I am in Sydney Australia and have ject purchased an Olympus C-2500L digital camera. Do you know where I can get prints done on photographic type paper in Sydney at a reasonable price?

-- Tino Vella (tinovella@bigpond.com), April 13, 2000

Answers

Go and buy a good photo printer, like the epson stylus 750 or 870 or even higher quality, and u are all set save your money on using commercial help. This way u can play with your pictures and have fun! All the best Paul Stiasny

-- Paul Stiasny (malkah@sympatico.ca), April 13, 2000.

Definitely consider a photo printer. There are two right now that lead the pack in the US. The HP PhotoSmart line is a solid buy. The P1100 is the top of the line model while the P1000 is about a half -step behind. The HP printers offer direct connection to your digital camera so you don't even have to download them to your PC. The Epson 1270 is the next model beyond those already mentioned from that company. It has the advantage of printing with archival quality inks which are advertised to last about 10 -25 years depending on the amount of ultraviolet abuse you subject your prints to. This is comparable to prints you get from the lab. The Epson 1270 also has the advantage of printing huge prints at 11x17 if you wish, which is larger than the optimum output of the HP at 8 x 10. Epson is currently unloading what's left of their inventory of 1200's, but I highly suggest you avoid those because the 1270 is a much better deal for the same money as they are priced in the US. Of course, HP printers are much lower in terms of maintenance and performance tends to be more consistent, but the Epson printers with the proper care and feeding will produce superior output in a much more flexible range of sizes. Oh, I didn't mention the Epson will also print an 11x44 pan, which would be very impressive on any wall I can think of.

Happy printing!

-- Jeffrey Sevier (jsevier@one.net), April 14, 2000.

If you're considering printers, and are at all price conscious, consider the Epson 760. It's "only" a 4 color printer unlike the 6 color photo models, but it does a VERY impressive job on glossy photo paper. I would say that if you showed someone a print as large as 4x6" or even 5x7" from a 2+ megapixel camera, that in 99 out of 100 cases they'd never suspect it was from a digital camera and a $100 printer. Which brings me to point number two in it's favor. You can find them for under $160, with a $30 Epson rebate, and, in the case of CompUSA, an additional in-store instant rebate of $30. Tough to beat for $100. Good third party supplies and weekly printing and cleaning cycles can also go a long way towards lowering the operating costs. One of my suppliers sells third party manufactured ink tanks for $4.99 & $8.99 vs. $22 per for Epson cartridges.

If you feel the need to spend more, and can actually see a difference with samples printed on photo paper from both printers, look at the Epson 6 color models. When I went shopping I got them to print a sample on photo paper from the 4 color 760 and the 6 color 750 and just couldn't see any difference. Certainly not enough difference to justify spending another $150. Get them to print EXACTLY the same image on both models with the same paper and decide for yourself. There may be a difference, but I haven't seen it yet.

I think that the as small as 4 picoliter variable sized drops from the 760 are a very good match for the 6 picoliter variable sized drops from the 6 color models. My thought is that the finer control possible with smaller ink droplets helps make up for not having the additional lighter colored inks. This might not be the case with very fine gradients, I'll have to find an image and see.

If you can see a difference, by all means consider the 870, 875 or 1270. They also have the advantage of having longer lasting inks rated for 10-14 years. On the other hand, you can also get longer lasting third party inks for the older models.

I also looked at the HP 932C, 952C, 970C and similar models in that line and was impressed with what I saw, but not impressed enough to pay twice(or more, 4X in some cases) the price of an Epson 760 for one. You really need to compare photos printed on photo paper to evaluate them against each other unless you're buying them to print on plain paper.

And yes, if I had needed larger prints I would have shelled out the extra money for the new Epson 1270 or a 1200. I mention the 1200 since the new ink cartridges reportedly contain some electronic mechanism(no idea at this point, hearsay?) and may not be easily duplicated by third party suppliers, so you're probably pretty much stuck with paying Epson's inflated prices for consummables. You can get archival inks for the 1200 from third party suppliers.

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@francomm.com), April 14, 2000.

You can also upload your photos to several online photo/share sites, and order prints. From all that I have read, the very best prints are from www.Ofoto.com and you can upload your photos there to share with friends, too. They also give you 50 or 100 free prints when you open your FREE account. Have fun with your camera!

-- Marilu Bishop (canyonlu@home.com), April 14, 2000.

www.snapfish.com is giving away 100 free prints and then .49 cents a piece.

-- alexander (imon@ruonhere.com), April 21, 2000.

If you are considering the large print sizes and are thinking about a printer, HP has a new printer HP Deskjet 1220 that will print 13X19 inch prints.

-- Victor LaBolle (viclabo@northcoast.com), April 23, 2000.

I too have a C2500 Olyumpus digial camera and use a HP DeskJet printer which I am very pleased with. I use HP paper and also Hp Premium Plus Photo Pater,Glossy,9mil.You will be very satisfied from the results.

-- Don Thompson (dthom49484@aol.com), April 24, 2000.