A hidden gem of a printer
Written: Jul 30 '00
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Pros: Excellent colorfast prints on multiple substrates
Cons: somewhat slower than inkjets
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| f8lee's Full Review: Alps MD-5000P Printer |
The ALPS MD5000 is an outstanding printer - versatile insofar as what kinds of papers it can print on, rugged, and output that is both long lasting and excellent. Add the dye-sublimation kit, and it will produce virtual halide photograph type quality on your desktop. The only downside to all this capability is speed - it's not the fastest printer on the market.
I chose ALPS about 6 months ago when I discovered that inkjet inks are not colorfast (the dirty little secret that HP, Canon and Epson don't talk about). So, even if you buy he $1 per sheet high end paper, your photo-quality print will fade in a few months if you frame it and put it on the wall.
ALPS uses a different print technology, which is both colorfast (i.e. - non fading) and allows them to print metallic foils. Try THAT with an inkjet! The output quality on generic bond paper ($3 per ream) is decent, but nothing special. However, when I print on better coated papers (like Canon HR-101 - about $0.10 per sheet), the quality is almost photographic. And that's without the dye-sub kit in action. Using the dye sublimation ink cartridges and phot quality paper, the print is just about Kodak quality.
The only downside to all this versatility and quality is speed - since the printer is a multi-pass type, where each color (C,Y,M,K and possibly others) are laid down individually, the printer passes the paper through 4+ times. This can be a bit slow, but the result is well worth the wait.
I have had great success with the MD5000P using both my iMac and my W95 machines - the drivers for both come with the unit. I hope they're still generally available now - when I purchased mine the salesmen at one well known store that used to carry ALPS told me that the ALPS rep came by to remove thier stock. He told them that ALPS management decided to sell to the professional printing market and pull back from the consumer end. Good for them, bad for us.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 579
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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Epinions.com ID:
f8lee
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Reviews written: 16
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