Are there any dedicated photo printers on the market that allow direct printing of 8 x 10 prints?

-- Stan Ward (stanward29@aol.com), May 20, 1999

Answers

i know the epson 1200 just came out, look into that. I think it even does 11 X 17

-- benoit (foo@bar.com), May 20, 1999.

There are several.
1. Epson PhotoEX
2. Epson 1200
3. Alps MDxxxx (1000/3000/5000)
4. HP Photosmart
For quality I think the Epson's are probably the best. One disadvantage (which actually forced me to buy a different unit) is that the inks on the Epsons fade faster than the others. The ALPS inks don't fade - but there are noticable bands that are visible in the larger prints in my evaluation of the ALPS units. Smaller prints on the ALPS are incredible-blow-you-away quality, but unfortunatly the prints are sharp, but banded at the 8 X 10 size. I have an HP Photosmart. The inks don't fade as quickly as an Epson, but they do fade in comparison with the ALPS. A nice middle of the road. The sharpness and quality are very close to the Epson so I opted for less fading.
Now - just how much money do you have Stan?
You can go for a real Dye-Sub printer from Kodak, or Fargo - spend several thousand dollars, and get large, archival, wonderful pictures. I'm going to keep my eye on the Epson line - I think they recognize the fading problem and will eventually fix it (hopefully in engineering, not marketing). There are so-called Archival Inks available as refill kits from a company called MIS - but I'm dubious... paranoid perhaps.
My suggestion is, if you don't have multi-thousand dollars to spend then go for an Epson or HP. The HP is only 199 dollars and really prints AMAZING quality. At 199 clams you won't feel guilty at all when a better one comes along.

Des

-- Dan Desjardins (dan.desjardins@avstarnews.com), May 20, 1999.

I just got a Polaroid 4000 film scanner and the prints that I get with it and my HP PhotoSmart printer are pretty impressive. I do like the richness of color that the HP puts out.

-- Robert Johnson (rjjohnson@silverlink.net), May 20, 1999.

Hi, Here is my professional opinion:

1-Epson printers give the most accurate renditions of photos. 2-The Photo EX will print up to 11X17. 3-The new Stylus Photo 1200 will do up to 13X19. ($430)

The quality is amazing!

Regards, Howard

-- Howard (hposner1@swarthmore.edu), May 21, 1999.

I am very much the amatuer, but I am very excited about the quality of the 8X10 photos that I have been printing this week. I have been searching the web and if I can get a 1600 X 1200 pixel picture, I can print it 8X10 and fool anyone I know that it was printed downtown! The HP Photo Printer gives me beautiful 8X10 prints suitable for framing, but only if the image is at 1600 X 1200 pixel resolution or greater. At $199. I highly recomend it! I have not seen anthing from anyone that I know that can beat it's image quality. Good luck! Richard Weeks Blueruner@aol.com Livermore CA

-- Richard Weeks (bluruner@aol.com), May 23, 1999.