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Can a cheap Lexmark printer print photos this good? What's the catch?

I should say a FREE lexmark printer. I got a refurbished Lexmark printer z515 for $20 from a legit vendor that came with a $20 rebate, so in effect I got the printer for free. It came with two ink cartridges - lexmark black 17 & lexmark color 27. I've printed out five 8x10''s and the quality is amazing. I've matched it with prints from epson r1800 and 2400 - which go for $400-$600. I can't find any specs on the inks or the cartridges, but a pro photograper said the images will fade within about two years. Is that true or was he misinformed or jealous? Any other reason why my prints are inferior if I can't detect a difference. I have 20/10 vision or vice versa whatever your vision is when you can see at 20 feet what most people see at 10 feet (but I'm not farsighted).

Public Comments

1. The catch is the price of the ink- each more then the price of the printer you got and also the fact that you will need to change that ink very very often,
2. Lexmark printers are normally felt to be inferior to other ink jets made by Epson, HP, Canon etc. This follows testing by people such as photographic magazine journos. If you are happy, however, then stay with it. I think the inks tend to be more expensive than the others, though, and I notice there is only one colour cartridge, rather than one for each colour, which is wasteful.
3. Common inkjet inks do not have a long life. Lexmark bargain basement printers definitely don't. The pictures do look great but it is definitely not a professional calibre printer. I had a Z11 that printed very nicely. It was slow but the prints were excellent. When I went to buy cartridges I vowed never again to mess with a Lexmark. They've got to be one of the highest priced per mililiter manufacturers out there. Wilhelm Research at www.wilhelm-research.com grades archival qualities of photographic materials and inks.