Printers

Promoted as a ‘total photo solution for home users’, Epson’s Stylus Photo RX530 supports direct printing from PictBridge enabled cameras and most popular memory cards as well as computer-based printing from editing software. It also sports a high-resolution flatbed/film scanner that doubles as a copier for both photos and documents. Stand-alone users can scan, copy and print with one-touch simplicity and the bundled software provides easy integration with image and document editors and email utilities when the RX530 is connected to a PC.

Epson’s Stylus CX4700 is an affordable multifunction printer for home and small office users who want top quality document printouts plus scanning and copying facilities and the ability to print photos. It uses four individually packed DURABrite Ultra pigment inks, which promise prints that will last up to 120 years and offers an ‘optimized’ resolution of 5760dpi with Resolution Performance Management (RPM) technology.

The first desktop printer with Epson’s new UltraChrome K3 ink set, the Stylus Photo R2400 produces long-lasting, exhibition-quality colour and monochrome prints. This latest set of pigment inks delivering much richer colours and a wider colour gamut than Epson’s previous ink sets and can match – and on some papers, better – the performance of printers with top-quality dye inks.

Epson’s new PictureMate 500 rectifies the two main deficiencies we noted in the review of its predecessor, the PictureMate, in issue 19: a colour preview monitor and battery support. The new model’s flip-up 2.4-inch QVGA colour LCD screen lets users view image files before printing them. You can also zoom in on a displayed photo and print a selected area without cropping the original image.

The Pixma iP8500 is Canon’s top A4 printer and features a special print head with with 6144 nozzles and FINE (‘Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering’) technology. This makes Canon printers faster than most of their competitors. The 8-colour ChromaPLUS ink system includes additional red and green ink tanks that expand the colour spectrum. Dual paper trays allow different papers to be loaded simultaneously. A USB port on the front panel supports direct printing from PictBridge cameras and camcorders.

Canon’s Pixma iP6600D is designed for digital photographers who want an easy-to-use home printer that produces sharp, detailed and colour-accurate prints with above-average durability. Designed for use with Canon’s new ChromaLife 100 inks, the iP6600D can produce prints that last up to 100 years in albums, up to 30 years in a glass frame displayed away from direct sunlight and up to 10 years unprotected – provided the prints are made on Canon’s recommended papers.

While the mid-range Pixma iP5000 doesn’t print direct from memory card, it is possible to print from a PictBridge-compliant camera via USB cable, but only at standard quality (there’s no control panel on the printer for making adjustments.)

A compact snapshot printer for camera phone photographers, which delivers good print quality.Kodak is taking its first steps into the competitive camera phone market with its new EasyShare Photo Printer 350. Offering direct printing from Bluetooth-compatible mobile phones it uses thermal dye-transfer (aka ‘dye sublimation’) technology to produce snapshot-sized (10 x 15 cm) prints. No card slots are provided for direct printing but you can connect a PictBridge enabled camera to a port on one side panel or hook up a computer via a rear B port on the rear. A USB cable is supplied.

An easy-to-use printer/scanner/copier for snapshooters and home offices.Unlike the EasyShare 5300, which we reviewed in October last year, Kodak’s latest ‘All-in-One’ (AiO) printer, the ESP-5, doesn’t have messages proclaiming you can ‘Save up to 50%’ on ink costs plastered on its top panel. This is probably because the price of consumables has risen since last year. Nevertheless, the ESP-5 is clearly targeted at price-driven snapshooters who want a multi-function printer that is cheap, easy to use and reasonably versatile.