Printers

An excellent ‘digital darkroom’ printer for DSLR camera owners who wish to make fade-resistant, poster-sized colour prints.Epson appears to be targeting photo enthusiasts with its new Stylus Photo 1410 printer, which replaces the long-lived Stylus Photo 1290 model and delivers some significant improvements. However, it lacks some features that many photo enthusiasts would like. One positive feature is use of Claria inks, which have been developed to deliver ultra fine detail in prints plus high print durability. On Epson’s glossy photo paper, the molecules in Claria inks’ colouring agents claim to have a stronger and more stable structure that makes them more resistant to the fading effects of light and atmospheric chemicals.

A portable, easy-to-use snapshot printer that delivers long-lasting photo prints for an affordable price.If you’re onto a good thing – as the old ad. used to say – why not stick to it? Epson has certainly followed this advice with its new PictureMate 215, which is a simplified version of the PictureMate 250 we reviewed in November 2006. The new model is a little squarer and 300 grams lighter – and its price is lower. Its power efficiency has also improved.

An attractive, highly portable snapshot printer that is easy to use and delivers long-lasting, photo quality prints.Looking rather like a miniature Esky, Epson’s PictureMate 250 snapshot printer has a generous handle that makes it easy to carry about plus the ability to accept an optional rechargeable battery (RRP $99). There’s some justification in Epson’s designation of its PictureMate printers as ‘portable photo labs’ because they produce prints that look and feel like ‘real’ photo prints. However, the prints last much longer. Wilhelm Imaging Research has given them a lightfastness rating of 96 years.

A portable, easy-to-use snapshot printer with some creative functions children and scrapbookers will enjoy.Canon’s Selphy ES3 is the latest in quite a long series of snapshot printers that use dye-sublimation technology to produce prints with the look and feel of traditional photo prints. Designed for portability, it is more curvaceous than the Sephy ES2 model it replaces and has a curved carrying handle on top. Unfortunately, it’s mains-driven only; no battery pack is available.

A portable dye-sublimation snapshot printer that is simple enough for everyone in the family to operate.It’s obvious from the packaging that Canon is targeting families with its latest Selphy printer, the ES2. Essentially the same size and weight as last year’s ES1 model, the ES2 has the same upright design and small footprint and uses the same dye-sublimation printing technology. We didn’t review the ES1when it was first released so we were interested to see how the new model compared with other snapshot printers we’ve examined.

A pigment-ink version of Canon’s popular Pixma Pro9000 A3+ printer (reviewed in issue 31).It’s taken roughly 18 months for Canon to bring the Pixma Pro9500 printer to the market, which is surprising as so much of it is identical to the Pixma Pro9000, which launched in October 2006. However, the new model uses a completely different ink set that comprises 10 pigment-based ink cartridges, while the Pro9000 has eight dye-based inks. It also costs $300 more than the dye ink model.

A solidly-built A3+ printer that can produce exhibition-quality colour and monochrome prints on a wide variety of media.We’ve waited a while to review Canon’s ten-colour PIXMA Pro9500 Mark II A3+ photo printer, which was announced in March for release in June but only became available at the end of August. Replacing the PIXMA Pro9500, which we reviewed in September 2007, like its predecessor the Mark II is targeted at high-end photo enthusiasts and professional photographers and is a good choice for those who shoot raw files.

An update to Canon’s popular PIXMA Pro9000 dye ink desktop A3+ printer for photographers who wish to produce durable, exhibition quality prints.Although originally scheduled for release in July, it was late October before we received the PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II printer to review. Interestingly, very little has changed in the three years since we reviewed the Pro9000. Even the RRPs have remained the same over the three-year period – which could be seen as remarkable.

A professional-quality A3+ printer with an easy interface that allows users to produce excellent prints with minimal hassles.The Pixma Pro9000 is the first of the long-awaited Canon professional A3+ desktop printers to be released locally. Featuring the proprietary FINE (Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering) printhead technology, it has an eight-colour individual ink tank system that uses the latest ChromaLife100 dye inks. Canon claims prints produced with these inks on certain Canon papers will have an archival life span of 100 years, which is comparable with some pigment inks.

A portable general-purpose inkjet printer that can produce photo prints that match ‘lab quality’.Designed for portability, Canon’s PIXMA iP100 printer promises to produce ‘photo lab quality prints’, although its specifications are more attuned to office printing. It’s a four-colour printer with separate cartridges for black pigment ink and dye-based colour inks (cyan, magenta and yellow plus a photo black to improve darker tones in photo prints). The ChromaLife 100 colour inks promise long-lasting photo prints on Canon’s photo papers (although no test results have been posted on the Wilhelm Research website).