Guys/Gals/Members of Flyertalk

I guess this should really be in "office technology" rather than travel technology, but still, I figure it would be okay to ask here:

So, I have an old printer in my office that I need to replace. our budget is low, and really, I think our usage is pretty low too.

Basically 2 machines/2 people printing to one printer. monthly cycle I estimate to be less than 1.000 prints/xeroxes.

We have an old Sharp multifunction. xerox/printer on usb to main pc. and mac using parallels to print to it

Ideally:

new printer/xerox with ethernet AND mac compatible.

I guess my biggest worries are besides the printer cost itself, the consumables expenses (toner, and all the other 2-3 things that the companies say must be replaced)

Any experiences? I have seen some HP models, but they seem expensive and consumables even more expensive.

I have been suggested a Kyocera that has network and seems mac compatible. However, the machine price is very high, the consumables are very cheap.

Other suggestions? anyone has experience with such? Brother? Samsung? Panasonic? Lexmark?

Any models? horror stories with malfunctioning?

Thanks for any input.

I got a Brother 8860-DN at Costco. It prints, scans, copies, and does duplexing. It's got a built-in network interface, and just plain works. It was trivial to set it up to print from any machine on our network. For $350 or so, it can't be beat! Consumables are not very expensive, either.

Edited to add: Brother has drivers for all sorts of operating systems. I was pleasantly surprised by their support of Windows XP x64

If usage is low, then I wouldn't worry so much about consumables. I WOULD worry about drivers for non PC equipment. I've used Canon and HP printers. Canon prints better, jams less and the consumables are really low cost. BUT... the Mac drivers are a bit sub-par.

The HP (CP6180) sits on the network, and I've no issue using it from any system (PC, Mac or Linux.) This particular model isn't made anymore, there are newer less expensive ones. There is also a duplex option. As the drivers are the same across the HP all-in-one line (current models at least) I'd expect you to have the least trouble with the HP, albeit at a slightly higher cost for ink.

If you were only printing from Windows, I'd probably suggest the Canon.

Having just gone through this exercise for our small office, we selected the Canon imageCLASS MF4370dn. Note, if you do much multipage scanning, getting a printer that scans from a document feeder is a boon.

Canon makes a few models that are under $400 which are also wifi ready for mac os.....i bought one for $89 via amazon but you probably want something higher end.

Check macworld.com reviews - they have some decent recommendations.

i will swear by the hp c7280. it prints both wirelessly from my laptop (max osx 10.5.6 [too old for snow leopard]) and wired (via ethernet into my router for my imac (mac osx 10.6.2)

print, copy, scan* (with a document feeder for both copy & scan) and fax and all in color** or b&w

*can even scan to a pdf
**the receiving fax must be a color fax and the printer will tell you if y/n

I think there are a host of these machines now and they're all pretty inexpensive and reliable.

I have an 8060 Brother at home and we love it. One of the machines on our home network is a Mac. It works perfectly on it.

i would get the low end xerox machine that is made by xerox. they may have cheaper. all that stuff (brother,hp,cheap xerox,etc) is just made to price point.

we have an n32 and an n40 for b&w. they must be 15y/o. i don't know, as i bought them used. they are brutally big, heavy, and indestructable. each is approaching 1million images.

for color, we have a 6200 and a 6250. they do not get heavy use, probably have only about 50K images each. would get the newer generation, but just don't need it.

usually, the biggest problem with printers and fax machines is the feed. these machines feed great.

I hate to tell you that, but Xerox no longer produces anything. Well anything smaller than iGen 4 or Solid Ink MFP; accordingly Xerox made low-end starts at $10,000 and will probably require a dedicated room or two in your house.
You can still go for one of Xerox branded Samsung produced MFPs. Then again there are colour MFPs they source from Fuji Xerox - those are good quality but a bit pricy compared to Samsung sourced products.

I recently got an HP cm1312nfi. It's a color laser printer/scanner/copier/fax. It has a document feeder too. It has USB and ethernet ports. It has memory card slots that appear on your computer as drives, or that you can print directly from. I paid about $350 from Newegg.

I know it has Mac drivers, but I've only used the Windows and Linux ones. The Windows drivers include network scan support, but they're bloatware. I don't use them much.

Its big brother, the CM2320n, adds duplex printing and the ability to email scans to yourself from the printer.

Thanks everyone,

I will crunch some of this info, which is pretty much some of what I was thinking already , and match with what's available here in Brazil, as unfortunately, everything here is 2 or 3 times more expensive than in the US

I bought a Canon Imageclass and it took me months of tweaking and futzing to discover that the thing won't print envelopes as advertised, and the company even admits the unit can never, ever be made to print envelopes. That was the last time I will ever buy a Canon.