This article contains affiliate links: I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
If you are shopping for a first resin printer for miniatures, the shortlist almost always comes down to the same three 7-inch machines: the Elegoo Mars 4 Ultra, the Anycubic Photon Mono 4 (10K), and the Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra. This is the entry tier, where a resin printer stops being a purchase you have to justify and becomes a thing you just buy. One caution up front: prices in this tier move constantly, and which of the three is cheapest changes with them, so check current price on each before you decide.
The good news is that the entry tier in late 2026 is genuinely good, not a compromise you tolerate. If you want the wider view across every price bracket, the best resin printers for tabletop miniatures roundup is the pillar for all of this, and the budget printer guide is the broader first-printer buying guide, including what to buy alongside the machine.
This piece is narrower on purpose: those three printers head to head, on the manufacturers’ own spec sheets, and what the tier actually costs you.
Specs here come from the manufacturers and performance notes from published reviews. My own printer is an original Elegoo Saturn.
The Short Answer
| Pick | Printer | Price | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best at a hard cap | Elegoo Mars 4 Ultra | Check current price | Same print specs as the Mars 5 Ultra, full Elegoo accessory ecosystem |
| Best if it is on sale | Anycubic Photon Mono 4 (10K) | Check current price | Slightly finer pixel and larger plate than the Mars, large Anycubic user base |
| Worth stretching for | Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra | Check current price | Newer generation with the same print specs, worth it if the price gap is small |
If you want one sentence: buy the Elegoo Mars 4 Ultra unless the Photon Mono 4 (10K) happens to be discounted the week you are shopping, in which case buy that instead. Both will print miniatures you are happy to put on a table.
What the Entry Tier Actually Costs You
Here is the part most budget roundups skip. Shopping at this price does not cost you print quality. It costs you three specific things, and whether they matter depends entirely on how you play.
Build plate size. This is the whole game. Machines in this tier land around 153 by 78 to 87mm of plate. By area that is roughly half of my original Saturn’s 192 by 120mm plate, which fits 10 to 12 standard 28mm figures per run, so expect about half as many per run, or one medium creature with its supports. Step up to a 10-inch-class machine like the Saturn 4 Ultra 16K and you are at 211.68 by 118.37mm, which is a Huge base plus a couple of monsters in a single run. Nothing about the printed detail changes. What changes is how many separate print, wash, and cure cycles your Friday-night prep takes.
Print speed. Speed varies more than you would expect in this tier. Elegoo rates both Mars Ultras at up to 150mm/h. Anycubic rates the Photon Mono 4 at up to 50mm/h with standard resin and up to 70mm/h with its high-speed resin. The ratings use different resins and conditions, and real times depend on layer height and exposure, so use them to compare, not to predict. For an army, a slower printer compounds into real weeks.
Headroom. A printer in this tier is sized for one player printing for themselves. It handles that well and indefinitely. What it does not do is absorb your hobby growing. If you start printing for your whole table, or get into terrain, or decide busts are your thing, you will feel the plate before you feel anything else.
Notice resolution is not on that list. Every machine below is at 9K or 10K, which works out to 17 to 18 microns of XY resolution. For a 28mm model that has been primed, painted, and set down three feet from someone’s eyes, all of those numbers are past the point of visibility. Resolution is no longer the budget-tier compromise, and the marketing has not caught up.
Best at a Hard Cap: Elegoo Mars 4 Ultra
Check the Elegoo Mars 4 Ultra on Amazon
The Mars 4 Ultra is the machine I point people at when they have a hard budget cap, and it wins for an unglamorous reason: on Elegoo’s spec sheets it matches the Mars 5 Ultra on display, pixel size, plate and rated speed, it is usually the cheaper of the two, and it plugs into the Elegoo accessory ecosystem.
The 9K LCD (8520 × 4320) is 18 microns per pixel per Elegoo’s spec page. That is well below the 35 to 50 microns of the 4K generation, which is enough for the things that show: faces, cloth folds, filigree, anything under about 15mm of actual model.
Build plate is 153.36 by 77.76 by 165mm, with a rated speed of up to 150mm/h. Neither number is exciting and neither needs to be, because what the Mars 4 Ultra is actually selling is that it is an Elegoo Mars. FEP film, replacement parts, wash and cure stations, and resin profiles for the Elegoo line are widely available and well documented, which matters when something goes wrong.
Price is where you have to pay attention. Listings move and some come as bundles (the one linked here has been listed with a screwdriver set), so compare like with like. When the gap to the Mars 5 Ultra is small, the comparison gets interesting, which I get into below.
If you later move up inside the Elegoo line, check Elegoo’s spec pages for what carries over (FEP size, resin profiles, slicer support) before assuming a workflow transfers.
Specs that matter:
- XY resolution: 18 microns (9K)
- Build volume: 153.36 x 77.76 x 165mm
- Print speed: up to 150mm/h (rated)
- Price: check current price
Best for: A hard budget cap, one player printing for themselves, anyone who wants the path of least resistance on parts and support.
Best If It Is On Sale: Anycubic Photon Mono 4 (10K)
Check the Anycubic Photon Mono 4 (10K) on Amazon
The Photon Mono 4 (10K) is a price-driven pick. Compare it against the Mars on the day.
On paper it is, if anything, slightly finer than the Mars 4 Ultra: 17 by 17 microns against 18. At table distance on a painted 28mm mini, neither pixel size is the limiting factor. It also gives you a slightly larger plate at 153.4 by 87mm against the Mars’s 153.36 by 77.76mm, about 12% more area, and Anycubic’s own large user base, which is the same argument I made for Elegoo above pointed at a different logo. Both of these brands are safe bets specifically because they are boring and everywhere.
Print speed is where it falls behind. Anycubic rates it at up to 50mm/h with standard resin and up to 70mm/h with high-speed resin, against up to 150mm/h for the Mars on Elegoo’s spec sheets. The resins and conditions differ, but the direction is clear. Whatever resin you start on, standard resin is not durable, so buy something tougher before you print a model you want to keep.
The Mono 4 has the finer pixel and the larger plate. The Mars is much faster on paper and sits in the larger Elegoo accessory ecosystem. Price on the day should decide it. If the Mono 4 is well below the Mars, take it and do not feel like you compromised.
Specs that matter:
- XY resolution: 17 x 17 microns (10K)
- Build volume: 153.4 x 87 x 165mm
- Print speed: up to 50mm/h standard resin, up to 70mm/h high-speed resin (rated)
- Price: check current price
Best for: Sale shopping, anyone who wants the slightly bigger plate, anyone already invested in Anycubic accessories.
Worth Stretching For: Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra
Check the Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra on Amazon
This one usually costs more than the other two. I am including it because pretending otherwise would be dishonest about what a little more money buys in this specific tier.
On Elegoo’s spec sheets the Mars 5 Ultra matches the Mars 4 Ultra on display, pixel size, plate and rated speed. What you are paying for is the newer generation and its feature set (check Elegoo’s listing for the current list), and a generally longer runway for parts and profiles after the Mars 4 line ages out. If the price gap is small, buying the newer one is not a close call. If it is big, the Mars 4 Ultra gives you the same print specs for less.
I am not going to tell you to blow past your own budget. A hard cap is a hard cap, and both machines above genuinely work. But if your budget is soft and the gap is small, spend the difference here rather than on accessories you can add later.
Comparison
| Printer | XY resolution | Build plate | Speed (rated) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elegoo Mars 4 Ultra | 18 microns | 153.36 x 77.76mm | up to 150mm/h |
| Anycubic Photon Mono 4 (10K) | 17 x 17 microns | 153.4 x 87mm | up to 50mm/h standard, 70mm/h high-speed resin |
| Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra | 18 microns | 153.36 x 77.76mm | up to 150mm/h |
Specs are from the Elegoo and Anycubic spec pages. Prices in this tier move constantly and sale pricing is the norm rather than the exception.
The Printer Is Not the Whole Budget
This is the thing that catches people, and it is the most useful paragraph in this article. The printer is a big part of what you have to spend before your first good print, but not all of it.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Wash and cure station | $50 to $80 |
| Durable resin (2 x 500ml) | $40 to $50 |
| Nitrile gloves and safety glasses | $15 to $20 |
| Flush cutters | $15 to $20 |
| Everything except the printer | $120 to $170 |
The wash and cure station is the one people try to skip. You can wash prints in an isopropyl jar and cure them under a cheap UV lamp, and it works, and it is messy and inconsistent enough that most people buy a station within two months anyway. Budget for it up front if you can.
Resin is the other one worth doing right immediately. Standard resin and ABS-like resin look identical coming off the plate and behave completely differently after three game sessions of being picked up, knocked over, and dropped in a bag. Something like Siraya Tech Blu (now sold as Blu Tough in Easy Grey) or Elegoo’s own ABS-like line costs a couple of dollars more per bottle and saves you reprinting models that snapped at the ankles. Learn the hobby on the resin you are actually going to use.
Gloves are not optional. Uncured resin is a skin irritant and a sensitizer, meaning repeated casual exposure can turn into a reaction that ends the hobby for you. A box of nitrile gloves is twelve dollars. The resin printing safety guide covers ventilation and handling properly, and it is the one thing on this page you should read before you open your first bottle.
Questions People Actually Ask
Is an entry-level printer good enough for DnD minis? Yes, without qualification. Print quality at this tier is limited by support placement and orientation, not by the machine. A well-oriented print on an entry-level printer beats a badly oriented one on a flagship every single time, which is why the support placement guide and the orientation guide will improve your results more than any hardware upgrade at this price.
What about even cheaper machines? They exist, mostly as older 4K models being cleared out or as no-name machines with no parts pipeline. The 4K clearance units print acceptable 28mm minis and I would not talk anyone out of one if the price is right. The no-name machines are where I would stop: when the FEP film is a proprietary size and the community is forty people on a forum, a small saving turns into a dead printer the first time something breaks. Save the difference and buy a machine with an ecosystem.
Should I buy used instead? Sometimes. The honest math: FEP film is a $5 to $10 consumable you should replace on day one regardless, build plates can be dinged, and there is no way to check how many hours are on the LCD panel, which is the part that actually dies. At 30 to 40 percent below new, and if you are comfortable replacing FEP immediately, used is a reasonable play. At a small saving on a machine this cheap, buy new and get the warranty.
Would an FDM printer be better value at this price? For miniatures, no. This is the clearest comparison in the hobby and I have written about it at length in resin vs FDM for miniatures. FDM at this price prints at 100 to 200 microns against resin’s 17 to 18, and that gap is plainly visible on a 28mm face. For terrain and large scenery, FDM is genuinely the better tool. For character models, resin wins at every price point including this one.
Will it fit on my desk? Yes, comfortably. Everything in this tier has a footprint around a large shoebox. If desk space is the actual constraint driving your search rather than money, small resin printers for miniatures approaches the same question from that angle.
What I’d Actually Buy
Buy the Mars 4 Ultra if the price is right. Buy the Photon Mono 4 (10K) if it is on sale below the Mars. Buy the Mars 5 Ultra if the price gap is small or your budget is softer than you are admitting to yourself.
And then spend the next fifty dollars on a wash and cure station rather than a second bottle of resin, because the workflow around the printer is what determines whether you keep doing this. The machine was never the hard part.