Jason Dunn
01-31-2007, 03:24 PM
Epson has released a few new products leading up to PMA (and on the heels of the Vista launch). Here's what caught my eye.
http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/epsonSP1400_216x144.jpg "The Epson® Stylus Photo 1400 takes photo printing to the next level with fast and impressive 13" x 19" prints at a breakthrough price. You get rich color and detail for enlargements, displays and more. With innovative Claria™ Hi-Definition Ink, plus ink droplets as small as 1.5 picoliters, you’re sure to see the finest detail. Your projects are always ready to present. Display your work worry-free with smudge, scratch, water and fade resistant prints. Every print is sure to impress with auto color and lighting correction. And, to further edit your photos, the Epson 1400 even includes Adobe® Photoshop® Elements. This high-speed, wide-format photo printer also offers value-added features like direct CD/DVD printing, so you can easily create professional-looking CD/DVDs for your digital files."
The Epson 1400 (http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=63066043) retails for $399 USD, a full $150 USD less than the R1800, breaking into a new market for 13 x 19" printers. It also has "Automatic color and lighting correction for high quality photos" which makes me a bit suspicious - I rarely trust fully automated systems like this to make correct judgement calls regarding what makes a photo look better, but perhaps Epson has figured it out. Regardless, this is a barrier-breaking printer for those that want to do large-format prints at home.<!>
http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/epsonPM280Flash_216x144.jpg"PictureMate Flash,™ the ultimate personal photo lab solution, gives you the power to view and print pro quality, 4x6 photos and save them to CDs with just one touch. Do it all yourself — without ever turning on your computer! With PictureMate Flash, you’ll enjoy all the features of a full-service photo lab, at home or on the go. To backup your photos, use the 2.5 inch premium photo viewer to view and select the photos you want to save. Then, press the Save-to-CD button and the built-in CD burner does the rest. With one touch, you can preserve your memories — hassle free! It’s just as easy to view and select the photos you want to print. Choose photos from popular memory cards, digital cameras, mobile phones or CDs/DVDs. Then, do more with your photos, such as crop, remove red eye, add fun Disney frames and much more — all without a PC. You’ll get stunning prints with vivid colors, sharp detail and true-to-life skin tones — every time."
The PictureMate Flash (http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=63059185) will sell for $299 USD, which isn't bad when you factor in the CD burning. If you shoot photos at family events, a portable device like this would be incredibly handy to have - you could make prints, and burn CDs, right on the spot. I did something like that with my laptop last year, and there's the rub: your photos would have to require no adjustments before burning onto the CD. I don't know about you, but I tend to adjust many of my photos in some small way, especially if I'm shooting without the flash (which I do most often on my D200). I also don't like sharing photos with others until I'm satisfied the quality is where I want it to be.
And lastly (whew this is a long post!) Epson has updated their Vista driver page (http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supAdvice.jsp?type=highlights¬eoid=86150#inkjet) with information about the availability of drivers for Vista. There are some drivers there now for printers such as the Stylus Photo R260, but nothing there for my beloved R1800. Back to waiting I suppose.
http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/epsonSP1400_216x144.jpg "The Epson® Stylus Photo 1400 takes photo printing to the next level with fast and impressive 13" x 19" prints at a breakthrough price. You get rich color and detail for enlargements, displays and more. With innovative Claria™ Hi-Definition Ink, plus ink droplets as small as 1.5 picoliters, you’re sure to see the finest detail. Your projects are always ready to present. Display your work worry-free with smudge, scratch, water and fade resistant prints. Every print is sure to impress with auto color and lighting correction. And, to further edit your photos, the Epson 1400 even includes Adobe® Photoshop® Elements. This high-speed, wide-format photo printer also offers value-added features like direct CD/DVD printing, so you can easily create professional-looking CD/DVDs for your digital files."
The Epson 1400 (http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=63066043) retails for $399 USD, a full $150 USD less than the R1800, breaking into a new market for 13 x 19" printers. It also has "Automatic color and lighting correction for high quality photos" which makes me a bit suspicious - I rarely trust fully automated systems like this to make correct judgement calls regarding what makes a photo look better, but perhaps Epson has figured it out. Regardless, this is a barrier-breaking printer for those that want to do large-format prints at home.<!>
http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/epsonPM280Flash_216x144.jpg"PictureMate Flash,™ the ultimate personal photo lab solution, gives you the power to view and print pro quality, 4x6 photos and save them to CDs with just one touch. Do it all yourself — without ever turning on your computer! With PictureMate Flash, you’ll enjoy all the features of a full-service photo lab, at home or on the go. To backup your photos, use the 2.5 inch premium photo viewer to view and select the photos you want to save. Then, press the Save-to-CD button and the built-in CD burner does the rest. With one touch, you can preserve your memories — hassle free! It’s just as easy to view and select the photos you want to print. Choose photos from popular memory cards, digital cameras, mobile phones or CDs/DVDs. Then, do more with your photos, such as crop, remove red eye, add fun Disney frames and much more — all without a PC. You’ll get stunning prints with vivid colors, sharp detail and true-to-life skin tones — every time."
The PictureMate Flash (http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=63059185) will sell for $299 USD, which isn't bad when you factor in the CD burning. If you shoot photos at family events, a portable device like this would be incredibly handy to have - you could make prints, and burn CDs, right on the spot. I did something like that with my laptop last year, and there's the rub: your photos would have to require no adjustments before burning onto the CD. I don't know about you, but I tend to adjust many of my photos in some small way, especially if I'm shooting without the flash (which I do most often on my D200). I also don't like sharing photos with others until I'm satisfied the quality is where I want it to be.
And lastly (whew this is a long post!) Epson has updated their Vista driver page (http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supAdvice.jsp?type=highlights¬eoid=86150#inkjet) with information about the availability of drivers for Vista. There are some drivers there now for printers such as the Stylus Photo R260, but nothing there for my beloved R1800. Back to waiting I suppose.