Better than photo quality!
Written: Dec 22 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Print quality
Cons: Speed, cost of supplies, driver software
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| balberth's Full Review: Alps MD-5000P Printer |
The Alps MD-5000P printer is in a class by itself when it comes to consumer oriented photo quality printers.
I purchased the ALPS MD-5000 printer around a year ago after doing a lot of research and looking at the best Epson, HP and Canon had to offer. I finally settled on the ALPS for three reasons: print quality, print quality and print quality.
The MD-5000 uses a different technology than most photo quality printers offered to the consumer. The inks are dry, and they are held on ribbons, somewhat like typewriter ribbons, inside the print mechanism. The inks are vaporized off of the ribbons by the print head and deposited on the paper.
This method has several advantages over the ink jet method. Prints from the ALPS MD-5000 come out dry, virtually fade-proof, and with amazing color mixing. It is possible to get cartridges for the MD-5000 that print in metallic colors. There is a kit for the MD-5000 to do dye sublimation printing, which results in vibrant colors on the print that are mixed together like a photographic print rather than being made up of millions of little single colored dots.
I have been very pleased with the quality of prints I have been able to get out of my MD-5000. I have several of them hanging in my office, and at least weekly, someone comments on the quality of the prints. They cannot believe that the print is not from a photo shop.
Typically, printers that can do this quality of work cost thousands of dollars. In making a cheap version for the consumer market, ALPS had to cut a few corners. The printer is quite slow, and it requires between 1 and 7 passes of the paper through the printer to make a print. The cartridges don't last very long, and the really good photo quality paper is expensive. The printer has one print head and a mechanism to change ink cartridges which can sometimes jam.
I don't mind the slow speed, as I can start printing and do something else for a while. As for the cost, the paper cost is comparable to an inkjet, and the printer itself is cheap compared to any of its real competition.
I have had some issues with the software that comes with the printer. The early versions had a lot of bugs and some tendency to hang, though later releases of the drivers seem to have fixed some of these problems. It took me a while to get it working, however.
In closing, this is a printer for someone who values the quality and longevity of prints over speed and cost of prints. This printer can really make prints of better quality than those you would get from a photo shop, if used properly. It's a quirky little beast, but nothing can touch the quality for the price.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 550
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
balberth
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Member: Albert Huntington
Location: San Jose, CA
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 3 members
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