THE NEWS IN PRINT

More printers is the buzzword in the printer industry today. The past month and a half, we have seen hundreds of printers hit the market and Canon has not been left behind by any means. When it comes to photo printers, Canon is on the pinnacle and any more additions in printers would only improve the features and quality. Pixma MP520, Pixma MP610 and Pixma MP970 are the latest additions to hit the market the past week.

Each one of these printers presents different features to consumers. A lot varies from one to another in price, quality and the number of features offered. MP520 is a simple cost saving photo printer with minimal features. MP610 features lab quality prints along with CD/DVD print option. It also has a built-in automatic double-sided printing. MP970 is similar to MP610 with networking capabilities.

Canon MP520 Features

- 4 individual ink tanks
- 2-inch LCD
- Easy-Scroll Wheel
- 2 way paper feed
- Quick Start function

Canon MP610 Features

- 5 individual ink tanks
- CD/DVD printing
- ChromaLife 100
- 2.5" TFT display
- Easy-Scroll Wheel
- PictBridge and Memory Card slot
- Scanning capabilities
- Auto Duplex

Canon MP970 Features

- 7 individual ink tanks
- Wired LAN
- CD/DVD printing
- ChromaLife 100
- 3.5" TFT display
- Easy-Scroll Wheel
- PictBridge and Memory Card
- Scanning capabilities
- Film/slide scan & print

Canon is not known to offer cheap prices on their printers and cartridges. When quality is excellent, price becomes secondary; but not always. The printers discussed above are priced on the higher side undoubtedly. The MP520 is priced at £80, MP610 at £120 and the MP970 at £180. You could never go wrong with a Canon, that's my experience and strong opinion.

via Smart House

Fuji Xerox printers have launched DocuPrint C3290 FS, a top of the line multi-function colour laser printer. This product is aimed at small and medium businesses and offers complete solution for all office functions.

C3290 has a printing speed of 30ppm for black and 20ppm for colour. The fast prints can be owed to a 400 MHz processor and 256 MB standard memory integrated on it. It is network ready which is absolutely necessary for office environment. It features direct transfer printing technology and new Emulation Aggregation High Quality (EA-HG) toner which enables to produce sharper and clearer prints.

The DocuPrint C3290 FS has been released in Asia and Australia for starters. It will be a matter of time before it hits the European markets. If Fuji maintains the same price by the time it gets introduced in the UK, it will cost an excess of £600 which is fairly expensive than the available equivalent printers in the UK market.

This baby is no joke. It's purely for professionals. Canon Pixma Pro9500 is a photo printer on top of the Canon line which rules the roost with exceptional photo quality. A unique feature in this printer is its specialization in printing monochrome prints.

Pro9500 uses ten pigment inks which is the highest number of cartridges in the printer industry. It has two special colours, grey and a second black cartridge. The grey cartridge enables easier monochrome prints, mostly shades of grey. Two black cartridges provide matte finish for non glossy paper and glossy finish for photo paper.

Probably a tortoise can finish a race before we can obtain a print from this printer. It takes close to a minute to print a postcard sized photo. The reason behind the awful speed is the technology behind it. Pigment inks take a longer time to dry than dye based inks. Hence, the speed slows down to allow the ink to dry between print head passes.

But, pigment inks have a lot more advantages. It provides the best of prints for gradations and the longevity of photos. Monochrome prints have dark storage life of 200 years and 100 years for colour when printed on Canon paper. These prints have a guaranteed life of 50 years inside photo frames which is wonderful for any printer.

No great printer comes at a cheap price. Not this one at least. The Pro9500 carries an expensive price tag of £425. For professionals, no price is expensive as the investment pays off rightfully. But, professionals have to find a large space to fit this baby with all its wings and feathers. Pro9500 is truly a class of its own. Owner's pride, everybody else's envy.

HP Officejet L7780 is the latest all-in-one inkjet printer from HP in the market. As the name suggests, it is designed for office use and can print, scan, copy and fax. It is basically a laser printer replacement as the prints are cheaper and faster. It's based on the thermal inkjet technology which has been a HP standard for some time now.

Print speeds are moderate with 16ppm for black and 15ppm for colour. It carries four individual cartridges which is a cost saver. It features a 50 page automatic page feeder and the simplicity of working with the printer is not complex. It gets connected to the network through Ethernet. It also features an optional Bluetooth connectivity as well. An in-built media card reader enables the L7780 to print directly from storage devices sans PC.

Business Week has reviewed this printer and the conclusion is as follows:

The Good: Solid print, fax, and scan performance; built-in memory, duplex features, and media card slots

The Bad: Confusing photo printing; long setup process

The Bottom Line: Good, less-expensive alternative to a laser printer for small offices with moderate printing needs

The L7780 is on the non-cheaper side of the market for printers. Well, for offices it may not be too expensive though. It carries a price tag of £225 and individual cartridges cost around £18.

Canon is barraging by introducing heaps of printers into the market. Earlier this week, they released the IP series printers with IP3500 and IP4500. Now, it's time for all-in-one printers with faxing capability. They announced the arrival of MX300, MX310 and MX700 due to be released in October later this year.

MX300 and MX310 are starter printers and are reasonably priced. MX700 which has replaced MX530 has faxing capability for a photo printer with Ethernet connectivity.

Features

- Super G3 high speed Fax with either 20 (MX300, MX310) or 40 (MX700) coded speed dials, plus storage of either 50 or 100 incoming pages
- High speed document printing - up to 22ppm mono/17ppm colour (MX300, MX310) or 30ppm mono/20ppm colour (MX700)
- Photo lab quality with FINE print head producing 2pl ink droplets with maximum 48001x1200dpi print resolution
- Advanced copy technology - ensures faithful copy and reprint quality
- High quality scanning - 600x1200 dpi (MX300), 1200x2400dpi (MX310), 2400x4800dpi (MX700)
- Auto Image Fix for optimal photo correction when printing
- PictBridge compatibility for direct printing
- High Speed Auto Document Feeder (MX700 and MX310 only)
- Ethernet connectivity (MX700 only)
- Two paper trays (MX700 only)

MX700 is the only printer of the three which uses single cartridge system. As I have mentioned earlier, single cartridges system store different colours in separate cartridges and when any colour runs out, only that cartridge needs to be replaced and others can stay on until they run out.

Prices of printers don't matter a whole lot anymore. The starter printers MX300 and MX310 are reasonably priced at £99 and £129 respectively including VAT. Big brother MX700 is fairly expensive at £199 including VAT. With Canon printers, you are bound to get value for the money spent with quality printing.

via PB