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NEWS

Taking Cheap to a Whole New Level
Something tells me that Digital Journal doesn't really like this printer:

You wouldnt expect a printer from a leading brand like Canon to be such a big fat lemon. But if printers could talk, Canons iP1600 Pixma photo printer would say: I suck so hard, I even hate myself.

For $69, the iP1600 takes cheap to a whole new level. But since the replacement cartridges cost about five bucks less than the printer itself, youll eventually end up paying through the print nozzle especially since this printer wastes more ink than a tattoo parlour. One Amazon buyer suggests a useful strategy: Keep buying new printers, take the cartridges from the new one, and then sell the extra printer on eBay.

Worse, its print quality is uglier than a preschoolers first drawing: Characters come out blurry and smudgy, especially on high-gloss paper. This is a shame, because other versions of Pixma are some of the best photo printers around. Why would Canon want to degrade its brand with this piece of dollar-store crap?

Its not like the printer speed exactly lives up to the companys spec sheet either. Canon claims the iP1600 can spew 19 black-and-white pages per minute (ppm), but it actually took us a minute and five seconds just to get the first page out. And by the time we got to page 19, we were already clocking three minutes and two seconds.

For those of you with scientific calculators, that comes to about 6.25 ppm not exactly what it says on the box. Though the manual helpfully instructs you to optimize your speed settings and be judicious with ink usage, it is still way too slow. Thats just deceiving to the consumer, pure and simple.

During our tests, this printer ran out of ink after printing only 18 colour photos (a dozen 8.5 x 11, six 4 x 6). In one word, pathetic.

June 30th, 2006

New Printers from HP
Hewlett Packard has announced the release of six new photo printers - among a whole swag of other new products - including the industry's first compact photo printer capable of storing up to 4,000 photos. Read the press release here.
June 1st, 2006

Save Money with Your Photo Printer
The Marion Daily Republican teaches you how to save on ink and paper for your photo printer.

If the 21 cents per 4 x 6 inch digital print most stores are charging these days is starting to look good to you, it's time to start shopping around. A good way to get a deal on paper is to forego the brand names and go with a generic. To save money on ink, shop online instead of in the stores.

The newspaper's particular recommendation is 123inkjets.
May 29th, 2006

Should a Photo Printer Really Be Baby Blue?
Shiny Shiny, which bills itself as "A girl's guide to gadgets," likes the new Sagem Photo Easy 110.

The obvious question...is 'Should a photo printer really be baby blue?' Then come the all the more subtle questions about whether it's any good, obviously.

Regardless of its looks, it seems to be pretty damn efficient. It can print a 6 x 4 photo in 60 seconds, so you can probably whip through your photos from a long weekend in about half and hour, unless you've got delusions of David Bailey....There's also a button to get rid of red eye, although not one to get rid of genetic anti-photogenic tendencies. Boo.

May 17th, 2006

Four of the Five Best Photo Printers Are...
Which makes the better photo printer - thermal or ink jet? PC Magazine answers your question:

Let's clear up a common misconception. Thermal dye printers do not print better-looking photos than ink jets. They did several years ago, but they no longer do. The reality today is that both technologies can produce good-looking output, but four of the five best photo printers I've seen since mid-2004 are ink jets.

April 28th, 2006

Cheap - If You Don't Use It
PC Magazine looks at the Samsung SPP-2020:

If you're still taking photo files to your local drugstore for prints because you think dedicated photo printers cost too much, the price tag on the Samsung SPP-2020 Digital Photo Printer ($80 street) is bound to catch your eye. That's the lowest price yet for a thermal-dye printer. Unfortunately, the low initial price is balanced by relatively high running costs, which makes the printer a bargain in the long run only if you don't print many photos.
April 17th, 2006

Needs Improving
Business Week
reviews the Lexmark P450 photo printer, and gives it just one thumb up. The headline and sub-head say it all: "A Lexmark Printer That Misses The Mark - The P450 has some great features -- and you'll have plenty of time to explore them while waiting for your prints."

The conclusion:

Overall, I liked this printer, especially for how easily it copies images from the memory card to a CD. It sells for about $200, which to me is about $50 too high. I expected better image quality and would have liked a faster printing time. Lexmark should improve on this product -- but it does have some ideas that competitors could learn from.
April 14th, 2006

Good, But Not the Best
Britain's PC Advisor seems to like the Epson Stylus Photo R340 printer:

Following on from the soon-to-be-discontinued R320 comes this even heavier-duty photo printer from Epson. It may not be cheap, but you get a host of goodies for your money.

The R340 boasts pretty much every feature the digital enthusiast could hanker after from extensive support for PictBridge and USB Direct Print-compatible digital cameras to a memory card drive.


But wait...

The Photo R340 faces fierce competition from the HP Photosmart 8250, and we think the HP retains a slight edge on overall quality and performance, but this is a good model.
April 4th, 2006

Not Like a KFC Restaurant
Business Week is impressed with the HP Photosmart 3310 printer:

Overall, the Photosmart 3310 was sufficient to challenge my notion that the best PC peripherals are like a KFC restaurant - they only do one thing really well. Now they can do five or six things well enough, and will only get better.
April 1st, 2006

Disappointing Performance
PC Magazine gives just a modest review to Epson's new photo printer. The conclusion:

The Epson Stylus Photo R340 offers reasonably high-quality output, the ability to print on printable optical discs, and photo-oriented features, but the performance is disappointing, particularly for business applications.
March 24th, 2006

A Constellation of Features
PC Magazine is highly impressed with the Olympus P-11 photo printer:

Most dedicated thermal-dye photo printers look like they were stamped out cookie-cutter fashion: same size, same shape, and only a few modest design touches to distinguish one from another. The Olympus P-11 ($150 street), however, has its own distinct look and constellation of features. Like most dedicated photo printers in its price range, it can print directly from a PictBridge camera or computer. Unlike most, it can't print from memory cards. But it more than makes up for that with the fastest speed of any dedicated photo printer we've seen to date.
March 15th, 2006

An "Interesting" Product
CNET previews the new HP Photosmart Pro B9180. It writes: "After the resounding silence that met the Photosmart 8750, its first foray into the enthusiast/pro photo-printer space, HP valiantly tries again, this time having learned from its past mistakes," and it concludes that it "looks like it'll be an interesting product to test, at the very least."
March 8th, 2006
 
News Briefs

 - Sci-Tech Today reviews the Canon Pixma iP6600D Photo Printer.

- The PMA Show website contains an interview with Marvin Gross, worldwide product manager of HP printers, and Nancy Pilcher, product manager of HP printer supplies.

- Digital Photography Review introduces the new HP Photosmart Pro B9180 printer.

- Sony introduces its latest digital dye sublimation 8 x 10-inch digital photo printer, the UP-D75.
March 2nd, 2006

Consumers Prefer HP, Says Research from HP
No real surprises - a survey into consumer preferences regarding photo print quality has found that they prefer digital prints from HP, ahead of those from rival systems. The survey was commissioned by HP.
February 27th, 2006

Cheap Ink and Paper - Good Or Bad?
Should you use cheap, no-brand ink cartridges and low-cost paper on your photo printer? The printer companies warn you against it. But why?

Melbourne's (Australia) Herald Sun asked the big three - Canon, HP and Epson - to please explain. Here are a couple of their reasons:

* Tests show that third-party inks require more head cleaning on an inkjet printer and cause more blockages than genuine inks.

Hence, though the initial purchase may cost less, you get to use less of the ink for printing.


* Every ink has some fixed and some variable characteristics -- viscosity and temperature are two key ones.

Every type of paper has its own characteristics -- absorption rate and permeability are two keys ones.

To achieve optimal print quality, every printer vendor programs its printer drivers with the known characteristics of their own ink and paper types.


And there's lots more.
February 24th, 2006

Kodak EasyShare Photo Printer 500
The ABC News website publishes an excellent PC Magazine review of the Kodak EasyShare Photo Printer 500spacer .

An excerpt:

Certainly the most eye-catching feature on the thermal-dye Kodak EasyShare photo printer 500 ($199.95 direct) is its 3.5-inch LCD for previewing photos. But while the large LCD is a nice touch indeed, the EasyShare 500 stands out from the pack of dedicated photo printers for a different reasonthe sheer number of its connection choices.

...Even if you don't take advantage of the EasyShare 500's many connection options, its balance of speed, quality, and cost per photo makes it a reasonable choice. But the more sources you want to print fromcomputer, camera, phone, or whateverthe more attractive it is.

February 16th, 2006

Samsung Photo Printer
Melbourne's Herald Sun is enthusiastic about the Samsung SPP-2040 photo printer:

The printer is a compact device, designed to produce 6x4inch (150mm by 100mm) prints, just like the ones you get from your photo processor. With that size limitation, it isn't designed to produce works of art -- just your everyday snapshots. And that it does brilliantly.

...Don't let the resolution figures put you off: they are only 300 dots an inch. Because the dyes are layered over each other, each dot is precisely the right colour. The results from the Samsung printer were easily up to the quality from a fine photo-processing shop.

Sure, you can plug it into a computer. But why bother? At the front are slots for seven photo-card types. Just slip out your camera's flash memorycard, plug it into the appropriate slot, and select which photos you want to print after perusing them on the 50mm colour LCD screen.

February 9th, 2006

Welcome
My first computer printer - in the early 1980s - was a large, slow and noisy daisy wheel model. Most of my friends had quicker, quieter and smaller dot matrix units. But I preferred the superior quality of the daisy wheel.

Then, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, working as a securities analyst in Tokyo, I wrote reports on the printer companies, and covered the rise and rise of the ink jet printer and the laser printer.

(I also, incidentally, covered the camera and film companies, and recall a mid-1980s visit to Fuji Photo Film when I was shown their early experiments in digital photography - even back then they were making plans for the possible demise of film.)

Today, printers are cheap, high-quality and everywhere. They come with amazing functions. And we see a growing number of specialist printers.

This blog will look at trends in one of these specialties, the photo printer. Please come back often.
February 6th, 2006

Reviews
Canon i9900 Photo Printer
Canon PIXMA iP90 Photo Printer
Canon PIXMA iP5200 Photo Printer
Canon PIXMA iP6600D Photo Printer
Canon PIXMA MP500 Photo Printer

Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition
     Photo Printer

Epson Stylus Photo R1800 Printer
Epson Stylus Photo R2400 Printer
HP Officejet 4215 Printer
HP Photosmart 8450 Photo Printer

 

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