Reader's Comments - Index of - Free

Color Printers
bigger effect on the final print than... a poor quality lens, bad film choice
and mediocre processing all combined in film photography. A poor quality
camera can not be overcome with a good printer any more than in reverse. I
think that people are often looking for a printer to "perform miracles".
● Second - Price...!!! I personally have a very good camera (Olympus C-
2000z) and I have been waiting for my budget to afford me a HP
PhotoSmart 1100. Recently I bought an "El-Cheep-O" "Photo Quality"
printer at (of all places) Wal-Mart. I choose a Lexmark Z11 because I read
good reviews and.. well... it was CHEEP.... $69.95 I was HOPING that it
would hold me over. BOY WAS I SURPRISED!!! I made several prints, up
to 8"x10" and EVERYONE that I have shown them to can not believe that it
came off of a printer... much less one that was so inexpensive. Oh yeah, and
as for cost of print, as best as I can figure, one 8"x10" sheet of print on the
high quality setting (1200 DPI) cost aprox. $2.25. Including the Premium
Glossy Photo Paper from HP. Now, for MOST people that is less than they
can have an "8"x10" print made at the local Photo-Mart. For an example,
you get one 8"x10" off of the "photo machine" at wal-mart for $6.95. And
in addition to the cost, they can have one in a matter of minutes without
having to leave their house.
● Third - Archival...? OK, so the print from an Inkjet doesn't last for 20
years. SO WHAT. The DIGITAL image file on a CD-ROM lasts for over
100 years. It does not fade, crack, bleed, rip, tear or just disappear from
sight. Now that is a true archival photograph.
● Finally - What are the uses people are putting these printers to? In other
words, why are people using "digital images" today? I think most would
agree that the "Pro" photographer looks at final quality with a MUCH more
discriminating eye than the average Joe... I believe that the photos printed
on today's printers are considered by the average consumer as being just as
good as anything they get from developing film.... At least that is the
response I personally have seen. Let's not forget that, thanks to APS (or
Advantix) film, the standard for what is accepted as high quality has come
way down from when 35mm set the standard.
The new age of "Digital Photography" is giving photography a bit of a "rebirth".
For those of you who are old enough to remember, photography as a hobby used to
have larger following than it does today. It started to die out about 12-15 years ago
http://www.photo.net/equipment/digital/printers/primer (25 of 36)7/3/2005 2:20:36 AM