I am new to digital photography and am confused by the ads. HP has a new generation of printers (the 970Cse or Cxi and the Photosmart 1000 and 1100) all advertising a new Photoret III technology. Epson and lexmark all have printers hyped as high pquality photo printers. Does anyone have any advise/experience with the new HP printers? Comparisons of the prints from the HP 970, epson 1200 Lexmark 5770 (perhaps it's the 5170)? thanks

-- robert bonanno (robo21@juno.com), October 01, 1999

Answers

The 1200 and its smaller cousin the 750 are really great printers for photos, a top inkjet choice for digicam users. The photosmart (original) has output looking more like real photos, the paper/gloss that is, also very popular for digicam users. Haven't seen reviews of the 1000/1100 yet. They don't look like the same kind of printer as the original photosmart.

-- benoit (foo@bar.com), October 01, 1999.

Well honestly I would axe Lexmark from the shopping list from the get go, those printers are quite junky and certainly have lesser print quality than the Epson. Also remember you need to be able to get cartridges easily and Epson wins that award too, I have the original Photosmart and the cartidges can be a pain to find. Go with the 750Z for 8x10 and if you need 11x17 + 13x19 get the Photo 1200, they are the exact same printer just different paper sizes, and the output is stunning if you get your picture right. Be realistic though, anything less than a Kodak DC260 can't really pull off an 8x10 with enough detail to be aceptable. If you want large format from the higher resolution digicams, get "Genuine Fractal 2.0" and print whatever size you want.

-- Cris Daniels (danfla@gte.net), October 02, 1999.