Red-dy to print
Written: May 20 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cheap
Cons: Couldn't ever get the red out, tech support was clueless.
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| pyallen's Full Review: Lexmark Jet Z11 InkJet Printer |
I already have a color printer that I'm happy with (the much maligned Apollo P-1200), but when I saw the photo prints a friend of mine had obtained from his new Z-11, I had to buy one and try it. It was only $69.00, and came with a color ink cartridge, so I could afford to test it.
I hooked it up to my printer port and plugged it in, then I installed the printer software. After printing a test page to make sure it was working correctly, I was ready to go. I fired up my photo software and selected a picture to print. I printed it off (using photo paper that costs $1.00 a sheet) and it was terrible! The whole thing was deeply saturated with a red tint. I went into the printer settings and adjusted the red tones down a little bit. No difference. I called tech support, who suggested I just keep adjusting the red down until I hit the right level.
Wonderful solution. First of all, changing the color level in the printer setup does not change the appearance of what you see onscreen, so you have no visual hint as to where you are in the color saturation level. Secondly, even if it did change the picture's onscreen appearance, it would be just as worthless, since the picture looked fine onscreen, but printed red. I guess if the changes were apparent onscreen, your formerly perfect picture would end up with a decided green overcast as the red was removed to a level that satisfies the printer. The thought of having to print 85 test sheets every time I wanted to print something was completely unacceptable to me, so I returned the sucker and got a refund.
Oddly enough, when I mentioned my experience to my friend, he too had to radically adjust the red settings, and didn't mind having to spend upwards of 3 hours getting it correctly set. So this is apparently not a random incident.
On a related note, I realized that I had only used my Apollo to print 8x10 pictures, and that possibly the fact that D. had printed a 3x5 picture on the Lexmark explained why his print quality was so good. Before I returned the Lexmark, I printed off the same picture in 8x10 format and 3x5 format on both printers. The print quality of the Apollo was miles ahead of the Lexmark. Even allowing for the red tones, the Lexmark prints were grainy, color banded, and looked out of focus.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
pyallen
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Member: Pam
Location: Western Oklahoma
Reviews written: 208
Trusted by: 126 members
About Me:
Biting wit served here. Products skewered regularly. What is a smart toaster, anyway?
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