume 1/2 as much ink for the same photo as canon/epson etc.

3. HP suck well they dont, and I love their laser printers but they chip their cartridges to make sure you buy originals and then they do stupid things like refuse to print because "cartridge is too old" even though it still has ink in it. I know in a school lack of use isnt going to be a problem and you'll eat through cartridges before they get a chance to be silly about it, but it's put me off ever buying another HP all in one.

4. Canon/Epson are recognised to be the best dedicated photo printers

All of which having been said, the HP all in ones plug in and work. Simple as that even on the mac. So for ease of use, cost and so on, I could understand going for one of the above.