[Leica] Remarkably good cheap printer

[afirkin at afirkin.com (afirkin at afirkin.com)]

> It is amazing how ink jet technology can improve in less than a
> decade. Some years ago, a friend who had bought an Epson with a 13"
> bed recommended that model and there was an equivalent with an 8"bed.
> I think I must have paid about $300 for it, as a printer for my wife
> to use.
>
> This year, she bought a new Mac laptop and a choice of three Epson
> printers was offered as a bonus, two for free and one for a $25
> co-pay. The one I chose was the Artisan 50 because it used six
> independent ink cartridges--her previous printer had all colors in
> one cartridge (Ugh). The retail price of that printer is a mere $100.
>
> After discovering what great prints this thing can make, I adopted
> it, leaving my poor wife with her old one. Granted it has only an 8"
> bed. Granted that it uses dyes instead of the more archival pigments.
> But, choosing the slowest printing, where the paper advances by
> millimeters and takes several minutes to print even a 4 x 6, I doubt
> that high-priced gear can really produce better colors or definition.
>
> A friend in England liked one of his pictures so much that he ordered
> an (I suppose expensive) print made from the digital image onto type
> C paper. Out of sheer curiosity and possibly mischief, I downloaded
> his picture from Flickr,printed it on 8 1/2 x 11, and mailed it to
> him. He pronounced my colors to be better!

and colour lasers printers CHEAPER than the cartridges they contain. This
is folly. In my youth "made in Japan" and "made in HK" meant cheap, and
limited quality. China is a whole new ball game. CHEAP with capital C,
Cleaver with the same capital and couture (the only word I could think of
starting with C that means "good quality"

Cheers

Alastair