zogthedoomed
Newbie to Printing
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2006
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 7
Hi folks. My first post and I could really do with the benefit of your experience.
My wife wants to be able to print out photos direct from camera or flash card without needing the computer. I'm sure many of you are groaning and I myself would prefer a computer inbetween to have more control. But thats what she wants. No need for a computer, a good LCD screen and accurate prints.
I stupidly bought her the HP 8250 for Christmas which was exchanged once and finally refunded. While I didn't get any of the grainyness or banding other people have seen I did get extremely contrasty and overly red skin tones that I couldn't improve with the printer alone. I could reproduce the effect in photoshop by increasing the gamma of the yellow alot and sticking an extreme S curve in the magenta (using curves). It was rediculous.
Anyway I've now been trying to look at the Epson Picturemate 500 (I think its called the Picturemate Delux in the States) and the R340. I've not seen any output of the R340 yet. But I had a picture printed on the Picturemate (the same picture I'd used to test the HP and which I also had printed at the chemist) which came out rather cyan heavy, grainy and somewhat less impressive than reviews led me to believe. It was admittedly on dodgy HP paper (the assistant didn't want to have to open up and right off an Epson paper pack!!). The LCD screen was also hard to discerne and it was extremely slow at reading the memory card (it only had 33 pics on it). I told him I couldn't possibly buy it based on that and he didn't seem too bothered. This was at Dixons. At least he let me test it though. PCWorld flatly refused although they did take the printer back twice without any questions.
So can anyone give me any pointers please?
Cheers,
Patrick
My wife wants to be able to print out photos direct from camera or flash card without needing the computer. I'm sure many of you are groaning and I myself would prefer a computer inbetween to have more control. But thats what she wants. No need for a computer, a good LCD screen and accurate prints.
I stupidly bought her the HP 8250 for Christmas which was exchanged once and finally refunded. While I didn't get any of the grainyness or banding other people have seen I did get extremely contrasty and overly red skin tones that I couldn't improve with the printer alone. I could reproduce the effect in photoshop by increasing the gamma of the yellow alot and sticking an extreme S curve in the magenta (using curves). It was rediculous.
Anyway I've now been trying to look at the Epson Picturemate 500 (I think its called the Picturemate Delux in the States) and the R340. I've not seen any output of the R340 yet. But I had a picture printed on the Picturemate (the same picture I'd used to test the HP and which I also had printed at the chemist) which came out rather cyan heavy, grainy and somewhat less impressive than reviews led me to believe. It was admittedly on dodgy HP paper (the assistant didn't want to have to open up and right off an Epson paper pack!!). The LCD screen was also hard to discerne and it was extremely slow at reading the memory card (it only had 33 pics on it). I told him I couldn't possibly buy it based on that and he didn't seem too bothered. This was at Dixons. At least he let me test it though. PCWorld flatly refused although they did take the printer back twice without any questions.
So can anyone give me any pointers please?
Cheers,
Patrick
