Dye sublimation printers?

[pauly99]

I am considering purchasing a dye sublimation printer for shooting youth sporting events. I make some sales after the event but feel that by offering customers prints available on-site, more sales will result and customers can leave the event happy knowing they have a quality pic of their kid.

So, I'm looking at the following dye subs: Kodak 8500, Olympus P-440, and Hi-Ti 730PS. Would appreciate input if anyone has experience with these (or other) dye subs.

[lightwrangler]

Pauly,

I have experience working with the Kodak 8500. I have done events with it that required hundreds of pictures made onsite. It is robust, reliable and easy to set up and use. Prints last a long time and are less prone to fading due to light and look great! It is quite fast too. Unless there has been a change that I am unaware of, you are stuck with 8.5 x 11 or 14 paper. You can make multiple prints on that size of paper but I do believe that there is no smaller paper available. (And no, you can't cut down the larger size - it doesn't work that way)

The Olympus I used as a demo unit, not in production. The image quality is high, it runs a bit slower than the Kodak and the consumables are slighty more expensive as there is greater competition with the Kodak products. It has a smaller footprint and will work with PICT Bridge and computerless printing.

These are the only two I have any experience with. Frankly the Kodak with a good laptop (or PowerBook:-)) would be my preference.

[pauly99]

Thanks for the reply. I'm leaning towards the Kodak 8500 as I have a friend of a friend (I know... no comments) that uses the Kodak 8500 in his wedding/portrait photography business. He only has good things to say about the unit. In my research, I read about color bleeding with magenta/white red/white combinations and the Kodak 8500. I guess I'm just trying to get a broad view (users view) of these dye subs because I've never touched one before.

[High ISO!]

Hi Pauly,
I looked at the Kodak printer, but read it wasn't quite as sharp as the Olympus printer, so I am using Olympus. I have had 3 P400 & am now on a P440. I print a lot, and I'm pretty hard on them, I wear them out. I think the cost of an 8x10 print is about $2.00-$2.50 per print. The Olympus kicks out an image in about 2 minutes. As with the Kodak printer, I believe you can only get A4 paper, which you can print up to a FULL 8x10. I like this though...I have packages available on the 8x10 page of different sizes. Works out well for most people. If they only want 1(5x7) I tell them they can combine the order with a friend, to use up the whole sheet.

The P440 seems to have nicer color than my last P400 had. I use the glossy finish, you can also get a matte surface. The last pass through the printer puts a UV protective layer on. I have several images just laying around my house in the sun or wherever, they've been around for quite some time, without much fading or color shift at all. I display these images outside in broight summer sunlight all day on Saturdays & Sundays every weekend over the summer withough having to replace images unless a dog puts it's teeth through one.

The paper is plastic, and vurtually indestructable too. It's also waterproof! I don't think these attributes are unique to the Olympus though.

I have a small HiTi 4x6 printer, which I only use for personal stuff, occassionally. It's OK, pretty slow though. Right now I am having trouble with color for somw reason. I guess it needs to be cleaned.....

Good luck wiht you hunt for the perfect printer!

Alissa

[Steve Wynn]

I've got the Mitsubishi CP3020D and it rocks. I considered the Kodak but the matte finish wasn't very good.

Steve

[pauly99]

My head is spinning but it is great to have all of the responses. I've done a little bit more research and found that the Kodak 8500 seems to have some problems with matte finishes. The Kodak 1400 seems to have resolved that problem. The Mitsubishi seems a little expensive.... Ebay has one listed at about $750 right now. The Olympus P-440 does sound sweet although I've read where there has been some customer service issues. Otherwise I think all of the options are very do-able. We'll see what the coming days hold and I'll see if I can find a deal on either the Kodak 8500 or Olympus P-440.

[big_ben_blue]

To add even more to yur confusision, here's my comment :D

A friend of mine (pro photographer what else) has the Kodak and is quite happy with it; Kodak service seems to be excellent too (they send my friend a brand new printer when theirs crapped out while still being under warranty);

one of my former college teachers bought the Olympus P400 a few years back; while he was happy with the image quality, he noted that the printer was highly suspectable to dust (due to the way the paper is loaded); I don't know if the P440 has this problem fixed


Cheers,
Chris

[High ISO!]

one of my former college teachers bought the Olympus P400 a few years back; while he was happy with the image quality, he noted that the printer was highly suspectable to dust (due to the way the paper is loaded); I don't know if the P440 has this problem fixed


Cheers,
Chris

I haven't had any trouble with dust in any of my Olympus printers. Except the occassional dog hair, that might float in. That's a given, since I live with 3 dogs who shed, and work around many more dogs who shed!

I don't know about my P440, but my past P400s did have trouble working, when I was outside with it. There is a sensor that will make the printer think there is no paper or ribbon loaded, and gives you a warning, so you can't print. I put a towel over the back of the printer and it worked fine. I experienced this even under the shade of an Ezee up or the back of my car, so it doesn't need to be direct light, just bright light.

Alissa

[pauly99]

I respect all of the opinions coming from this forum but I've decided to go with the Olympus P-440. I also belong to a sports photography forum (not 1/100000th as nice as this forum) and the Olympus was given the nod over the Hiti and Kodak.

[High ISO!]

I respect all of the opinions coming from this forum but I've decided to go with the Olympus P-440. I also belong to a sports photography forum (not 1/100000th as nice as this forum) and the Olympus was given the nod over the Hiti and Kodak.


Hey Pauly,
Great choice, I KNOW you will be very happy with the printer! :goldcup:

Alissa

[photoworks]

I have two older P-400's. They're fine printers with very nice color and sharpness.

Billy

[SteveH]

Have used the Olympus for events work - using an olympus E20 camera which seems to suit the print size very well. I drop and drag the images onto the correct size print 7x5 and two images per sheet that way and I adjust the contrast to 15 and sharpness to 3 using the camedia software for each image and press print. I crop in camera since the E20 has the correct aspect ratio to match the printer.

Customers seem happy - they like the sharp glossy finish. Have noticed that without contrast adjustment the images seem a bit dull and flat.

It was my choice over the Kodak.

[pauly99]

Steve, thanks for the tip. I haven't printed onsite as of yet but anything to reduce time spent between camera, Photoshop, and the Camedia software is much appreciated. I want to produce a quality product and it sounds as though I may be able to do so and bypass Photoshop while onsite.

[tiggerbiker]

hi,
i have recently bought a kodak ektatherm xls 8600 from ebay (paid £70)
and have printed 50 or so 10x8 photo's. The results are absolutly awe-inspiring, i only got into photography as a bit of a hobby (to keep me out of the pub) buts since i bought the s2pro and now the kodak printer i find that i cant stop taking pictures!! and people keep asking me to do photo's for them.

i also bought a job lot of 400 sheets of paper and 11 ribbons for the kodak for a grand total of £150 - god bless ebay!!

[pauly99]

Tigger, that is great to hear. I'm not familiar with the model of printer that you're speaking of but if it prints great, thats all that matters. But there's nothing wrong with having a Guinness in one hand and the camera in the other.... is there? :cheers:

[tiggerbiker]

with any luck i will be doing a few photo's up at a famous bikers meeting place this summer (the ace cafe in london) so i should be able to have a few beers while snapping a few bikes with scantily clad women drapped over them :beerchug:

[pauly99]

I have that happen all the time (the scantilly clad women). Don't ya just hate it? :beerchug:

[corms]

I have an Epson R300, considering an upgrade to the R1800 in the near future. But my JVC GV-SP2 printer does 4x6 prints, but will only work in on Windows ME and Down, Does a nice job on prints for a 300 DPI DIE-SUB just wish that they had put drives out for xp. anyone else use this printer or have ever managed to get it working in windows XP?