Reccomend a Multi-Function Printer......

[Nalapombu]

Hey all,

My dad needs a new printer and he asked me about these multi-function printers. It seems he has talked to someone at his club that bought an HP that prints, scans, copies and faxes in color and now he wants one. He is certain that it HAS to be a color printer that will fax, scan and copy. I am talking a jet printer, not a laser.
We went and looked at a coupl of HP printers at Office Max today and they were pretty nice. The 2 that were nicest were the HP Officejet 5510 @$149 and the HP Officejet 6200 @$169.
They also had Brother and Canon machines. Some of the Brothers looked really nice but I am not familiar with them and have always used HP printers. We are not opposed to another brand, just that it has to be reliable and have ink cartridges that are easily found at Wally World or Office Max.
Another plus for him was that the 6200 has PictBridge that lets you print pics from your camera without using the puter. That would be a nice feature to have.
If you have any recommendations for a printer that fits the bill, please pass it on. Have you used or had experience with any that you can recommend? Any + or - you know of on certain models would be helpful too.
Thanks for the help and advice. I appreciate it.

Nala

[Zak3056]

I'm rather fond of the Xerox Workcentre Pro... at roughly $10-15k depending on options, it's probably a bit out of the price range you're looking for though. ;f

On a serious note, I will say this: HP's low end MFPs (ink AND laser) are crap; avoid them like the plague.

The Brother machines you were also looking at are surprisingly good for the money (though I, personally, hate their software) and are a better choice.

[Wulfenite]

We bought a Brother MFC-210 in December. My wife uses the carp out of it and its still running fine and feeding reliably.
http://www.telefon.de/images/big/brother_mfc210c.jpg
Its nothing fancy. But it handles most printing jobs and hasnt eaten us alive on in cartridge costs (generic cartridges from inksite.com). It will do photos reasonably well as long as you use the correct papper and there's not too much overly dark area. If there's lots of black it seems like it cant keep up with the flow and keep stuff laid down smoothly. Copy and Scan work well, not exactly quick, but fine for a few pages here and there. Its got a pretty small form factor and for 99 bucks its hard to go wrong.

[Str8shootr]

I have had an HP fax/scanner/printer for several years now and find it to be a nice, user friendly machine (home/family use)

The printers have become more sophisticated since I purchased mine, especially color printers.

BEFORE YOU BUY A PRINTER..............

Check the cost of replacement ink cartridges, and the estimate of the life of the cartridges. Sometimes the printers are cheaper, but the cost of the cartridges (ongoing expense) will eat you alive. Just my 2cents

[Wulfenite]

Ditto the ink comment. I just ordered from inksite.com. Black cartridges for my machine are $5, just checked price at Staples.......$22!!!!!!