Latest Kodak 5100 impressions....

[Raist3d]

sounds good. Too bad I absolutely refuse to support kodak with
their factories in China helping the Chinese to maintain their grip
on Tibet.

If that's the case, I am afraid you will have to avoid buying a lot of stuff from many brands. I am not saying your point is invalid, but I sure hope you are not buying from many other brands that also have China factories. That includes and is not limited to, Canon, Epson and probably HP.

--
Raist3d
Tools/Gui Programmer - vid games industry, photography student

 

[Dunhill]

Because I dont' feel like it.

OK... I merely thought that potential buyers could benefit from your experience with respect to this problem.

 

[bob11684]

so far so good, a search around my place reveals no made in china stickers.

 

[Raist3d]

Because I dont' feel like it.

OK... I merely thought that potential buyers could benefit from
your experience with respect to this problem.

Allright, Ill try it out. I just haven't seen banding in any of the full size pictures I have printed. I think that seeing banding putting strong light at an angle which is not how real world photos will be seen is a bit too much.

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Raist3d
Tools/Gui Programmer - vid games industry, photography student

 

[Raist3d]

so far so good, a search around my place reveals no made in china
stickers.

Just remember, that if you buy from a company that does have factories in China, you are still supporting them even if your products don't say made in China...

--
Raist3d
Tools/Gui Programmer - vid games industry, photography student

 

[Raist3d]

Sorry for my somewhat harsh reply. I just felt your request was a bit ... too much but I think that was in the context of some other people I have seen post stuff. I didn't give you the benefit of the doubt. I am sorry I replied like that to you.

Ill do the test you wanted, though I still stand that looking at pictures at an angle under strong light is really something that should be taken into account if that's the way to see the problem.

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Raist3d
Tools/Gui Programmer - vid games industry, photography student

 

[funkatation]

Circuit City has the 4x6 and 8.5x11 Ultra Premium Kodak paper for half off... I think it's good until 4/28. Plus if you have a best buy reward zone card and you buy the 2-ink pack (black + color) you can get up to a $9.99 paper pack for free. Makes the cost of printing that much cheaper!

 

[Raist3d]

Thanks for letting me know!

--
Raist3d
Tools/Gui Programmer - vid games industry, photography student

 

[Leeuwarden]

After I had finished counting the resulting prints, I was
astonished to discover that I had printed 153 pictures! Using a
Premium Pack price of $19.99, this works out to about $.13 per
print.

You must have a lot of "left over" prints. Would you be so kind to send me some?

jvdwal2000-at-chello.nl
(remove -at- and insert @)

 

[ultraman]

ok, recieived my canon ip6700d today and after comparing the two, the kodak will be returned...

here are some more observations...

on ilford smooth gloss 8.5x11, the 5100's prints looks very good, hard to tell between 5100 and ip6700d.

on epson heavyweight matte 8x10, the 5100 is horrible, washed out, banding all over the place. the ip6700d is perfect.

the 5100 cannot print on velum paper, jammed 100% of the time. not a big deal for me, but my wife does plenty of scrapbooking and needs this.

the 5100 is faster than the ip6700d when printing custom fine photos and printing plain paper text.

the 5100 takes about 20 seconds before it feeds the paper to start printing, the ip6700d takes less than 3 seconds to feed the paper.

the ip6700d is much quieter and shakes much less when printing, the 5100 feels like a small earthquake when printing letter size prints (although you probably won't notice if your desk was heavy).

 

[Raist3d]

ok, recieived my canon ip6700d today and after comparing the two,
the kodak will be returned...

here are some more observations...

on ilford smooth gloss 8.5x11, the 5100's prints looks very good,
hard to tell between 5100 and ip6700d.

on epson heavyweight matte 8x10, the 5100 is horrible, washed out,
banding all over the place. the ip6700d is perfect.

the 5100 cannot print on velum paper, jammed 100% of the time. not
a big deal for me, but my wife does plenty of scrapbooking and
needs this.

the 5100 is faster than the ip6700d when printing custom fine
photos and printing plain paper text.

the 5100 takes about 20 seconds before it feeds the paper to start
printing, the ip6700d takes less than 3 seconds to feed the paper.

I wonder if the ip6700d has some "fetch ink" warmups like the pixma 4300/5000.

the ip6700d is much quieter and shakes much less when printing, the
5100 feels like a small earthquake when printing letter size prints
(although you probably won't notice if your desk was heavy).

Man, good luck with the printer, I am sure it prints really well considering it's 6 inks and 1 picoliter.. but I don't want to even begin to imagine the cost per print of this one.

--
Raist3d
Tools/Gui Programmer - vid games industry, photography student

 

[Raist3d]

Ok, so I just printed a full black borderless corner to corner 8.5' by 11' page - using FuilFilm Premium Photo Paper (not the best one they have but the 2nd best one which not so long ago was the best one).

At first absolutely no banding- it's pure black. I decided to take it to a strong light- still nothing.

I decided to play around with the angles and arc the paper - and then and only then I noticed very faint banding.

I consider this a complete non issue. I have seen this in other printers (Canon) and I have never ever seen any of the prints in color or black and white, from the Kodak, having this banding. I consider the conditions to see this absolutely not real world and even when I saw it it was super faint.

So those are my findings. With full certified Kodak paper is quite possible there's zero anyway. I was not able to see any banding in my 4x6's. Again, I consider this to be a comple non issue in my book. It's very hard to see and you have to put the paper under completely out of the reality conditions.

--
Raist3d
Tools/Gui Programmer - vid games industry, photography student

 

[Raist3d]

So decided to print an 8.5' by 11' portrait shot of a friend, and I did notice some banding in the darker (not 100% black) areas of the photo. I recalibrated the printer and while it diminished them quite a bit, they are still there if you look carefully.

Would I consider this an issue at this point? I would have to try with Kodak Paper. I haven't had this issue with the 4x6' of Kodak paper (again, I am using FujiFilm paper for the 8.5' by 11'). I have seen banding before on the Canon i950 when I used the color-last Kodak paper back in time, but not on the pixma 5000 in the highest quality setting. So I think this can vary by paper. I have to try the official Kodak paper and see.

On 4'x6' I don't see this at all.

--
Raist3d
Tools/Gui Programmer - vid games industry, photography student

 

[Dunhill]

So decided to print an 8.5' by 11' portrait shot of a friend, and I
did notice some banding in the darker (not 100% black) areas of the
photo. I recalibrated the printer and while it diminished them
quite a bit, they are still there if you look carefully.

Would I consider this an issue at this point? I would have to try
with Kodak Paper. I haven't had this issue with the 4x6' of Kodak
paper (again, I am using FujiFilm paper for the 8.5' by 11'). I
have seen banding before on the Canon i950 when I used the
color-last Kodak paper back in time, but not on the pixma 5000 in
the highest quality setting. So I think this can vary by paper. I
have to try the official Kodak paper and see.

On 4'x6' I don't see this at all.

--
Raist3d
Tools/Gui Programmer - vid games industry, photography student

Thanks. I'm glad it's not a problem for you, and, in fact, it's not a major problem for me either since I can print without banding using a USB memory stick. However, I'm sure Kodak would like to eliminate the problem if they can.

I'm now in contact with the Kodak Printer Team and I will post here if I learn anything new. I expect to receive some 5-star paper today, and I'll try a print tonight.

I agree that typical prints are not impacted by this problem, but here's an example of an image that is greatly impaired by even the faintest banding. It requires virtually perfect printing in the black areas:

 

[Raist3d]

So decided to print an 8.5' by 11' portrait shot of a friend, and I
did notice some banding in the darker (not 100% black) areas of the
photo. I recalibrated the printer and while it diminished them
quite a bit, they are still there if you look carefully.

Would I consider this an issue at this point? I would have to try
with Kodak Paper. I haven't had this issue with the 4x6' of Kodak
paper (again, I am using FujiFilm paper for the 8.5' by 11'). I
have seen banding before on the Canon i950 when I used the
color-last Kodak paper back in time, but not on the pixma 5000 in
the highest quality setting. So I think this can vary by paper. I
have to try the official Kodak paper and see.

On 4'x6' I don't see this at all.

--
Raist3d
Tools/Gui Programmer - vid games industry, photography student

Thanks. I'm glad it's not a problem for you, and, in fact, it's
not a major problem for me either since I can print without banding
using a USB memory stick. However, I'm sure Kodak would like to
eliminate the problem if they can.

I want to make clear I don't get this in 4x6 in Kodak Paper. It could just be the paper. Several of my Canons have had banding issues one I step out of Canon paper in some paper types.

I'm now in contact with the Kodak Printer Team and I will post here
if I learn anything new. I expect to receive some 5-star paper
today, and I'll try a print tonight.

The printer came with 5 star paper (5 studio gloss/ 5 gloss ("semi gloss canon equiv")).

I agree that typical prints are not impacted by this problem, but
here's an example of an image that is greatly impaired by even the
faintest banding. It requires virtually perfect printing in the
black areas:

Well I want to make clear again, that I really haven't had this issue. Of all the prints I have made I noticed now one single 8.5' by 11' and only using Fujifilm paper so far. It could be the paper- the same has happened to my Canons.

I have printed a framed a picture that has a lot of black and white content that would certainly show the banding - a 8.5' by 11' pic, yet there's none:



I dont' want to sound like I dont' think finding more about this isn't important but I want just want to avoid preliminary conclusions then.

--
Raist3d
Tools/Gui Programmer - vid games industry, photography student

 

[Raist3d]

Circuit City has the 4x6 and 8.5x11 Ultra Premium Kodak paper for
half off... I think it's good until 4/28. Plus if you have a best
buy reward zone card and you buy the 2-ink pack (black + color) you
can get up to a $9.99 paper pack for free. Makes the cost of
printing that much cheaper!

The paper seemed at the usuall price. Maybe I didn't look properly or the sale is already gone.

--
Raist3d
Tools/Gui Programmer - vid games industry, photography student

 

[Raist3d]

When you get that Kodak paper, recalibrate your printer. Make sure the scanner area is clean (I know this is kinda obvious but I only mention it because I made that mistake once already).

Hope that helps. I want to be clear when I say "this is not an issue for me" it's because it's really not happening in the vast majority of my prints (that's all except one right now, using non Kodak paper).

--
Raist3d
Tools/Gui Programmer - vid games industry, photography student

 

[James Bond007]

Circuit City has the 4x6 and 8.5x11 Ultra Premium Kodak paper for
half off... I think it's good until 4/28. Plus if you have a best
buy reward zone card and you buy the 2-ink pack (black + color) you
can get up to a $9.99 paper pack for free. Makes the cost of
printing that much cheaper!

The paper seemed at the usuall price. Maybe I didn't look properly
or the sale is already gone.

right here, I just ordered some..

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Paper/sem/rpsm/catOid/-13007/N/20012961+20013005+20013007+40000438/link/ref/rpem/ccd/categorylist.do

--
Raist3d
Tools/Gui Programmer - vid games industry, photography student

--
Bond, James Bond.

 

[Raist3d]

So you have to order online for pickup it seems.... Thanks a lot!

--
Raist3d
Tools/Gui Programmer - vid games industry, photography student

 

[Dunhill]

I just got off the phone with one of the Kodak Printer Team engineers, and wanted to provide an update on the two problems I mentioned in my post.

The banding problem:

Kodak has seen this problem with a few computer/USB cable combinations. It is not color banding, really, but a variation in reflectivity. It is caused by a delay in transferring data from the computer to the printer, which, in turn, causes the overcoat to be laid down at varying times after the ink is laid down. This explains why I can print without banding from a USB memory stick.

The primary USB cable I've been using is the 10ft cable Best Buy recommended for this printer. The Kodak guy I talked to thinks a 10ft cable is risky. While he said that, in the lab, they often run fine with several 10ft cables ganged end to end, sometimes, depending on the computer used, a single 10ft cable causes problems. I have a 6ft cable that I have tried (with no improvement), but I can't confirm that it is USB 2.0 compatible by looking at it. I'll buy a new one and give it a try.

Kodak is still working on this and there may be some hope for improvement in this area. However, I'm guessing that anyone who has a new, moderately fast computer will never see the bands I have described. (Both my computers are modest laptops)

Media Plug-in Problem (5300/5500):

This is well known to Kodak and they're working on it as fast as they can. I had the impression that a software/firmware update will be available to correct this fairly soon.