J
Jerrydf
Guest
Here's my review of the Olympus p400 dye sub printer...
THE GOOD:
The prints look excellent. Good color. No dots. No scratchs.
The overlay is also a UL filter. Olympus says longevity should rival a silver halide print.
THE BAD:
The box comes with enough ribbon and paper for only 5 prints. Olympus, how cheap can you get?
The paper size is A4 which is 3/8" narrower than 8.5 x 11".
The paper cannot be used with multiple passes e.g. print a 4x5 on one edge now and flip the page and print another 4x5 tomorrow.
Though Olympus presales info people told me any photograde paper would work, now they say only their dye sub paper is O.K. because the wrong thickness paper will/might damage the thermal printing head.
No ICM profile is available. Maybe sometime in the future...
Though the printer reads film cards for direct printing, it won't pass the data through to the computer for use in a photo-editing program.
THE UGLY:
Most dealers have no ribbon or paper yet.
No USB (or parallel) cable is included.
No adapter to read a Compact Flash card is included.
There is no way to stop the print driver from applying some sharpening on top of what a photo-editing program applies.
Though the technology and price say "ProAm" the silly downloadable graphic additions say "Amateur sends to Grandma" are target users.
The main instruction manual is on a CD-ROM for the user to print out. Not on this printer!
THE GOOD:
The prints look excellent. Good color. No dots. No scratchs.
The overlay is also a UL filter. Olympus says longevity should rival a silver halide print.
THE BAD:
The box comes with enough ribbon and paper for only 5 prints. Olympus, how cheap can you get?
The paper size is A4 which is 3/8" narrower than 8.5 x 11".
The paper cannot be used with multiple passes e.g. print a 4x5 on one edge now and flip the page and print another 4x5 tomorrow.
Though Olympus presales info people told me any photograde paper would work, now they say only their dye sub paper is O.K. because the wrong thickness paper will/might damage the thermal printing head.
No ICM profile is available. Maybe sometime in the future...
Though the printer reads film cards for direct printing, it won't pass the data through to the computer for use in a photo-editing program.
THE UGLY:
Most dealers have no ribbon or paper yet.
No USB (or parallel) cable is included.
No adapter to read a Compact Flash card is included.
There is no way to stop the print driver from applying some sharpening on top of what a photo-editing program applies.
Though the technology and price say "ProAm" the silly downloadable graphic additions say "Amateur sends to Grandma" are target users.
The main instruction manual is on a CD-ROM for the user to print out. Not on this printer!