Kodak printers

I just saw a tv ad for Kodak printers.
The ad claimed high quality prints at half the cost for ink.
Does anyone have first hand knowledge of these printers?
What is your opinion of the print quality.
Does the cost of ink really come out about 50% ?
Overall thoughts?

If you like the Kodak line, which printer would you recommend (would be used ONLY for photos)?
Thanks for any input----before this I would have never even thought of a Kodak.

have had my 5100 for 1 year now. prints are very good from cs2 and great from

Qimage. either way much better than lab prints. had a bad printhead last march, replaced by kodak free, at my door 2 days after emailing kodak tech support. never kept an accurate cost of inks, but others have done comparisons that

seem to reflect considerable savings. sometimes finicky feeding for 4x6 borderless.
if there is 5 to 10 sheets in the feeder it works well, more or less is touchy.
steve's digicams has a complete review of the 5500, same print engine but with
fax. for the price a great buy.
paul

I have the Kodak ESP 3.........Excellent Photo Quality at a price anyone can afford and very fast. You can print 4 x 6 photos for only 10 to 15 cents each, but you must purchase the color ink/photo paper combo pkg. to get those prices, just depends on which quality of paper you wish to buy. Ink is $10 for black and a color ink cartridge is around $22.......pigment ink at that

I have this printer but am new to the whole printing at home thing. Should I use the Kodak Software to print (and choose sizes), or should I change each image in photoshop before printing (sizing, resolution, etc). I am sure this is a dumb question,

Does anyone have a link to a good online article about printing basics?

Thanks

John

John -

As you may have read here and elsewhere, you really can't go wrong using Qimage to print your digital images. I use Photoshop Elements to crop, adjust "lighting", etc, but I print exclusively using Qimage. I have a relatively simple HP D7360 ink jet printer and I really like the prints that come off of it, thanks in no small part to Qimage. I use Qimage to make the usual 4x5s, 5x7s, 8x10s, etc, but I also make pages for my photo album using 8.5x11 inch photo paper and using Qimage to size, position, and put in text for a page of pictures. Easy to do!

You can find Qimage here - http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/

Regards,

Paul in NoVA
Olympus E -510, C -730
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stoney_g/sets/

Greetings,

You are going to love printing, it offers lots of options.

The software that comes with the printer will do a great job for you. Kodak has created a 'system' if you will. The printer, ink, software, and media can all work together to create excellent prints. You can also use EasyShare software and the many Greeting Card templates you will find at the download site.

To take advantage of the 'system' I suggest using Kodak paper as well. The printer will recognize Kodak paper and set itself for optimum results. Of course, you can use other papers and get great results as well, just going to cost you a bit more ink in some cases as different media use a lot of ink by design.

Check out the printers of interest at a local store and make your choice after comparing. If cost is a factor, Kodak will likely win hands down.

Talk to you soon,

--
Ron Baird
The Friendly Kodak Guy

pweber said:

have had my 5100 for 1 year now. prints are very good from cs2 and
great from
Qimage. either way much better than lab prints. had a bad printhead
paul

Click to expand...

Paul, I have a 5500 which has same print engine as your 5100. I have been playing with Qimage and I am wondering if you can help me out.

When I print a 4x6 on the Kodak 5500 from Qimage I end up with a slight though noticeable white edge on two sides of the print.

In the Kodak Printer setup I choose 4x6 borderless.

In Qimage Print Properties I chose Auto Cropping On, 4x6 and 0 borders.

May I ask you you get a white border as well? If not, what Qimage Printer Properties do you use?

Thanks in advance.

jr

I use Qimage with a 5300. I use the fit to page option in Qimage and borderless in the Kodak driver and get borderless prints (no small white strips).

Rich

Thank you guys. I now have a new problem when trying to print from photoshop cs2. Trying to print a borderless 4x6 300dpi image on 4x6 kodak paper, I ALWAYS get white borders. Yes, I have both the printer and the photoshop print dialogue set to borderless printing. The ONLY way I can get borderless 4x6 images is by using the Kodak software.

Any suggestions.

Also...I can't figure out why the heck my Identity on here is "andreabaggioli". I have never heard of that name, so I know I did not type it in.

John

sorry for the delay, didn't see the post for help. i use the same settings as Rich, borderless selected in the kodak print driver, no white anywhere. same results
printing from cs2. sorry i couldn't be more help.
paul

Hi:

I'm not certain what printer you saw, but I have been using a pair of Kodak 8500 printers for a number of years now. These printers came out just before the Kodak 1400 printer. Both printers, though, are dye-sublimation printers and do not use ink, but rather ribbons to produce color.

Believe it or not, nothing is cheaper than bringing your prints to the local printers to get 4x6 prints for under 25 cents. You just have to find one that cares a little. We've had good luck at our local CVS and Wegmans [food store]. They come out wonderful. I think I pay 15cents each.

For prints larger than this, Kodak simply isn't a big name in the printer business, although by rights, they should own this market...But Kodak's marketing issues could be a thread altogether.

The 3 big name ink-jet printers will be HP, Epson, and Canon. All three make inexpensive printers $300 and under, that produce better prints than you could have gotten 10 years ago for thousands of dollars.

What's the catch? You'll have to learn how to color correct properly...to a degree, get your monitor calibrated to match your printer output [with respect to color] and be prepared to spend more than you thought. Yes, you'll be printing a lot more than you would buy prints, but you'll also be paying for the mistakes.

There is nothing like seeing a great image come out of your printer as a wonderful print. The range of usable papers will depend much on the type of printer you choose, but will most likely be more varied than you can get by having a company produce them. But, don't go into it to 'save' money. You won't.

Good luck.
--
Rick

I've found life just doesn't fit in 1 camera or manufacturer vision.