Nick asked for comment on printers. I recently bought a refurbushed HP
P1100 directly from HP for $229 plus shipping. I believe this printer
has been discontinued and the replacement seems to be close to $500. I
don't think there's any difference except that the newer one is slightly
faster.
This one takes several minutes to do an 8x10 at the highest quality
setting which I think is very good. On photo quality paper it's hard to
tell that the print didn't come out of the darkroom.
HP uses only 3 colors + black which is less than some of the Epson
models. However, HP claims to do excellent color creation by producing
micro-fine dots for better mixing control. Looks good to me. Also, on
a recent test by Consumer Reports HP inks were judged resistant to
fade. Some Epson models have had fading problems (I think in areas with
high ozone).
The Epson fading problem is what really inspired me to look elsewhere
and the Consumer Reports article caused me to consider the HP. Checking
HP's site for more info caused me to find the fire sale on the P1100 and
I haven't been sorry.
The P1100 is a USB and parallel device and also has slots to accept
CompactFlash Type 1 & II and SmartMedia memory cards. You can plug the
memory card from your digital camera directly into the printer and print
stuff off-line or else use the printer as a reader to download the
images from your camera. The P1100 can also do double sided printing
without having to flip and reload the paper. It comes with a double
sided printing attachment which is an expensive option on other printers
in the line. Even though refurbished it comes with a full 1 year
guarantee.
Chuck Norcutt
Woburn, Massachusetts, USA
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