Olympus P400 positives and negatives

[dugger]

I have the opportunity to acquire a used P400 (printer has been used

for just 10 prints)with a package of 90 sheets for $100 US. Can

those of you who have one please share your plusses and minuses

about the printer? Currently using Windows XP.

[eddie g]

in that price range you can't beat it. the only thing is that you can't print true black and whites. i think nothing under $500 can touch it.

[eric friedemann]

We've used various dye sub printers/print stations at my store for years. We've also sold the P400.

 

 

At $100 for a like-new P400 with 90 sheets of paper, it would be hard for you to go wrong. The P400 is a nice unit and you don't need to worry about metamerism with dye sub prints.

 

 

Some minuses-

 

 

The 300 d.p.i. resolution of dye sub prints doesn't quite match the higher resolution of inkjet printers or digital C-prints from Noritsu 2901 machines.

 

 

The P400 is a 7.64x10 inch max. printer- you don't get full 8x10/8x12 image area like a on a Kodak copyprint station:

 

 

http://www.steves-digicams.com/p400.html

 

 

You can't retouch dye sub prints. Because of the ribbon used to dreate and clear-coat the image, if you've got a dust spot from the image you didn't clean up in editing or dust gets in the printer and gets sealed in a print, you have to reprint the image.

 

 

I personally loathe changing ribbon on dye sub printers.

 

 

Prints still cost about $2.50 per the 8x10ish size. This is a little pricey.

[stwrtertbsratbs5]

I own a P400 and it is a very nice printer. Colors are excellent (you will need to profile), partly because it is a continuous tone printer. And the ribbon pack is very easy to change.

 

Shop around for supplies - I pay about $1.65 per print, if I recall correctly.

 

Robert

[kahheng]

For a $100, just grab it.

 

You should know it's not a printer for continuous high volume printing because it tends to overheat and then, volume printing will slow to a crawl. I believe the succeeding model added an extra ventilation fan to address this problem. Perfectly fine for intermittent piecemeal printing.

 

Also, having used it quite a bit in the past, I'd like to suggest that it's advisable to resize your picture to the PRECISE native resolution for best results. It's not good to give it any more or less.

 

Do check the manual on this, because it's been a really long time since I have used one, but if memory serves me right, the resolution that the printer is most happy at is 312dpi.

 

Also, cover the paper slots when not in use. Dust is not good for dye-sub printers since the final output is laminated.

[dugger]

Thank you all for your comments. It is greatly appreciated!