Fantastic photos but not for everyone.
Written: Jul 19 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Paper Handling: |
|
|
|
Pros: Beautiful, exuberant, lasting photos you'll really love.
Cons: Expensive, not recommended as your only printer.
|
|
|
| daklown's Full Review: Alps MD 1300 Dye Sublimation Printer |
I work with all types of hardware and software in my computer consulting business, however, I selected this printer for the outstanding photos it produced. Being a father and grandfather, I take lots of pictures including digital and regular photos. The digital ones go directly through the computer to print and regular photos get scanned in for printing also.
This printer is relatively simple to set up and use. The big draw back is speed and price. You can't scan and print a quick copy of a photo with this printer like you can with most color ink jets. It does color in multiple passes which takes considerable time. The big plus is the beauty of the photos it produces. Even at lower resolutions you get crisp exuberant colors even if you print on the less expensive laser paper.
Where typical ink jet photos printed on good quality photo paper may cost up to $0.80 each, the photos produced on photo realistic paper (the good quality but not the highest quality for this printer) will cost about $1.20 to $2.25 each in 8.5 by 11 inch sheets.
Why spend this much for the ability to print high quality photos? Take a picture printed from an ink jet and rub your fingers across it immediately after it finishes printing and what happens? It smears or smudges easily. Take a photo right out of the ALPS printer and rub it, nothing. You can even take a photo from the ALPS printer and run water over it without doing any harm. Photos produced on ink jet printers deteriorate (lose their color) in a short time whereas the photos produced by the ALPS printer may outlast original photographs.
I've been using my ALPS printer for more than a year and also use an ink jet printer for many photo tasks. The ALPS is far the superior printer when it comes to making photos. Photos I produced right after getting the ALPS setup still look as new as the day I printed them more than a year ago. Photos from the ink jet are already fading in the same time period.
This dye sublimation printer isn't for everyone and certainly shouldn't be installed as your only printer. However, if you want beautiful, exuberant photos that will last a long time, this is the printer you're looking for.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 499.95
Operating System: Windows
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
daklown
|
|
Member: Dale Eicker
Location: Texas
Reviews written: 49
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
Chemical Plant Supervisor, Professional Clown, Computer Consultant, and Jack-of-all-trades.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.