Kodak ESP3

Author's product rating:   

Picture quality	Excellent
Printing speed	Fast
Colour sensitivity	Excellent
Reliability	Excellent
Value For Money	Excellent

Advantages:	quality, ink cost, appearance
Disadvantages:	Bulkey, loud  - software issues

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

UPDATED AT END

I have had my share of printers, HP, Epson, and prior to the kodak- I had an Lexmark X5470.

All of them were bad with the cost of inks- with the HP & Epson I always ended up using compatible inks- which weren't great, with the lexmark I always bought genuine ink- however- the photo quality was bad- it never matched colors & never gave me one good photo & trying to find out how to change the black ink for the photo ink proved impossible. The fax on it never worked.

I just bought an Nikon D60 DSLR- so I decided to buy a photo dedicated printer- these are printers that will print text too- but are designed for photo printing.
I saw the Kodak advertised on tv- claiming to be 10p per print- and give photo lab quality pictures, the inks are £6 for black and £10 for color (aprox).
I got it yesterday from amazon at £60- £20 cheaper than kodak sell it for.

It doesn't come with a usb cable- but I used my lexmark one- so if you are replacing an older printer- you can use that cable- if not- you'd need to buy one.
From kodak's site- it seems that they give you full black and color inks- not like other companies- whom only provide you with inks that are not going to last.

It comes in a large box, and when opened - there is another small box inside with your power lead, two discs- one for windows and one for mac (I've never had a disc come for mac's before), there is no user guide on paper- but a quick start pamphlet- which will guide you through installation. There is also a second power lead for use abroad & some sample 80g printer paper and a few 6x4inch sheets of 240g printer paper. There are also three sealed small items- a printerhead, 1 black ink & 1 color ink.

You need to unwrap them all as stated in the guide, and lift the printer lid from just below the scanner lid- remove any packaging- and put the printerhead in- click it in place and then put the black and color inks in (more detail in the guide), then connect the power- NOT THE USB YET! It will now begin to align & when that is done- you need to load some paper- this is a front loader- not a back loader...the paper goes in the same place it comes out- there is a drop down flap at the front- when you open that- there is a grey slider- you pinch that at the sides- and adjust it to hold your paper in- the paper goes against the right side. Then you need to calibrate it- you will see a flashing 'C' in the lcd display...you press 'copy/resume' and it will start to calibrate- and print out the usual little lines - I have to say this is the first printer out of around 7 that I've had- that got this perfect first time.
After that is done- you insert your software disc- and when prompted- plug in the usb cable.
I had huge problems with the software- once it was all done- I tried to print- but it wanted to install an update- which kept failing- even when it did work- when it went to install it took ages and appeared to be doing nothing- I called kodak (uk call centre) and they guided me through it all. It does take ages- but is worth it! Also for some reason the default only installed one part of the software- so make sure you get 'easyshare', AIO home centre, easyshare printer dock & user guide- I downloaded them online from kodak's site via their help on the phone.

Once all was done- I printed out two 6x4in photo's at normal quality- they were b&w- and had been altered with both lightroom and CS3, for the first time ever- a printer printed out perfectly - all the different shades - everything was great.
I then tried two color pictures- one a macro shot (close up) of a plant & one of the sea and clouds, I used 270g photo paper- on normal- both on an A4 piece of paper- I could not get the borderless to work at all, but- the quality was great.
I then did an A4 of just the sea/clouds picture- it looks great- until you look closely- and then you can see some color bleeding- but I don't think that was the printer- although this is an image with no adjustments- I think there is another reason and I will update when I find out.

The printer is very noisey- just prior to printing- but the printing itself is quite fast and not too loud.

The main difference with this and the other ESP's- is that this one doesn't have a preview screen- which I didn't want or need- the appearance of this printer is very smart.

All in all it seems very good so far- and I will update this with any further info.

So- Kodak are great- they sent me out a new printer - they said it shouldn't be this noisey, and the quality issue on the replacement is now resolved.

Highly recommend this printer for photo's & if you want a good deal on ink- go to amazon, they are selling a combo black and color pack for £15 with free p&p! I bought two :-)