A variety of print demos.

[WP]

I was in a Best Buy store the other day and one of the employees there had a laptop computer printing a page on each manufacturers best photo paper (two 5x7 pictures on an 8.5 x 11 sheet) on all the printers in the store. He downloaded all the current drivers from each manufacturers website and set the print quality to best mode on all. This was cool to watch because he did ALL the printers. Both pictures were from a 3 megapixel camera at the highest resolution and were not retouched in any way. One picture as two people sitting side by side and the other a picture of several objects showing a wide range of colors and textures. These are the ones I saw tested

Canon: S900/820/750/520/300
Epson: 785/C80/C60
Lexmark:Z65/55/45/25
HP: 7150(photo cartridge) PS1215/1315/1115/960/5550(4color) 3820

I will list my personal observations and this is in my opinion only so take it as you want. This whole evolution took over two hours and I was back and forth a few times to watch these print.

For speed nothing touches the Canons. Even their 4-color printers were twice as fast as the other manufacturers. The S900 was by far the fastest taking just over 2 minutes to do the page. The Lexmarks were the slowest averaging > 11 minutes to do the page.

The Epson C60 actually printed faster then the C80 by about 45 seconds with the 785 trailing. (5-7 minutes per printer each 5x7 on the page took about 3 minutes to print)

The HPs were tried with photo-ret and 4800x1200. With the photoret on they took about 3.5 minutes per picture or 7 minutes per page. Print speed was identical on all the printers from the older 960 and photosmarts through the 7150. NO SPEED DIFFERENCE AT ALL FOR PHOTOS! For 4800x1200 mode forget it. Took about 12-15 minutes per page.

The Lexmarks were the dog of the group. Could have gone to the bar and had a beer and come back and they still would have been printing. 11 minutes plus per page!

Now on to quality. I did not bring my loupe or a magnifying glasss so I am going by the naked eye. I have excellent vision (a little better than 20/20) and I am really critical of prints so here it goes. I will break this into a couple of sections so that it is easier.

Visible dots: The HP 5550/3820, the Canon S300, the Lexmark Z45 and Z25 and the Epson C60 had the most visible dot patterns. They were all about equal in picture quality in this respect. The best pictures with reagrds to dot patterns were the Canon S900/820, The Epson C80 and the HP 7150. I only saw banding on the Lexmarks HP photosmarts and teh HP 960 in certain areas. Not visible on the other printers.

Colors: This is where the biggest difference between printers became evident.

The LEXMARKS ARE ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE. These produced some of the worst prints I have ever seen. Skin tones were gray and colors were just off in every area.

Epson: The C60 and the 785 had better colors then the C80. Maybe it relates to the pigment inks, but the pictures were best on the 785. Good colors and matching.

HP: All but the 7150 with the photo cartridge were as bad as the Lexmarks. I know there have been some posts on here saying the 5550 without the photo cartridge prints better than with the photo cartridge, but I watched it in the store and saw the side by sides of all the printers. No way without the photo cartridge can it compare. The 7150 with the photo cartridge is pretty decent and made a good showing. Not as good as the Epson 785 or Canon S900/820 (sorry but the truth), but very close.

Canon: The 750 and the 520 had really good colors, as good as the best from the other manufacturers, but the S820 and the S900 really blew the others away in color matching. Perfect skin tones and colors. I was more than impressed.

So in my humble opinion, these are the rankings:

Canon S900
Canon S820
Tied for third Epson 785/Canon S750/S520
Tied for fourth HP7150/Epson C60
Fifth Epson C80
Sixth All the rest. This post is getting too long.

If you want a great value and good prints go with the Canon 750/520 or the Epson 785. If you want a printer you can throw away after the ink cartridges run dry try the Epson C60 (the ink cartridges cost more than the printer). For best quality prints get the Canon S820/900. Don't waste your money on a Lexmark unless all you are going to do is text printing.

I dont like bells and whistles on my printers and just want something that will give me the best picture without spending a fortune. I don't give a hoot about longevity of prints and know how to protect them after reading this forum.

It was really eye opening seeing this happen and what an experience. The Best Buy reps really knew the products and how to show the differences between them all. I have to thank them for their time.

--
Have a great day
http://www.pbase.com/wp12001

 

[Bruce Kolber]

Thanks! .... appreciate your thoughts.

I was in a Best Buy store the other day and one of the employees
there had a laptop computer printing a page on each manufacturers
best photo paper (two 5x7 pictures on an 8.5 x 11 sheet) on all the
printers in the store. He downloaded all the current drivers from
each manufacturers website and set the print quality to best mode
on all. This was cool to watch because he did ALL the printers.
Both pictures were from a 3 megapixel camera at the highest
resolution and were not retouched in any way. One picture as two
people sitting side by side and the other a picture of several
objects showing a wide range of colors and textures. These are the
ones I saw tested

Canon: S900/820/750/520/300
Epson: 785/C80/C60
Lexmark:Z65/55/45/25
HP: 7150(photo cartridge) PS1215/1315/1115/960/5550(4color) 3820

I will list my personal observations and this is in my opinion only
so take it as you want. This whole evolution took over two hours
and I was back and forth a few times to watch these print.

For speed nothing touches the Canons. Even their 4-color printers
were twice as fast as the other manufacturers. The S900 was by far
the fastest taking just over 2 minutes to do the page. The
Lexmarks were the slowest averaging > 11 minutes to do the page.

The Epson C60 actually printed faster then the C80 by about 45
seconds with the 785 trailing. (5-7 minutes per printer each 5x7 on
the page took about 3 minutes to print)

The HPs were tried with photo-ret and 4800x1200. With the photoret
on they took about 3.5 minutes per picture or 7 minutes per page.
Print speed was identical on all the printers from the older 960
and photosmarts through the 7150. NO SPEED DIFFERENCE AT ALL FOR
PHOTOS! For 4800x1200 mode forget it. Took about 12-15 minutes
per page.

The Lexmarks were the dog of the group. Could have gone to the bar
and had a beer and come back and they still would have been
printing. 11 minutes plus per page!

Now on to quality. I did not bring my loupe or a magnifying glasss
so I am going by the naked eye. I have excellent vision (a little
better than 20/20) and I am really critical of prints so here it
goes. I will break this into a couple of sections so that it is
easier.

Visible dots: The HP 5550/3820, the Canon S300, the Lexmark Z45
and Z25 and the Epson C60 had the most visible dot patterns. They
were all about equal in picture quality in this respect. The best
pictures with reagrds to dot patterns were the Canon S900/820, The
Epson C80 and the HP 7150. I only saw banding on the Lexmarks HP
photosmarts and teh HP 960 in certain areas. Not visible on the
other printers.

Colors: This is where the biggest difference between printers
became evident.

The LEXMARKS ARE ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE. These produced some of the
worst prints I have ever seen. Skin tones were gray and colors
were just off in every area.

Epson: The C60 and the 785 had better colors then the C80. Maybe
it relates to the pigment inks, but the pictures were best on the
785. Good colors and matching.

HP: All but the 7150 with the photo cartridge were as bad as the
Lexmarks. I know there have been some posts on here saying the
5550 without the photo cartridge prints better than with the photo
cartridge, but I watched it in the store and saw the side by sides
of all the printers. No way without the photo cartridge can it
compare. The 7150 with the photo cartridge is pretty decent and
made a good showing. Not as good as the Epson 785 or Canon S900/820
(sorry but the truth), but very close.

Canon: The 750 and the 520 had really good colors, as good as the
best from the other manufacturers, but the S820 and the S900 really
blew the others away in color matching. Perfect skin tones and
colors. I was more than impressed.

So in my humble opinion, these are the rankings:

Canon S900
Canon S820
Tied for third Epson 785/Canon S750/S520
Tied for fourth HP7150/Epson C60
Fifth Epson C80
Sixth All the rest. This post is getting too long.

If you want a great value and good prints go with the Canon 750/520
or the Epson 785. If you want a printer you can throw away after
the ink cartridges run dry try the Epson C60 (the ink cartridges
cost more than the printer). For best quality prints get the Canon
S820/900. Don't waste your money on a Lexmark unless all you are
going to do is text printing.

I dont like bells and whistles on my printers and just want
something that will give me the best picture without spending a
fortune. I don't give a hoot about longevity of prints and know
how to protect them after reading this forum.

It was really eye opening seeing this happen and what an
experience. The Best Buy reps really knew the products and how to
show the differences between them all. I have to thank them for
their time.

--
Have a great day
http://www.pbase.com/wp12001

 

[beluga]

Wow! Best Buy actually allow you to test all the printers? That's amazing. Thanks for giving us such a comprehensive report! Appreciate your effort here.

Beluga

I was in a Best Buy store the other day and one of the employees
there had a laptop computer printing a page on each manufacturers
best photo paper (two 5x7 pictures on an 8.5 x 11 sheet) on all the
printers in the store. He downloaded all the current drivers from
each manufacturers website and set the print quality to best mode
on all. This was cool to watch because he did ALL the printers.
Both pictures were from a 3 megapixel camera at the highest
resolution and were not retouched in any way. One picture as two
people sitting side by side and the other a picture of several
objects showing a wide range of colors and textures. These are the
ones I saw tested

Canon: S900/820/750/520/300
Epson: 785/C80/C60
Lexmark:Z65/55/45/25
HP: 7150(photo cartridge) PS1215/1315/1115/960/5550(4color) 3820

I will list my personal observations and this is in my opinion only
so take it as you want. This whole evolution took over two hours
and I was back and forth a few times to watch these print.

For speed nothing touches the Canons. Even their 4-color printers
were twice as fast as the other manufacturers. The S900 was by far
the fastest taking just over 2 minutes to do the page. The
Lexmarks were the slowest averaging > 11 minutes to do the page.

The Epson C60 actually printed faster then the C80 by about 45
seconds with the 785 trailing. (5-7 minutes per printer each 5x7 on
the page took about 3 minutes to print)

The HPs were tried with photo-ret and 4800x1200. With the photoret
on they took about 3.5 minutes per picture or 7 minutes per page.
Print speed was identical on all the printers from the older 960
and photosmarts through the 7150. NO SPEED DIFFERENCE AT ALL FOR
PHOTOS! For 4800x1200 mode forget it. Took about 12-15 minutes
per page.

The Lexmarks were the dog of the group. Could have gone to the bar
and had a beer and come back and they still would have been
printing. 11 minutes plus per page!

Now on to quality. I did not bring my loupe or a magnifying glasss
so I am going by the naked eye. I have excellent vision (a little
better than 20/20) and I am really critical of prints so here it
goes. I will break this into a couple of sections so that it is
easier.

Visible dots: The HP 5550/3820, the Canon S300, the Lexmark Z45
and Z25 and the Epson C60 had the most visible dot patterns. They
were all about equal in picture quality in this respect. The best
pictures with reagrds to dot patterns were the Canon S900/820, The
Epson C80 and the HP 7150. I only saw banding on the Lexmarks HP
photosmarts and teh HP 960 in certain areas. Not visible on the
other printers.

Colors: This is where the biggest difference between printers
became evident.

The LEXMARKS ARE ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE. These produced some of the
worst prints I have ever seen. Skin tones were gray and colors
were just off in every area.

Epson: The C60 and the 785 had better colors then the C80. Maybe
it relates to the pigment inks, but the pictures were best on the
785. Good colors and matching.

HP: All but the 7150 with the photo cartridge were as bad as the
Lexmarks. I know there have been some posts on here saying the
5550 without the photo cartridge prints better than with the photo
cartridge, but I watched it in the store and saw the side by sides
of all the printers. No way without the photo cartridge can it
compare. The 7150 with the photo cartridge is pretty decent and
made a good showing. Not as good as the Epson 785 or Canon S900/820
(sorry but the truth), but very close.

Canon: The 750 and the 520 had really good colors, as good as the
best from the other manufacturers, but the S820 and the S900 really
blew the others away in color matching. Perfect skin tones and
colors. I was more than impressed.

So in my humble opinion, these are the rankings:

Canon S900
Canon S820
Tied for third Epson 785/Canon S750/S520
Tied for fourth HP7150/Epson C60
Fifth Epson C80
Sixth All the rest. This post is getting too long.

If you want a great value and good prints go with the Canon 750/520
or the Epson 785. If you want a printer you can throw away after
the ink cartridges run dry try the Epson C60 (the ink cartridges
cost more than the printer). For best quality prints get the Canon
S820/900. Don't waste your money on a Lexmark unless all you are
going to do is text printing.

I dont like bells and whistles on my printers and just want
something that will give me the best picture without spending a
fortune. I don't give a hoot about longevity of prints and know
how to protect them after reading this forum.

It was really eye opening seeing this happen and what an
experience. The Best Buy reps really knew the products and how to
show the differences between them all. I have to thank them for
their time.

--
Have a great day
http://www.pbase.com/wp12001

--
http://www.pbase.com/beluga
[email protected]

 

[Gary Berg]

Was the Epson C80 run on glossy or matte paper? I ask because the C80 seems to do its best job on matte paper.

 

[Katherin Morris]

The C80 needs many tweaks in the driver to get the best pictures from it. The stock photo settings in the driver do not work worth a darn. After upgrading (or so I thought) from my 980 I called to complain to epson about the awful prints I was getting. They told me to adjust the driver and it did work better. Infact, they told me that they were expecting some problems because of the new inks. If I had it to do again, I would not have gotten rid of my 980.

Was the Epson C80 run on glossy or matte paper? I ask because the
C80 seems to do its best job on matte paper.

 

[Phil Musk]

Excellent info, but shame higher Epson models weren't on test too.

Phil

 

[Phil Musk]

Excellent info, but shame higher Epson models weren't on test too.

Phil

Should "Epson 785" read 895????

Phil

 

[WP]

It was on glossy.

Was the Epson C80 run on glossy or matte paper? I ask because the
C80 seems to do its best job on matte paper.

--
Have a great day
http://www.pbase.com/wp12001

 

[WP]

It was the 785epx the one with the card reader built in.

Excellent info, but shame higher Epson models weren't on test too.

Phil

Should "Epson 785" read 895????

Phil

--
Have a great day
http://www.pbase.com/wp12001

 

[fotografer]

Hi WP,

Was busy last few days. Just read your post.

The HPs were tried with photo-ret and 4800x1200. With the photoret
on they took about 3.5 minutes per picture or 7 minutes per page.
Print speed was identical on all the printers from the older 960
and photosmarts through the 7150. NO SPEED DIFFERENCE AT ALL FOR
PHOTOS! For 4800x1200 mode forget it. Took about 12-15 minutes
per page.

Did you discern any difference between the 4800dpi and the Photoret IV mode with 7150?

HP: All but the 7150 with the photo cartridge were as bad as the
Lexmarks. I know there have been some posts on here saying the
5550 without the photo cartridge prints better than with the photo
cartridge, but I watched it in the store and saw the side by sides
of all the printers. No way without the photo cartridge can it
compare. The 7150 with the photo cartridge is pretty decent and
made a good showing. Not as good as the Epson 785 or Canon S900/820
(sorry but the truth), but very close.

Yes, I agree with your assessment here (coming from a HP guy). A rather fair comparison in terms of quality, when compared with Epson 785 (895?) and the Canon top ends. But the HP 'Best' papers, ironically, is not the best in the market for the HP printers. Strange but true. Ilford Galarie, personally, seems to work better (and it's visible, of course).

It was really eye opening seeing this happen and what an
experience. The Best Buy reps really knew the products and how to
show the differences between them all. I have to thank them for
their time.

I was hoping you test your results with the newest (and according to Epson, best) A4 like 950 (or 960? If available), and 2200, and even Designjet 10ps (though the latter is a very dark horse and not very popular because of its size and weight). Would you be doing another test with Best Buy?

Thanks for sharing you opinions with us.

--
Fotografer

 

[beluga]

I remember I read somewhere that C80 is not suppose to print on glossy paper.

Beluga

Was the Epson C80 run on glossy or matte paper? I ask because the
C80 seems to do its best job on matte paper.

--
Have a great day
http://www.pbase.com/wp12001

--
http://www.pbase.com/beluga
[email protected]

 

[xsquidx]

Thanks for your observations. I'rm really glad best buy took the time to do this. Every best buy I have ever been in the salespeople always try to steer you onto the hp printers (I'm not bashing the printers, just the sales reps). They say it's the absolute picture printer made. That's even back from the 600 series days. If you asked them if they had seen a photo done on one of the epsons they would say "No, but I know it's not as good". Maybe they will give their salse reps first hand knowlege of how each printer so they can give a real opinion on the actual picture qualities no matter which printer is best.

Jerry

I was in a Best Buy store the other day and one of the employees
there had a laptop computer printing a page on each manufacturers
best photo paper (two 5x7 pictures on an 8.5 x 11 sheet) on all the
printers in the store. He downloaded all the current drivers from
each manufacturers website and set the print quality to best mode
on all. This was cool to watch because he did ALL the printers.
Both pictures were from a 3 megapixel camera at the highest
resolution and were not retouched in any way. One picture as two
people sitting side by side and the other a picture of several
objects showing a wide range of colors and textures. These are the
ones I saw tested

Canon: S900/820/750/520/300
Epson: 785/C80/C60
Lexmark:Z65/55/45/25
HP: 7150(photo cartridge) PS1215/1315/1115/960/5550(4color) 3820

I will list my personal observations and this is in my opinion only
so take it as you want. This whole evolution took over two hours
and I was back and forth a few times to watch these print.

For speed nothing touches the Canons. Even their 4-color printers
were twice as fast as the other manufacturers. The S900 was by far
the fastest taking just over 2 minutes to do the page. The
Lexmarks were the slowest averaging > 11 minutes to do the page.

The Epson C60 actually printed faster then the C80 by about 45
seconds with the 785 trailing. (5-7 minutes per printer each 5x7 on
the page took about 3 minutes to print)

The HPs were tried with photo-ret and 4800x1200. With the photoret
on they took about 3.5 minutes per picture or 7 minutes per page.
Print speed was identical on all the printers from the older 960
and photosmarts through the 7150. NO SPEED DIFFERENCE AT ALL FOR
PHOTOS! For 4800x1200 mode forget it. Took about 12-15 minutes
per page.

The Lexmarks were the dog of the group. Could have gone to the bar
and had a beer and come back and they still would have been
printing. 11 minutes plus per page!

Now on to quality. I did not bring my loupe or a magnifying glasss
so I am going by the naked eye. I have excellent vision (a little
better than 20/20) and I am really critical of prints so here it
goes. I will break this into a couple of sections so that it is
easier.

Visible dots: The HP 5550/3820, the Canon S300, the Lexmark Z45
and Z25 and the Epson C60 had the most visible dot patterns. They
were all about equal in picture quality in this respect. The best
pictures with reagrds to dot patterns were the Canon S900/820, The
Epson C80 and the HP 7150. I only saw banding on the Lexmarks HP
photosmarts and teh HP 960 in certain areas. Not visible on the
other printers.

Colors: This is where the biggest difference between printers
became evident.

The LEXMARKS ARE ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE. These produced some of the
worst prints I have ever seen. Skin tones were gray and colors
were just off in every area.

Epson: The C60 and the 785 had better colors then the C80. Maybe
it relates to the pigment inks, but the pictures were best on the
785. Good colors and matching.

HP: All but the 7150 with the photo cartridge were as bad as the
Lexmarks. I know there have been some posts on here saying the
5550 without the photo cartridge prints better than with the photo
cartridge, but I watched it in the store and saw the side by sides
of all the printers. No way without the photo cartridge can it
compare. The 7150 with the photo cartridge is pretty decent and
made a good showing. Not as good as the Epson 785 or Canon S900/820
(sorry but the truth), but very close.

Canon: The 750 and the 520 had really good colors, as good as the
best from the other manufacturers, but the S820 and the S900 really
blew the others away in color matching. Perfect skin tones and
colors. I was more than impressed.

So in my humble opinion, these are the rankings:

Canon S900
Canon S820
Tied for third Epson 785/Canon S750/S520
Tied for fourth HP7150/Epson C60
Fifth Epson C80
Sixth All the rest. This post is getting too long.

If you want a great value and good prints go with the Canon 750/520
or the Epson 785. If you want a printer you can throw away after
the ink cartridges run dry try the Epson C60 (the ink cartridges
cost more than the printer). For best quality prints get the Canon
S820/900. Don't waste your money on a Lexmark unless all you are
going to do is text printing.

I dont like bells and whistles on my printers and just want
something that will give me the best picture without spending a
fortune. I don't give a hoot about longevity of prints and know
how to protect them after reading this forum.

It was really eye opening seeing this happen and what an
experience. The Best Buy reps really knew the products and how to
show the differences between them all. I have to thank them for
their time.

--
Have a great day
http://www.pbase.com/wp12001

 

[WP]

From Epson's website on the C80

"Plain, bond, Double-Sided Matte, Premium Glossy Photo Paper, Premium Semigloss Photo Paper, EPSON Matte-Paper Heavyweight, Photo Quality Paper, Transparencies, Self-Adhesive Sheets, Ink Jet Cards, Banner Paper, envelopes, plus many more"

Beluga

Was the Epson C80 run on glossy or matte paper? I ask because the
C80 seems to do its best job on matte paper.

--
http://www.pbase.com/beluga
[email protected]

 

[WP]

Did you discern any difference between the 4800dpi and the Photoret
IV mode with 7150?

I thought there was a little better transition between colors on the 4800x1200 then the photoret, but they were very close. I don't think you gained enough to justify using the 4800x1200.

I was hoping you test your results with the newest (and according
to Epson, best) A4 like 950 (or 960? If available), and 2200, and
even Designjet 10ps (though the latter is a very dark horse and not
very popular because of its size and weight). Would you be doing
another test with Best Buy?

I hoped so too, but Best Buy has a price point of about $399 for what they carry in their stores. I may have to try Fry's or Microcenter for the higher end printers. Maybe I can use the line "Well, they did it at Best Buy!" I would really like to see how much is gained by going to the higher end Canons, Epsons and HPs. Maybe my next trip!

--
Have a great day
http://www.pbase.com/wp12001

 

[fotografer]

Good luck and share with us your impressions!

Did you discern any difference between the 4800dpi and the Photoret
IV mode with 7150?

I thought there was a little better transition between colors on
the 4800x1200 then the photoret, but they were very close. I don't
think you gained enough to justify using the 4800x1200.

I was hoping you test your results with the newest (and according
to Epson, best) A4 like 950 (or 960? If available), and 2200, and
even Designjet 10ps (though the latter is a very dark horse and not
very popular because of its size and weight). Would you be doing
another test with Best Buy?

I hoped so too, but Best Buy has a price point of about $399 for
what they carry in their stores. I may have to try Fry's or
Microcenter for the higher end printers. Maybe I can use the line
"Well, they did it at Best Buy!" I would really like to see how
much is gained by going to the higher end Canons, Epsons and HPs.
Maybe my next trip!

--
Have a great day
http://www.pbase.com/wp12001

--
Fotografer