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November 07, 2007
[ KODAK EasyShare 5300 multi function printer ]
Price: $299
Consistently bright and sharp
The low-down: This is a printer/scanner/copier combination. It has a flatbed scanner and a six colour printer that uses one black cartridge and one combined colour cartridge. Ink is pigment based promising long print life. Kodak claim prints around half the price of the competition because their inks are cheaper. Paper handling is unusual in that there are two trays, one for A4 and one for 10x15cm paper. Input to the printer can be from the scanner, memory cards or computer. Both scan and print times are good. The unit is attractive and will not look out of place alongside a Mac.
Like: The special feature of the printer is the automatic detection of the paper type – provided it is Kodak paper, which has a printed code on the reverse side that is read by the printer. This takes one of the variables out of the printing process. It works well, but it does limit the utility of the unit. Sometimes a different paper type is called for and as far as we could see (there is no printed manual) there is no way of adjusting for third party papers. And Kodak solve the problem of pigment ink “bronzing” on glossy paper by not having a glossy paper! What they call glossy has a shiny dimpled surface and the printer lays down a transparent gloss “ink”.
Dislike: Prints made directly from memory cards are pretty awful unless the image is exactly to the printer’s liking. And there is no provision for printing on CD/DVD surfaces, a facility that is taken for granted these days.
Verdict: When the photo has been properly prepared in Photoshop the print output is consistently good –better quality and consistency than can be obtained from a commercial photo lab. Both postcard and A4 prints have excellent detail and colour. The scanner is very good.
The bottom line? It is Kodak, and that means “you press the button and we do the rest”.
POSTSCRIPT: Since posting this review Kodak informs us that they do have a true glossy paper. However, I had asked specifically for glossy paper to try in the printer and the paper they sent is labelled "glossy" on the packet, but it is in fact a finely stippled semi gloss. They now tell me that I should have asked for something called High Gloss Photo Paper! But hey, since when did Glossy not mean smooth and glossy? However I will try the 5200 again with the "real gloss" paper.
Kodak also claim that the printer will work with non-Kodak papers. From our limited testing we did not find this to be so -- but they well us that provided the paper is non-swellable it will work. We will try.
Posted by terry at November 7, 2007 09:49 PM
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