Now let me be frank, up front. I'm an Epson 'groupie'. Not that I work for them or anything, just that after using a whole range of different ink jet printers in the past, I'nm sold of Epsons - particularly for use with photos, and my beloved digital camera.
I've just bought, then, an Epson Stylus Photo 875DC. I got it from PC World at a 'special offer' price of £249.99, rather than their normal price of £299.99.
OK, it's a lot to pay for a printer, these days, but it does have some rather unusual features - particularly for anyone making regular use of a digital camera.
I've had an Epson Stylus Color 740 for a number of years, and the photo quality from it, with its 1,440 x 720 dpi resolution is outstanding - particularly on high quality papers. The 875DC uses a six colour cartridge (rather than four on the 740). The results, I have to say, are not markedly better than the 740 - but that's simply because the 740 was excellent to start with.
Here is a real advantage, though, because Epson are now guaranteeing 10 years colour fastness (under indoor display condition and with a glass mount). For those worried about just how long your special pictures were going to last, this is good news!
One other major advantage is that - using a paper roll holder supplied with my printer, anyway - you can now do edge-to-edge printing for borderless photos. At least three sizes of roll are readily available: 89mm x 7m and 100mm x 8m, plus an interesting 210mm x 10m (A4). This last one gives me the possibility to print right-to-the-edge A4 pages - for producing 'masters'for a printer, for example. That's a real step forward for anyone, like me, who does their own design work for small print jobs.
The crowning glory,though, is the fact that the printer has built in to it a card-reader slot for your camera's CompactFlash card! The PCMCIA adapter to use this, and plug it straight into the printer, comes with the kit. I understand that an additional version for SmartMedia will set you back in the region fo £42. Excellent supporting software is supplied, and so the card-reader acts like a new drive of your PC, automatically load onto screen thumbnails of your shots, etc. Brilliant!
For a serious digital camera owner, it's the way to go!
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