Tormented by Our Printers

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From the New York Times, you're listening to The Wirecutter Show.

Hey, everyone, it's The Wire Cutter Show.

I'm Kyra Blackwell.

I'm Christine Sear Clissette.

And I'm Rosie Guerin.

And we work at Wirecutter, the product recommendation site from the New York Times.

Each week, we bring you expert advice from our newsroom of 140 journalists who review everyday products that will make your life better.

This episode of The Wire Cutter Show is called Tormented by Our Printers.

Christine.

Rosie.

Kyra.

Hey.

Can I tell you how I spent my evening last night?

Please do.

It started when my wife texted me asking me to fill out some forms for the twins for a doctor appointment.

Fine, no problem.

But then she told me I had to print them.

Oh, yeah.

And that's when my tantrum began because I hate my printer.

Why?

Printers are the worst.

Listen, they're large.

They're clunky.

They have a specific power cord that, if lost, is a pain, sometimes impossible to replace.

If they're wireless enabled, good luck connecting to it.

Why do I have to look up on Google or worse, YouTube, how to connect the printer to the printer-specific app in order to this is 2025.

Why?

Why do I have to be holding the up-down color reset button until the light blinks eight times in order to reset my printer only to discover there's a jam in the back?

There's no jam.

There's never a jam.

There's never a jam in the back.

I gave up an hour into trying to set it up and opted instead to print at the library.

with coins.

I found quarters to give to the people at the library so I didn't have to use this printer.

Don't get me started on ink.

Inflation is high.

Am I really meant to set money aside for toner or ink?

Get out of here.

Oh, Rosie, I thought this story was going in a really different direction.

I thought you, I was seeing the scene in office space when they're all beating up the

printer and just like dissembling it.

I'd be lying if I haven't

had fantasies about dropping this thing off our balcony.

Well, you know, I actually, you're not totally alone because we've written about this before at Wirecutter.

We wrote a piece about how all printers suck.

They do.

I'll tell you that I used an inkjet for many, many years and I was definitely in your camp.

It was expensive, very spotty in how well it worked.

And then I switched over to a real cheap laser printer from Brother, which is actually like a precursor.

The model's a precursor to our current pick.

And you know what?

I'm pretty happy with it.

And I feel like I've got the right expectations for it and it works most of the time.

I'm green with envy for the piece I can see you are in just sort of mentally, emotionally.

I'm tormented by my printer and I can't stop thinking about why in this modern technologically advanced society in which we live, an at-home printer has to be this antiquated.

Why?

And even if I did think about buying a new, better one, printers aren't cheap.

No, they're not.

That's why I don't have one.

I mean, there's always, you have a friend who has a printer who hates their printer.

I would just say, you know, walk to the closest FedEx library.

I don't know about the coin thing, but somebody else can print something for you.

I mean, I get why you want to have a printer at home, though.

I want a printer at home because my kids sometimes need to print stuff for school.

I like to print out my writing.

But, you know, buying a printer can be really confusing.

There's a lot of choice.

Which is why we're bringing on the perfect person to ask all of these questions to.

It's Ben Keogh.

Ben is our home office and cameras editor who has reviewed printers for Wirecutter for more than six years.

And he spent more than a decade covering cameras, printers, and office equipment for WireCutter, reviewed USA Today, and more.

So Rosie, Ben is going to be your printer therapist, I think.

He's going to walk you through all of the options and help you figure out how to solve this problem.

This is the greatest gift either of you has ever gotten from me.

We're going to take a quick break and when we come back, we're going to talk with Ben about the difference between inkjet and laser printers and how to decide which type of printer is is right for you.

We'll be right back.

The Wirecutter Show is supported by Rocket Mortgage.

Your home is an active investment, not a passive one.

And with Rocket Mortgage, you can put your home equity to work right away.

When you unlock your home equity, you unlock new doors for your family.

renovations, extensions, even buying your next property.

Get started today with smarter tools and guidance from real mortgage experts.

Find out how at rocketmortgage.com.

RocketMortgage LLC, licensed in 50 states, NMLS Consumer Access.org, 3030.

Wayfair loves fall.

The crisp air, the cool nights, and of course, the seasonal lattes.

And as your trusted destination for all things home, Wayfair's got everything you need to cozify your space, from comfy recliners to warm bedding and autumn decor.

Wayfair even has espresso makers, so you can make that latte at home.

You know the one.

Head to Wayfair.com today to shop curated collections of easy, affordable fall updates.

That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com.

Wayfair, Every Style, Every Home.

Paul Mescall and Josh O'Connor star in the history of sound, a sweeping and tender romance that spans decades and continents.

In 1917 Boston, a chance encounter in a piano bar leads two students to a folk song collecting trip through the backwoods of Maine and an ensuing love affair that will change both their lives forever.

In Select Theaters September 12th and Theaters Everywhere September 19th, visit movie.com slash historyofsound to get tickets.

That's mu BI.com slash historyofsound.

Welcome back to the Wirecutter Show.

With us now is Ben Keogh, who is our editor covering everything from cameras to home office supplies.

Welcome to the Wirecutter Show.

Hey, I'm glad to be here.

It's great to have you.

Ben, one of our writers, Liam McCabe, years ago, he wrote this piece about how all printers suck.

Rosie here also thinks that all printers suck, but she is kind of in a printer funk, admittedly.

So I want to know, do you think that all printers suck?

Yes, but they've gotten better.

Liam's piece is still mostly accurate.

There are a couple places where printers have generally gotten better.

One of them is connectivity, but the fundamental issues that he describes are still true.

What are those?

The main thing is the printers are made cheaply because if they cost what they should cost with the technology that is involved, they would cost more than people want to spend.

So we end up paying the companies back by buying lots and lots of ink and toner.

Ah, we're going to talk about that later.

Basically, essentially, the manufacturers cut every corner they can cut with the build quality, with the weight savings, things like that, to get the cost down as much as possible.

And the result is they break down a lot, they waste a lot of ink.

They are just not great machines.

The fundamental technology inside them is fantastic, but the overall product is not what it should be.

And the reason is that it's really expensive to make these things that spray tiny, tiny dots of ink or little tiny particles of toner onto paper and do it in a really precise way.

It's just really hard.

And there are so many different printers out there, but when you wade through all of the jargon, there are really two major types of printers, right?

Inkjet and lasers.

Can you explain the difference between these two?

Sure.

So a inkjet printer uses a nozzle to spray tiny sub millimeter dots of ink onto paper in a very precise pattern.

And that is mind-boggling tech, actually.

If you think about how precise they have to be to print a picture of your dog or even a tiny serif font and make it look smooth and nice.

But yeah, basically those systems literally just spray tiny dots of ink really fast in a very controlled pattern.

When you go to laser printers, what they do is they point a laser that basically imitates the pattern of the image or text that you're trying to print onto a drum, which is electrostatically charged.

And then toner is released that sticks to that via static electricity, basically.

And paper is pressed over the drum and then heat and pressure cause the toner to stick to your paper and just to clarify the toner that you're talking about that's kind of like a powder right at coats the drum yeah it's like a microscopic polymer dust yeah there's there's not a lot to it it's just really fine dust basically it sounds incredibly complicated as a machine it is very sci-fi

Ben, I have to say, my great fear about doing this episode was that I would come to some sort of respect and appreciation of the technology of printers.

I have an inkjet printer at home and I hate it

because it very, very, very infrequently works the first time.

And I'm not terribly impressed by, you know, the quality of what I'm getting.

So my question is, why would anyone Why did I choose an inkjet over a laser printer?

So inkjets do have certain advantages.

The main advantage is they can do color a lot better than the lasers can.

Like lasers can print in color, but it's very matte, flat, dull color.

Inkjets, the one thing they can do that lasers cannot do really is glossy photos.

So if you want really nice family photos, you want snapshots, you want

even doing like a kid's school report, the colors are definitely going to pop more from a inkjet than they would from a laser printer.

But the downside is, well, I'm sure you know the downsides, having,

but I'd love to hear what you think they are.

The main downsides are that ink does not last quite as long as toner.

It will start fading just over the course of time.

It will not perform as well.

It will also dry up inside the nozzles and start clogging.

And that's why printers run cleaning cycles, which sort of clean out the printheads and make it run well again.

But that wastes a lot of ink also, which means you have to buy a lot of ink.

The other downside is that ink costs more than toner, and it's also very tightly controlled by the manufacturers.

So, while you can get third-party ink, it will never work quite as well as first-party ink.

And nowadays, they've locked down printers to the extent that you can sometimes not even use third-party ink in your inkjet printer.

Okay, so Ben, I want to play a little game.

We're going to do a decision tree.

Can you walk us through your process for somebody who knows that they want to buy a printer?

What's the first thing someone should ask themselves when they're just trying to decide what type of printer to get?

I think the first thing to ask is: do you need a printer at all?

But if you get past that and you're sure you do, the question would be, how often do you print?

If you print infrequently, and especially if you print only text, I would say a print-only black and white laser printer is the best option for most people.

Okay, so what is our recommendation for that?

So currently it is the Brother HL2460DW, which is a basic print-only black and white laser printer that costs around $150, $160.

It can do duplex printing, so it can print front and back.

And that's basically it.

That is basically what I have at home.

I have reached the end of the decision tree.

I reached it a while ago.

But if you need your printer to do more than just print black and white, let's say, you know, you want color or you want some other kind of functionality, what's the next thing you should consider?

Well, there are two options then.

You probably want a multi-function printer, which means it has a scanner, if axe machine might even have a document feeder, so you can feed in like 10 pages at a time to scan.

These come in both Laser and Inkjet.

Inkjet has the advantage of, once again, being able to do glossy photos.

Laser has the the advantage of being faster, but the laser ones tend to cost more, especially when you get into color laser printers.

Ben, in 2025, what are we faxing?

Good question.

Most people are not, but some things like medical documents, certain legal documents have to be faxed.

And this is actually still a thing, which is kind of crazy, but it is true.

Most people at home are not doing this, but small businesses especially do.

For most people at home, you want to decide, do you want glossy photos or do you just need to print documents maybe in color, maybe a little scanning?

And for that, you decide between an inkjet and a laser printer.

Correct.

But I think most people tend to go for inkjets just because they tend to be about half the price for a comparable printer.

But the downside, of course, is you spend more on ink than you do on toner.

And you have to care for the machine, which we will get into a little bit later.

Right.

So to that end, why would you pay more for a printer when you could get something relatively cheap?

It comes down to what you do with it.

So if you print a lot, if you have a small business and you print all day, every day, you would definitely pay more for a nicer laser printer.

If you print from home, you maybe have a self-employed business, for instance, and you have to print frequently, but not all the time.

A inkjet all-in-one that you can do stuff for your kids on, also photos, family stuff.

That might make a little more sense.

I would personally lean laser in most cases, but I understand the price aversion aversion some people have.

And then what about photos?

So photos.

Because you're a photographer.

Yeah, I am.

It's an awkward situation because

a all-in-one inkjet can print pretty nice photos, but it will not print as nice photos or be as versatile as a dedicated photo printer, which do exist also.

They're much more expensive, but they can print larger photos.

They can print with better inks.

They're more single-minded.

So I'd say for the people who want to print the occasional snapshot to put on the fridge, the all-in-one inkjet is a good choice.

For the dedicated hobbyist photographer or a semi-pro photographer, a desktop dedicated photo printer is a much better choice.

And that would be way more expensive, right?

Like closer to the $900 range?

Typically, yes, especially when you get into wide format printers, which is like the one that I'm long-term testing right now, the Canon Pro Image Graph Pro 1000, which costs, I think, around $1,000.

Woo.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

And a set of inks costs like $600.

You could do a lot of online printing for that.

You're printing mold at that money.

I could buy so many scratch tickets with that money.

And here's the crazy thing.

That printer has a dedicated tank for waste ink, and it weighs a lot when you pull it out of there.

Like you are literally wasting, I can't put a percentage on it, but a decent chunk of your ink, which you pay $600 for.

That is outrageous.

Yeah.

You probably need to be a pretty serious hobbyist to invest in that, right?

Yes.

Wow.

Wow.

Okay.

So what I'm hearing here is if you really decide that you actually do need a printer, you can probably just keep it simple and just go with a basic laser.

But if you want to get something a little bit more complicated, you need scanning, maybe some glossy photos, then you should maybe consider an all-in-one.

And if you are a hobbyist, like a photographer, then maybe even consider getting a dedicated photo printer.

Is that right?

Yeah, but just bear in mind that your photo printer cannot be used to print documents or anything like that.

It's strictly photos.

So that is a very specific choice.

Got it.

Ben, I feel like 95% of people could just get a standard, simple black and white laser and they probably will be happy.

And they would find something else to complain about in life.

That is correct, I think, yes.

If you don't need photos.

Set low expectations and, you know, just go with it.

All right.

So after the break, we're going to get into the dirty details around saving money using third-party inks and toners.

We're also going to throw a curveball in.

You mentioned earlier that maybe you should consider whether you even need a printer, and we're going to kind of dive into that.

We'll be right back.

The Wirecutter Show is supported by Rocket Mortgage.

Your home is an active investment, not a passive one.

And with Rocket Mortgage, you can put your home equity to work right away.

When you unlock your home equity, you unlock new doors for your family.

Renovations, extensions, even buying your next property.

Get started today with smarter tools and guidance from real mortgage experts.

Find out how at rocketmortgage.com.

Rocket Mortgage LLC, licensed in 50 states, nmls consumeraccess.org 3030.

Wayfair loves fall.

The crisp air, the cool nights, and of course, the seasonal lattes.

And as your trusted destination for all things home, Wayfair's got everything you need to cosify your space, from comfy recliners to warm bedding and autumn decor.

Wayfair even has espresso makers, so you can make that latte at home.

You know the one.

Head to Wayfair.com today to shop curated collections of easy, affordable fall updates.

That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com.

Wayfair, every style, every home.

Paul Mescall and Josh O'Connor star in the history of sound, a sweeping and tender romance that spans decades and continents.

In 1917, Boston, a chance encounter in a piano bar leads two students to a folk-song collecting trip through the backwoods of Maine and an ensuing love affair that will change both their lives forever.

In Select Theaters, September 12th, and Theaters Everywhere, September 19th, visit movie.com/slash history of sound to get tickets.

That's mu B I.com/slash history of sound.

Welcome back to the Wirecutter Show.

This episode is all about printers, why some people hate them, how to decide what you need, and how much to spend on one.

Now we're going to dig into what I consider the grimy underbelly of printers, how some companies lock you into their expensive operating costs, and how you can save money on ink and toner.

Okay, Ben, I have owned both an inkjet and a laser printer.

And I will tell you that I chose my laser after having this inkjet for a long time, and I had been sort of locked into this expensive cycle of buying the inks and I was getting tired of it.

It was just awful.

What are the ongoing costs of this printer?

Whether you've bought an inkjet or a laser?

Let's call it like annual costs.

Is there a way to figure that out if you're trying to purchase something?

Yeah.

So in our guides, for instance, we often list the cost per page for each printer.

And it can range from as little as two cents a page for a black and white laser printer to upwards of 20 cents a page for a color inkjet printer.

And the way you do that is pretty easy because the ink and toner makers put a estimated number of pages on each product.

And you can divide the cost by the number of pages and you end up with how much it costs per page.

And that is an estimate, obviously.

Sometimes you get more, sometimes you get less, but it's a good way to like gauge what the ongoing cost is going to be.

I like this idea, Christine, of you having like serious conversations with your daughters of like, all right, you wrote this essay.

This is going to cost 20 cents a page to print.

Are you confident?

You know how thrifty I am.

You know I'm not beyond that.

Really?

No more edits?

Okay.

Ben, if I'm trying to save money on my next ink refill, because when I go to Target to buy replacements for my inkjet, I'm already so grouchy walking in.

And I get to the aisle and it's expensive.

They can be upwards of...

30 bucks.

I've heard about these knockoff ink cartridges, but I've been hesitant to buy them because I don't know if my printer will accept them.

Then I have to deal with a return.

What if it's like a car and I try to put, oh, actually, do you know what's funny?

I put for a long period of time the wrong

level, Ed sure did, of gas in my car.

And then I was driving on the highway in Massachusetts and the car just basically stopped.

And the engine was so screwed up because I had been putting unwittingly the wrong grade of gasoline in it.

So rosy.

I know.

It's not a story that reflects well on me.

I did that once too.

To bring it back to printers,

so I'm wondering if the same is true for these kind of knockoff ink cartridges.

If you put in the wrong one, is it going to mess up my printer even further?

So my experience has been that it will not mess up your printer, but it will not necessarily print to the same quality as your printer would with the first-party ink.

We actually did a third-party ink test back in, I want to say like 2018, back when Costco was selling third-party ink, which they no longer do.

And we found that overall they worked pretty well when the printer allowed them, but they were never quite as vibrant, never quite as smooth as the first-party ink.

Toner is sort of interesting because toner is literally just black or colored dust.

It's harder for printer manufacturers to like have a, have a monopoly on that because the quality doesn't vary quite as much.

So I use knockoff toner in my brother printer and it can last quite a long time.

It's great.

How would you know if your machine definitely won't take that?

You put it in and it won't print?

Yeah, I mean, that's a surefire way to tell.

You can also check on the third-party toner like sale page on Amazon or whatever page you're on.

It'll probably list which printers it is compatible with.

That is not a surefire guarantee.

The manufacturers of the knockoff ink are sometimes a little optimistic, but often it's a pretty good indicator.

If you have an HP printer, it gets really complicated because they are really draconian about locking down ink.

I totally got rid of my HP inkjet because of that.

They have like a system.

What is it called?

It's like HP Plus.

There's like these proprietary ink programs that HP has, right?

Yeah, it's a little complicated.

They have two programs.

One is called HP Plus, which gives you added security, supposedly, and

longer warranty and things like that.

The other one is called Instant Ink, and that is an ink subscription service.

So if you sign up to that, they send you ink whenever the printer says that it's low, basically.

The problem is that

the software pressures you into signing up for HP Plus and Instant Ink when you start it up.

And what they tell you in the fine print is that if you sign up for HP Plus, your inkjet printer is permanently locked into using first-party ink.

And if you try to use third-party ink, it simply won't work.

Wow.

That is so annoying.

So, okay, Ben, you and I are on team third-party toner.

And I'm wondering if you've had the same experience that I have, which is sometimes when I print a page, it can get a little streaky.

It doesn't look quite as good as the brother toner that I had originally.

So if you're going to go with a third-party toner or ink, should you just have lower expectations?

It's just not going to be as high quality of a print.

I think, especially with ink, yes.

With toner, I have not run into that personally.

And I think if you're having streaking issues, that's probably more of a drum issue than a toner issue.

That is a replaceable part.

It is a little expensive, but it only happens, I'd say, once every three to five toner cartridges.

Okay, well, I'll look into that.

Ben, does ink really expire?

I sometimes get a prompt on my printer that that says the ink has expired, and I feel as if that's a scam, but is it real?

Is it a tactic to get you to pay more more often?

It's a scam in the same sense that expiration dates on canned food are a scam.

Like most, most often, if you eat canned food past the expiration date, it's not going to taste bad, but it might not taste like peak freshness, right?

So ink is like that.

Ink will gradually degrade over time, especially once you've started using it.

Dust, heat, you know, light will cause it to slowly break down.

So yes, it does expire.

Will it still work?

Yes, probably, but maybe not as well as it did when it was fresh.

What about toner?

I sometimes get a prompt that says like the toner needs to be replaced.

So toner, as far as I understand, does not expire.

Toner cartridges will often tell you they are empty when they are not.

For instance, I recently printed on a brother first-party toner cartridge for over four years and reset it twice.

So there's a hack you can do with brother printer toner cartridges where the printer will tell you the toner is empty and you can go into a submenu and literally just reset it and it'll keep on printing.

I can't remember the exact sequence right now, but if you look it up on the internet, it's definitely out there.

Yeah, I've,

I've actually spent a lot of time on YouTube looking at brother printer hacks and it's a whole rabbit hole you can go down.

Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, A, B, A, B.

Ben, we've already established that I'm super thrifty, but I also bought my printer refurbished on eBay.

Is that okay?

Since we're, you know, talking about how to save money on printing, would you recommend buying a refurb?

I think it's a good idea, especially if you buy it first-party refurb.

If you get it from Brother directly, for instance, they sell refurbished printers directly on their site.

If you get it through eBay, just be sure you're buying it from a reputable seller.

You want to buy it from a major seller.

What's the difference between refurb and used?

Used is just someone bought it and got tired of it and is selling it.

And refurb is it actually went back to the manufacturer or a trusted third-party repair shop, basically, and it's been brought back to factory specs and it's good to go.

Typically, a refurbished printer also comes with some kind of warranty.

It's not necessarily the same as the factory warranty, but it might be six months.

You might get something.

So if it breaks down, you have a backstop.

That's so, wow i've been buying all my electronics wrong off of email yeah no i mean you can do this for you can do this for a lot of of small appliances i that's how i got my vitamix from vitamix i i mean you can this is always worth a look if you're willing to get something used but that's refurbished okay another hot tip yes well then i had a question i don't know if you've seen these but they're all over my instagram They're called portable inkless printers.

They kind of look like a little futuristic bar that'll just like zap out something on a page.

Have you seen those?

Do they work?

And if so, how?

Yes, I've seen them.

We haven't tested them yet.

These are mostly thermal printers, which is similar to like, if you've seen like a label printer for UPS or whatever, they print really fast.

They don't take ink.

They don't break down quite as much as inkjets, lasers, more complicated printers.

The downside is they print in pretty low quality.

The prints are susceptible to heat and will fade really fast.

So it's not good for anything where you need to like keep a document long term.

If you've seen like a UPS label that has been left out in the sun, that's what your prints are going to look like in like a year or so, basically.

And they require a special paper, right?

Yeah, it's it's a special paper that doesn't quite feel like regular printer paper.

It feels kind of slick.

So they're good for some things.

You can use them for like stickers and things like that.

For the sort of everyday printing that most people do, I would not recommend it.

All right, Ben, we're going to get to the real counter argument of this episode.

If people are listening in and they are just thinking, a printer at home, this sounds like too much trouble.

It's going to be too expensive.

Do you feel like there are good options if somebody doesn't want to get a printer at home?

I would say for most people who live in a metropolitan area, even if it's not a city, just like a suburban area, if you have access to like a library, if you work in an office, you can print a lot of stuff for free or very cheap without owning a printer.

You can even go to a FedEx Kinko's and print there for relatively cheaply.

I think a lot of people think they need a printer when they really can get by on that kind of printing, but it is a pain when you have to go to the library to like print something.

So I totally understand it also.

What about other things that people might think they need a printer for, like scanning or printing photos?

So we have a guide to scanning apps for your phone, which are these days extremely good.

If you do it right and take your time, you can get scans from your phone that look just as good as anything from an all-in-one printer.

Sometimes better just because all-in-one printers tend to pull pages through the document feeder a little bit sideways, they can not look great sometimes.

I think we recommend Adobe Scan, which is great, and it's free.

It will take really beautiful scans of documents.

For glossy photos, if you don't want to have an all-in-one inkjet, you can send your photos out to a photo lab.

We recommend one called Nations Photo Lab,

and they will print your glossy photos probably better than a home printer could for quite a bit cheaper, frankly, especially if you print quite a lot of photos at one time.

And we also, by the way, have a guide to photo printing on the website if you want to check that out.

No need to take notes here.

All right, let's do a quick lightning round.

I'm going to ask you if I need a printer for the following tasks, Ben.

And if so, what kind you would recommend.

Ready?

Cool.

Okay, I want to return a pair of shoes.

They don't fit.

I need to print the label.

So lots of returns nowadays come with a QR code that you can take straight to a FedEx store, UPS store, to a Whole Foods even and drop off without a label, which is great.

Or you can take it there and they will print the label for you.

If you needed to print it at home, I would say a black and white laser printer is the best option.

Okay, but how about I need to print a photo for my kids' school project?

Most school projects do not require glossy photos.

And I would say if you have a color laser printer, that's great.

If you don't, take it to FedEx.

I want paper copies of bills I paid, even though it's 2025.

I insist.

Black and white laser printer.

How about I need to just occasionally print important documents like passport application, medical doc?

Same thing, black and white laser printer.

I am a budding photographer, I wish, and I want to print my exceptional work.

Either send it to our Photo Lab Dick

or invest in a dedicated photo printer, even though it's quite expensive.

Printing is a hobby in itself that is quite enjoyable if you can afford it.

What if I find out I'm a Wonderkin?

I think I'm too old to be a Wonderkin.

Never too late, Rosie.

This could be your time.

Before we wrap, we usually ask our guests one final question.

What's the last last thing you've bought that you've really loved?

So as I mentioned, as you mentioned, I'm a photographer.

My most recent purchase is actually an item that was made before I was born.

It is the Nikon F3, which is their third pro camera, basically, but it's a film camera from 1980.

I got it in beautiful shape with a beautiful 50 millimeter 1.2 lens for $250,

which is

probably

$500 below market at the bare minimum.

So I'm pretty happy about that.

Ah, we love a good deal.

Bam!

After my own heart, this is amazing.

I also know that you have a deep knowledge of how to buy a used camera gear, and that might be a good idea.

Yes, I do.

Well, I don't know what kind of photography you do now.

I live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where we have beautiful landscapes.

So I spend a lot of time doing that.

Take a lot of photos of my dog because she's the best.

Oh, I kind of like it all.

You do it all.

I love it.

Love it.

Ben, thank you so much for joining us.

Really appreciate all your insights.

Yeah, it's glad to be here, guys.

so rosie we've we've worked through all of the printer questions all the printer answers how you feeling we're coming up on time um

i feel a couple of ways

i am

shocked to say i have some real brand new respect for the technology involved in creating these machines laser printer and inkjet i'm still very very interested in throwing my inkjet off of the balcony.

Which we should totally do a YouTube and get into the video.

Yeah,

I'm gonna do a YouTube.

Honestly, my main takeaway is I probably should get a laser printer when I'm really ready to get serious about having something in my home.

I can pick one up for $160.

And I actually think for the types of things that I'm doing at home, it's going to be the easiest one to get and maintain.

Yeah, I think that's, you know, my takeaway is that I'm right.

I made the right choice.

Yeah, I would also say, like, I've had a good experience with refurbs.

So if you're looking for something a little less expensive, make sure and look for a refurb that is from brother, ideally.

Yeah, I really don't have a dog in this fight, and I'm so happy for myself about that.

But I will say, it was surprising for me to hear that if you don't use your inkjet enough, then the ink will dry.

Maybe that's common sense, but what?

What?

Why?

So use your printer enough to make sure that the ink doesn't dry.

Yeah.

Love it.

That's a wrap.

If you want to find out more about Wirecutters coverage, or if you want to check out the products we recommended today, anything Ben recommended, please go to nytimes.com slash wirecutter or you can find a link in the show notes.

That's it for us.

Until next week.

Here's what's coming up next week on the wire cutter show.

And you know what I think the most powerful thing to do is?

If you're the akimbo loader, just let the other person do it.

Make sure you're following the show on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss it.

The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel.

Editing by Abigail Keel.

Engineering support from Maddie Mazziello and Nick Pittman.

Today's episode was mixed by Catherine Anderson.

Original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Alicia Baitoup, and Diane Wong.

Wirecutter's deputy publisher and interim general manager is Cliff Levy.

Ben Fruman is Wirecutter's editor-in-chief.

I'm Kyra Blackwell.

I'm Christine Sear Clissette.

And I'm Rosie Guerin.

Thanks for listening.

You know, we love to read the.

We do love to read.

Yeah, we like to read.

We just like to read.

Sometimes it's questionable if I can read, but.

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