Epson PictureMate 500

I got the Epson Picturemate 500 for Christmas so that I had my own printer to print photos from my digital camera. My parents also bought me one Picturepack to go with it. The Picturepack contains an ink cartridge and a pack of 100 sheets of 6 x 4 photo paper. I am reviewing the picturepack.

The printer only needs one cartridge as it has 6 colours of ink within it. I think this is good as it means you only need to change one cartridge ...
...more and it runs out there may still be plenty ink in the other parts, which ends up being wasted. And it doesn't come cheap.

A Picturepack costs £28.99. I think this is a lot of money but from the Picturepack you get enough paper and ink for around 100 prints so this works out at 29p per print. I have never counted how many photos I have printed from one cartridge but the paper and ink does generally run out at around the same time ... more

I got the Epson Picturemate 500 for Christmas so that I had my own printer to print photos from my digital camera. My parents also bought me one Picturepack to go with it. The Picturepack contains an ink cartridge and a pack of 100 sheets of 6 x 4 photo paper. I am reviewing the picturepack.

The printer only needs one cartridge as it has 6 colours of ink within it. I think this is good as it means you only need to change one cartridge but on the other hand if you use one colour more and it runs out there may still be plenty ink in the other parts, which ends up being wasted. And it doesn't come cheap.

A Picturepack costs £28.99. I think this is a lot of money but from the Picturepack you get enough paper and ink for around 100 prints so this works out at 29p per print. I have never counted how many photos I have printed from one cartridge but the paper and ink does generally run out at around the same time so I must get the number of prints that is quoted. I buy my Picturepack's from the local photography shop. I bought my first replacement from Argos but despite the catalogue stating it was for a Picturemate 500 it was actually for a Picturemate 100, which are a different size. (Luckily they refunded my money)

The printed photos are of great quality, they look like photos from the photographers shop. The colours are very sharp and true. When I print photos (on photo paper) on our other printers I can tell that they have been printed from the computer but with this pack (and printer) I cannot.

I bought some cheap photo paper to see if the quality was just the same but I was very disappointed to find that the colours of ink just ran into each other so that you couldn't see what the picture was. I won't be using cheap paper with this printer again as the paper that comes in the Picturepack produces excellent quality, so the paper obviously has a lot to do with it as well as the printer and ink.

The first few Picturepack's I got, came with an extra pack of paper (25 sheets I think) and a photo album - the photo album was just cheap but seeing as it was free I suppose that might be expected. I tried putting photos in it but they just got creased so I didn't bother using it.

The ink cartridge comes sealed in think blue plastic inside a box. This is quite difficult to open. There are instructions on the cartridge for installation. The cartridge is easily inserted into the back of the printer. It is recommended that for best results the cartridge is used within six months of installation. If you are not likely to print around 100 photos in six months then it may not be worth buying this.

The sticker on the cartridge also shows the right and wrong way to insert it, so if you've never done it before you would still find it quite easy. This enables you to check that it looks right before you start printing. My dad inserted my first one and when it ran out the second time he was out. I looked at the instructions on the cartridge and it was installed and printing within five or ten minutes.

On back of box there are general instructions in lots of languages. These instructions include:
Store so that the bottom of the cartridge is facing down
Do not drink (would anybody try drinking ink from an ink cartridge?!)
Do not touch green chip
Not for refill

I think it is a great product but it should be a bit cheaper, you are paying for the excellent quality though. I think this is one of those products that you would say 'you get what you pay for' and in this instance that's quality! I think it is definitely worth paying the little bit extra for. I've had three Picturepack's since Christmas so I use one every two or three months. Photos mean a lot to me so I don't mind spending a little bit more to get excellent quality and with this that's what I get!

Thanks for reading, bluejules!

 

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