Printer Question

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Last Christmas, I bought my family an Epson Stylus 1520 printer. A couple of days ago I thoght "Gee, wouldn't it be great if I could get a scanner to scan my negatives adn 35mm slides. Lo and behold...

The question is what do I lose by have a 1520 printer (3 head by 64 nozzles) vs a "Photo" printer (5 head by 48 nozzles)?

Thanks John

-- John R Bronk (jbronk@plano.net), July 29, 1999

Answers

John: Rather than focusing on the nozzle architecture, I am going to take a higher level approach to your question. Basically, right now in the inkjet photo printer world, you have two choices. A $500 investment for the EPSON 1200 Photo, and a $200 investment for the HP PhotoSmart Photo Printer. It's debatable which one prints better pictures, but as a dedicated photo printer, both perform for the most part equally. The Epson is a little faster, and does a better job printing text (although text printing is slower than a non-photo printer). The Epson will also print bigger pictures.

In my opinion however, the PhotoSmart is the better buy at the moment because it is less than half as expensive, performs relatively equally to the Epson in terms of the quality of your output, and has what I consider to be better, more substantial media choices. Although the PhotoSmart's resolution is "only" 300 dpi, that is more than adequate for outstanding prints of your digital images. Keep in mind that the resolution for a lab print of a negative image is equivalent to 200 dpi. Also, HP's Photo Paper is much more like the print paper you get from a photo lab when you handle it than the Epson paper I have had experience with.

Basically, what you "lose" is text quality. Photo printers are not good text printers, although they certainly can be adequate. Whichever printer you choose, keep in mind that you are probably going to want to keep your 1520 in service for everyday printing. The cost per page for photo printers (about $2 for both the Epson and HP) is relatively high, and you don't want to deplete a $30 or $40 ink cartridge printing out letters and recipes. With this in mind, you should focus on the best printer for your photo printing needs and dedicate it for that use only while keeping your 1520 around for your everyday printing jobs.

-- Jeffrey Sevier (jsevier@one.net), July 29, 1999.


John, Office Depot is now selling the HP PhotoSmart for $149....a real bargin. I have one and it does a very good job. Jeffrey's response was very ojective.

Given the low price of the HP, I would think HP will be rolling out a new Photo printer in the near future. If you are looking for a printer that will make great 4x5's and an occasional 8x10 you will be happy with the HP (and the cash left in your pocket)

-- Bob Oharra (oharra1857@aol.com), July 29, 1999.


Epson 1520 is not a photo printer. The major difference between all Epson "photo" printers and their regular color printer is the number of color used in printing. All photo printers use 6 colors printing to output more photo realistic prints such as better skin tone and more depth contrast. Other Epson color printers use 4 colors. The 1520 first started with a high price tag of more than $700 because of capability of large format printing. Comparatively, the speed is slightly slower than other Epsons but the quality is as good. It is fun to print 19X21 photo poster for special occasions. One thing about 1520 I must critized is the manual feed. You have to push photo paper or media down the track until the printer grasp them. Just a real pain and easily have prints off margin. HP photosmart seems on the way to be replaced by a newer version but haven't heard anything from HP yet. Amy

-- Amy Lee (amy@euroamericantextile.com), July 30, 1999.

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