HP offered
4800 x 2400 to top Canon’s 1200 x 1200 and Epson’s 2800
dpi.
Now Epson uses the same concept of “optimized dpi”
as did HP for their “4800 x 2400” so each can generate
a larger number. Epson multiples its true base dpi to reach a theoretical
5760 x 1440.
Numerology is an age old practice, and seems to have
found its niche in inkjet printer advertising claims. Would be helpful
to have a written white paper on what optimized dpi really means and
how it is calculated relative to nozzle number, nozzle pitch, media
feed units, and variable drop size. Whew, there is a lot more to resolution
than dpi. If you are curious about dpi in your digital photos and how this relates to dpi in printers, we cover this in Nicholas Hellmuth's course on digital photography, available worldwide, in your home or office, via the Internet.
What will
HP and Canon unveil this year? Can they catch up? At some
point Epson will come out with a 24” version of their R800 or
4000, sort of a Stylus Pro model 7700 or 7800. A wider model as 9700
or 9800 will impinge on Canon. When they come out with a 60” version, if they can increase speed, then here is serious competition
for Roland, Mimaki, Mutoh, as well as what is left of Encad.
Epson has raised
the ante twice in a row with their Epson
Stylus Pro 4000 and Stylus Photo R800. The gloss optimizer is
a great idea: it may eliminate the nagging headache of differential
gloss defect on colored inks or bronzing when there are large areas
of dark color especially a solid black (on glossy paper with pigmented
ink).
The more printers that
come out, the more market is created for FLAAR evaluations, reviews,
and benchmarking reports. This will be our best year yet.
Epson
PhotoPC P-1000 is another milestone in Epson’s triumph
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Epson seems to have hired every intelligent and clever genius in Japan and Silicon Valley. Their PhotoPC P-1000 is a product that Dell, or HP could have offered, but didn’t. The Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC is the closest (used by Leaf as a viewer for their professional medium format digital back). Fascinating how some companies (in this case Epson) make all the clever decisions, and year after year.
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The PhotoPC P-1000 accepts up to 10 GB of images from CompactFlash. With optional third-party adapters you can also add images from SD, XD, Memory Stick, Smart Media and other media cards. Great product but we have not seen any around. Hopefully there will be plenty at PMA. FLAAR covers all these digital camera accessories in our course.
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