Published Sept. 21, 2002<\/p>\n
Q: \u00a0I want to surprise my husband for Christmas with a state of the art digital camera and a printer that will print quality photos. \u00a0 The camera should be simple enough to point and shoot that quick shot, and fine enough to capture sunsets and fireworks. \u00a0 Is there such a camera? \u00a0 And which printer would I get? I’m willing to spend $1,000 for both. \u00a0
\n-C.R., Pittsburgh<\/p>\n
A: \u00a0 For true photo-quality output, choose a six-color printer. \u00a0 In addition to the yellow, magenta, cyan, and black of four-color printers, they include light yellow and light magenta ink to produce more realistic prints. \u00a0 Of all the photo printers I have used, my running-away favorites are the six-color printers from Canon. \u00a0 \u00a0 On Canon’s Photo Paper Pro glossy paper, (CQ- this is the brand and model of paper) prints look indistinguishable from film and paper photographs\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 \u00a0 in fact, often better. \u00a0 I recently tested Canon’s S830D printer ($349) with a variety of professional and consumer digital cameras and the word most used by those viewing the prints was “gorgeous”. \u00a0 \u00a0 Other comments were, “who needs Kodak?” and “I can’t believe those came from a digital camera!” \u00a0 In addition to the beautiful output, the S830D proved incredibly unfussy in use as well as extremely economical with ink. \u00a0 I printed many 8x10s on the original set of ink cartridges, and the heads didn’t clog once- no need for the cleaning cycles that plague many printers. \u00a0 The S830D will print directly from a memory card and supports Canon’s “Direct Print” feature, which will allows you to connect select Canon cameras directly to the S830D using a supplied cable. \u00a0 You can then view your photographs on the camera’s display and print them out without going through your computer. It’s a handy feature that allows the computer-challenged to enjoy the fun and convenience of digital photography. \u00a0 The S830D is admittedly expensive for a home photo printer. \u00a0 If you don’t need Direct Print, the Canon S820 ($249) will give you identical output printing from your computer. \u00a0 Both printers include Canon’s Easy-Photo Print software, which supports the Exif Print standard for automatically optimized photo printing.<\/p>\n
I am going to recommend a Canon camera as well as almost all of their models support Exif Print as well. \u00a0 The 4.0 megapixel Canon Powershot S40 ($599) operates fully automatically as a point-and-shoot, but also has manual overrides for creative control, and comes complete with a high-capacity rechargeable battery. \u00a0 It is beautifully designed and finished in a convenient clamshell shape, with a real metal body and a crisp and colorful LCD display. \u00a0 Image quality is top-notch, and the accurate flash exposures were particularly impressive. \u00a0 It is a bit slow to focus at close ranges but if you take your time you will be rewarded with great images. \u00a0 If we are coming up on your $1,000 budget too quickly, the Powershot S30 ($399) is identical to the S40 but is 3.2 megapixels rather than 4.0.<\/p>\n
Your budget of $1,000 allows me to recommend expensive, fully featured equipment. \u00a0 Other choices are available for those who want great digital photographs easily but don’t want to spend C.R.’s $1,000. \u00a0 Epson’s Stylus Photo 785EPX \u00a0 six-color photo printer is a fantastic value at only $149. \u00a0 It prints directly from a memory card and supports Epson’s Print Image Matching (PIM), a standard similar to Exif Print that makes printing realistic photographs easy. Teamed with a PIM-enabled 3.2 Megapixel Sony DSC-P71 ($399), you will have a $550 outfit that produces photographs that just a few years ago would have cost tens of thousands of dollars to duplicate using a digital system.<\/p>\n