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02/16/2005 05:24:27 PM · #1 |
Edited 200 pics to your likings, dropped them of at the printing office and got something totally different back? All your timeconsuming edits down the drain because their printing software applies a auto-curves auto-color filter on the photos of all their clients? Sharpening settings that suddenly don't work anymore or are sharpened again ?
It happened to me just too many times. Contrast that suddenly was crap, colors uncolored etc. Therefore I started looking for a good 4x6 printer that prints the way I want it to. 4x6 is good enough for at home, for bigger prints I use a Kodak lab which produces great 30x45cm photos even from 3mp cameras. No experience with DPC yet because of the added costs of shipping to Europe.
What I also hate is dropping them off and picking them up or uploading huge amounts of files.
At first I was looking at dye-sub printers, because hey, dye sub looks a lot like real printing. The prints look and feel like real prints etc. But there are a lot of reports about prints fading within a few years, like within 5 years! The variety of colors these can produce was also not too my liking.
So I started looking at the inkjets again. Previous experiences with Epson products (Epson Stylus 790 Photo and Perfection 2400 photo scanner) made me look at the Epson PictureMate. Despite that it seems to be made for my mother, who would only want to push one button to get a print is is actually a pretty nice machine for good prints.
- 5 colours, including red and blue, plus one black
- same pigment inks as used in the Epson R800
- print life between 80 to 200 years (test confirm this)
- easy inkcartridge with a guaranteed lifetime of minimal 100 prints (100 pieces of paper included), so now I also know what my prints cost and what I need to charge to a buyer (I printed 30 this evening). Other users say the cartridge can do up to 160 prints.
- high resolution, up to 5760dpi (inket dpi's are not like lab dpi's)
- can be used standalone but just as easy from the pc or mac
- small
Looked at it in the store, did a test, was easily convinced and ordered one. I do not intend to use it standalone with the cardreaders or pictbridge, because I want full control. So it is permanently connected to my PC with the the USB cable that I had to buy seperately. So now you know the background.
experiences
Tonight I installed it. It went very smooth, but what doesn't install smooth nowadays?
Sofar I have done 40 prints in total this evening. Ten edited NEF's straight from Nikon Capture and thirty from my S602Z that I prepared earlier this year and still needed to bring to the printing store.
There are basically 2 quality settings. With and without fine detail enhancement. I think the latter is printing at 5760dpi and it is a lot slower. A normal print isn't fast, but the fine setting is up to twice or more as slow. The speed isn't really an issue because I edit the next photo in that time or spent my time at dpc. :)
Both type of prints look better than I have ever gotten from the printing stores. The finer print is better, but even the 'fast' print is pretty good as well.
Detail is good, colors are excellent, what I produce on screen is what almost (didn't use a dedicated printer profile) gets out of the printer. With the right sharpening settings they are very sharp (I shoot with all my cameras with the sharpening to low or off). I can't see any typical inkjet flaws with my eyes and I have very sharp vision at short distances.
Black is black and the transition from black to bright is smooth. Nice glossy finish, I believe this is not only a result from the paper but also from the inks.
Needles to say: I am very happy with the output.
It worked great from Nikon Capture 4.2, but I didn't like to work with Epson Photoquicker 3.5 Tomorrow evening I will start to work with it from Photoshop.
The problem with Photoquicker is that it is setup for your mum. It works nice if it can use the EXIF info from the file. But when there is no EXIF, like with your average edited photo saved with Photoshop it switches to PhotoEnhance. PhotoEnhance does exactly what the print shop does. A nice agressive brightening curve. Fortunately PhotoEnhance can be set to off, but you shouldn't forget to do just that and to apply it to all the photos you'll be printing.
If you were used to the settings you had available in for example Photoquicker 2.0 (Epson 790 age), well they are not there. No Photoquicker sharpening or color corrections. If you are serious about this you should use serious program anyway. The program you use and the quality of your edits can greatly improve the print.
The printer comes with a cartridge and a pack of 20 6x4's. But it will print much more than those 20, so buy a picturepack (cartridge plus 100 papers) or better a 50 or 100 pack of 6x4 Epson Premium Glossy photopaper right away. With 40 prints done the ink indicator says I still have more than half the ink. The first cartridge lasts shorter as the second one because the first is also used to charge and clear the nozzles. Other people also recommended Durabrite paper.
I estimate that an average print costs me at most EUR 0.39 and more likely about EUR 0.35. That is not cheap, but considering the output it is worth it. I still have to look for less expensive suppliers.
I read that American users can get below USD 0,30 to around USD 0.25 or less depending on the amount of prints you ultimately get from the cartridge and the price of your supplies.
Another point where I save money now is the cost of bringing the CD's away and picking the prints up. No more fuel, no parking costs, no hour wasted. And if it goes wrong I just print a different one right away.
This post was not intended to sell anything to you. If you are in the market for a printer like this it might be of help, that's the intention. I do suggest to visit a demo day (some stores do that), to get a testprint from Epson America or to do some prints in the shop. I have no idea what the results will be from Picbridge or card printing.
Message edited by author 2005-02-16 17:28:44.
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02/16/2005 06:27:32 PM · #2 |
I have that one, but for me the color has not been accurate.
I printed one pic on it and one at a store and the one from the Epson was off from what i see on my monitor.
I have tried it several times with the same result.
Not sure why yet...
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02/16/2005 06:52:36 PM · #3 |
Excellent review there Sander, thanks.
I have the Epson R800. I absolutely love it, my only negative is I wish it did A3, but I can always get that done elsewhere the few times I want bigger than A4.
I have been printing off standard size prints recently at K-mart (Australia) as they are currently doing them far cheaper than I can manage (25 USc I think). The results from them are ok, but not outstanding, for the same reasons I assume that you found.
At home I tend to buy those snazzy pre-cut (6x4) premium photo paper cards. I can stack them up in the printer and then just go for it.
So, my question is ......
Do you think I would get any realistic benefit if for the 6x4's I were using the picture mate rather than the R800?
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02/17/2005 07:06:19 AM · #4 |
Originally posted by Natator:
Do you think I would get any realistic benefit if for the 6x4's I were using the picture mate rather than the R800? |
No, I think not.
The R800 is probably cheaper because of its seperate ink tanks and a bit faster. The R800 also uses smaller ink drops so the print should look even better.
The R800 has the white gloss ink to fill the whites on your paper, the Picturemate doesn't have that. The printer driver of the R800 also offers more options.
On the R800 you can print on luster/matte papers and is has a seperate black for that. The Picturemate is solely for glossy.
If you already have an R800 a Picturemate does not make sense.
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02/17/2005 07:06:54 AM · #5 |
Originally posted by TerryGee:
I have that one, but for me the color has not been accurate.
I printed one pic on it and one at a store and the one from the Epson was off from what i see on my monitor.
I have tried it several times with the same result.
Not sure why yet... |
What program did you use to print?
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02/17/2005 07:15:46 AM · #6 |
I first work up my pics in PS.
Then upload to media cards to bring to the printer(costco).
So I believe that i just put the media cards in to print from the Epson as well.
I have not tried hooking it up to a computer simply because my plans for it were to use it as a stand alone printer for events.
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02/17/2005 07:52:46 AM · #7 |
I fear that when you load your pics on a card and then print from that card, the same thing might happen like what I talked about concerning the PhotoEnhance feature of PhotoQuiker.
Perhaps a few settings can be tweaked (on the printer) to prevent it?
Message edited by author 2005-02-17 07:53:23.
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02/17/2005 08:00:56 AM · #8 |
Originally posted by Azrifel:
I fear that when you load your pics on a card and then print from that card, the same thing might happen like what I talked about concerning the PhotoEnhance feature of PhotoQuiker.
Perhaps a few settings can be tweaked (on the printer) to prevent it? |
I guess one of these days I will read the instructions and play around with it.
Thanks for making me at least think about actually getting it to work :-)
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02/17/2005 08:18:54 AM · #9 |
Any consumer end printer of this type is gonna default to that overbright, oversaturated set up. That's what ma and pa kent want. ;) Little bit of time and tweaking will get your settings where you want them. Also double check your monitor settings and your color profile when printing.
Clara |
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02/17/2005 08:42:20 AM · #10 |
I have the HP 4x6 photo printer with the LCD screen and battery and the prints are also beautiful. I had the HP photoprinter 245 before and exchanged it for the newer model with the battery. I looked at the epson you have but went for the hp because of the LCD screen. But the colors are accurate also black and whites are nice too.
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02/17/2005 06:33:35 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by Azrifel:
If you already have an R800 a Picturemate does not make sense. |
I thought that would be the case. Thanks for clarifying :)
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02/18/2005 12:54:45 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by TerryGee:
I guess one of these days I will read the instructions and play around with it.
Thanks for making me at least think about actually getting it to work :-) |
According to the manual a auto-correction will be applied to all photos you try to print from the card. This autocorrection can be turned off.
Update:
I printed from Photoshop last night (25): no problem, simply good quality close to my monitor photos.
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