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March 23, 2006
[ EPSON PHOTO RX650 multifunction printer ]
Price: $500
Rating: 4 stars
The low-down: The Epson Stylus Photo RX650 multifunction unit combines a printer, scanner, copier, CD label printer, memory card reader and infrared receiver in a single body.
The printer prints up 5760dpi using six ink cartridges – CYMK and light cyan and light magenta. Print quality is very good.
The flatbed scanner scans paper and also claims to be a film scanner. Paper scans are fast and produce sharp and accurately coloured output files. CD/DVD labels are reproduced by putting the original anywhere on the scanner, inserting the blank CD on the special tray and pushing the copy button. The RX650 detects, scans, positions and prints the copy onto the disc.
The RX650 accepts every type of memory card and is recognised by the computer as an external drive. Prints direct from a camera memory card are very good. The unit also scans to the memory card.
For owners of mobile phone cameras the RX650 has infrared connection. Take the photo, set the correct parameters on the multifunction unit, point the camera at it and press the Send button and the Epson does the rest. Results are exceptionally good.
Like this: The Epson RX650 generally dispels the fear that a multifunction unit might not do the job as well as discrete printer and scanner. The scanner works well and the printer will satisfy all except serious photographers who want to make high resolution, long life prints. Prints up to A4 on the RX650 are very good.
Dislike that: The film scanner is best treated as an add-on that doesn’t work. The computer interface is the clumsiest, slowest, most counter-intuitive software that we have ever encountered. Direct print from slide or negative onto 10 by 15 cm paper is reasonable, but scanning to a computer is clunky and produces poor quality images.
Parting shot: Apart from the infuriating film scan function we were impressed with the RX650. We would recommend it without hesitation to anyone who doesn’t need a professional quality printer. We loved the infrared connection to the phone camera – this will astonish your pals because not only does it work, it works well.
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Posted by terry at March 23, 2006 09:35 AM
Comments
Hello Terry,
very glad to see your reviews and articles are back in The Age Green Guide. I read with interest your review of the Epson RX650 scanner as I have an earlier model RX510. I have found this to have many of the good features you wrote about for the RX650 giving me quite good quality prints, excellent copying facilities and until recently, quite satisfactory scanning of both slides and prints. You found this feature less than satisfactory in the RX650 but I have not noticed particularly poor quality scanning with the RX510. A few days ago, my scanner on Full Auto Mode just would not operate as it kept giving error messages about "unable to find scanner" and similiar - it has driven my computer supplier mad and he cannot find out what the problem is as it continues even after he downloaded the latest software from the Epsion site. The system works moderately well in Professional mode but I still have problems.
One question. In your review, you mentioned that "direct print from slide or negative onto 10 x 15cm paper is reasonable but scanning into a computer produces poor quality images". As I said, may be I am less critical but I have usually found scanned images even from old slides to be okay. However, I wondered how you did direct prints from slides - maybe it is not a feature of the RX510 as I couldn't find any mention of direct printing from film in the manual.
Many thanks
Tony
PS Could I gripe about the on-line help manuals produced with these scanners. I find them appalling to use as they never seem to give an overview of the features of the machine or what you are trying to achieve, just masses of compartmentalised factual information for each minute bit of the process. They would be much more useful if instead of describing every minuscule feature of the equipment (many of which the average user doesn't want or probably need), they described a basic process first for scanning or printing etc, and then introduced the enhancements and explained how these could improve what we are trying to do.
Posted by: Tony Cavanagh at April 12, 2006 03:21 PM
Tony: I found scanning slides and negatives on the RX650 a pretty disappointing affair. The software is very slow and clunky -- just about the worst I have ever encountered. And the results were ordinary.
I own a dedicated film scanner -- also an Epson -- so that was my standard for comparison and the RX650 falls far short.
On the matter of direct printing -- I haven't tried the RX510. The RX650 does a good job of scanning a slide/negative and turning it directly into a 10x15cm print without having to go via the computer. I also found that prints direct from a phone camera via infrared are astonishingly good as are prints from camera via PictBridge. Keep in mind that I am talking 10x15 prints, so I am not making any big claims for enlargements.
On the subject of manuals I am with you. A printed manual is essential and the absence of a printed manual for a camera or a printer makes me reduce the star rating.
Posted by: Terry at April 13, 2006 08:30 AM
Terry,
What a great site you have.I wonder if you can help me.We are having problems with our HP 930C Deskjet and we are thinking about replacing it.Do you have any recommendations.
Thanks,
Kai
Posted by: Kai Hansen at May 18, 2006 12:10 AM
Kai:
There are a few things to consider in buying a printer. I will proceed on the assumption that you want to make good photographic prints from your digital files, comparable with silver halide prints.
Canon and Epson both make excellent photo quality printers. Canon prints are a little sharper and Epson prints probably last longer. Both companies make A4 and A3+ printers [13 inches by 19 inches].
Generally speaking with printers you get what you pay for. So my advice is to buy the dearest printer you can afford. And a unit that is just a printer will produce better prints than a multifunction unit of the same price.
Inkjet printers are very expensive to run -- cartridges and paper cost an arm and a leg. Silly as it may sound you can save money in the long run by buying two printers, an inkjet for photos and a cheap laser printer [about $150] for dogsbody work. Laser printers are very cheap to run.
I have just such a setup so that the expensive inkjet is used only for photographs. For everything else I use the laser printer.
Terry L
Posted by: Terry at May 18, 2006 08:27 AM
Terry,
I'm looking for a multi-function printer with a bias towards high quality scanning, especially for negatives and slides. Given your issues with the RX650, do you have any recommendations in this regard?
cheers
David
Posted by: Dave S at July 31, 2006 10:03 AM