Besides the original tactile monitor on the HP Photosmart D7360 (a topic of a future article), the main and almost only improvements for Canon and HP this year were for 4" x 6" printers. The stars of today´s article are the new Canon Pixma mini260 (169 euros) and the HP Photosmart A516 (149 euros). Many things are improved starting with the price, speed, and cost per photo.
Some of the marketing arguments proved to be very bold, even too bold. HP writes in big letters on the packaging that pictures are printed in 53 seconds and are water resistant. We tested these two particularities and filmed the result (the comments are in French but you won´t have a hard time understanding what happens). The water resistance video is in the Photosmart A516 section, the one for time in printing a photo is in the page entitled "Speed and photo costs". Click on the reading control in the center of the image to start the sequence.
New product lines are on their way
Printer manufacturers release less products than manufacturers of graphic cards, digital camera, monitors… They only renew product lines once a year usually in September. Now more and more this is delayed. We used to know everything about them in July, but now only Canon and HP have unveiled their product early in August and Lexmark has just done it (08/21/06). Epson will come later with announcements in September, which doesn´t mean that they will be available at this date.
The evolution of the market continues: A4 mono function printers continue to lose market shares to multifunction and mini models devoted to small formats, for example 4" x 6". HP and Canon´s multifunctions remain almost unchanged and there are no major modifications. Separate cartridges are only meant for high end multifunctions for HP, while Canon slightly redesigned some products (bezel color) and really added only one printer, the MP510, without introducing any new technology. It has separate cartridges. Lexmark comes back to more classical designs for its economical line. They don’t have color monitors on the first products unveiled and are all priced under 150€. This absence complicates the printing of photos in autonomous mode. They have, however, borrowed Brother´s idea of introducing a document loader in an affordable product, the X5470 and will be sold next month for 129€.
The focus is on 4" x 6"s
There are many modifications for 4" x 6" printers, which are apparently the new favourites for manufacturers. In the list of improvements two were of importance to us: reducing the staggering cost of these small peripherals and considerably improving the quality of ink jet photos. Lexmark doesn´t have a substitute for the small P450 yet. But the good news is that Canon and HP have made real progress in the above areas.
They both changed cartridges, so it opened the way to all types of modifications such as print rates, sharpness, color quality. Oh well, if there are more and more models in stores. We could play the devil’s advocate and wonder if behind all of this manufacturers aren’t looking for a way to inundate stores with models to get rid of compatible cartridges.
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Canon Pixma mini260
Canon Pixma mini260
Canon made a special effort this year! The mini 260 can be turned into a small case for easier transportation. It can function with a battery (optional, the price isn´t yet precisely known but it will be less than 100€) and includes new cartridges. As usual, for over a year this cartridge has had a chip. Theoretically, you won´t be able to replace it with another "compatible". You can buy this cartridge in a pack with paper (the very much appreciated PP101, which is almost as good as the Photo Paper Pro or PR101). The end price is 29 cts per photo, which is the first very good news. We remind you that we haven´t appreciated this manufacturer’s previous 4" x 6" inkjet printers, because of the cost per photo that we felt was excessive: 0.57€ with the recommended paper (PR101 at the time).
New cartridges equal possibilities for new print rates, a new color quality, and new ink drops sizes. For speed, it may not be as important and the printer is even a little slower. Photos are printed in 1 minute 20 seconds compared to barely 50 seconds last year. However, this doesn’t bother us as printing quality has been seriously improved! Canon made some rather large changes. Ink drops are invisible (the ink drop size decreases from 2 to only 1 picoliter and a record for a printer of this size). Colors became much more accurate even though they had a strong magenta dominance. Everything seems to be for the best except for one detail, ergonomics, which we haven´t completely evaluated at this time. Canon was kind enough to send us – and we thank them - a pre series model. This isn´t the final version, which is for the best. Even if we sincerely hope that final models will be more solid, some choices are hardly understandable. The printer includes three panels that seem particularly fragile, two in front (one is in fact on top of the other) and one below that covers the controls in a closed position. From the start, the blue one on the front came off. We feel that the two others won´t last long if Canon doesn´t make some changes. Anyway, we don’t recommend children playing with it.
Closed, it looks good and opening it is quite fun. It might remind of a "Transformer". Crick, crack, crock, I unfold this part, I put this other one there, I pull the monitor and the final result looks much different. The first very impressive point: is the big 2.5" monitor. It is now common for digital cameras, but still unusual for a printer. OS management is made via a system of icons in motion with controls on the printer. It’s unfortunate that it isn´t a tactile monitor like on the HP D7360…
Here there are 16 controls. This is Canon´s problem, as the manufacturer tends to have too many. Once more, like with the previous DS810 some controls are redundant. For example, the navigation is made via the rotary control in the middle of the printer or the directional arrows that surround it. To go back you can either use the Back or Home control. The first idea is good, as everyone use the controls that he/she prefers. The negative aspect is that it uselessly complicates the navigation. We usually choose this type of printer because it is compact AND easy to use.
If we only restrict our use to the basic functions, the rest is simple. Pictures are selected with the + and – controls under “Copies” and we validate with Print or OK (redundancy…). Two qualities are available, High (initial choice) and Standard. That surprised us as with A4 printers and multifunctions Canon usually selects the Standard option. We compared the two modes and not only did we not see any quality differences between the two pictures (if you look very hard you might however find some) but the transfer rate is also identical at 1 minute 18 seconds. The two second gap isn´t significant.
In terms of quality, ink drops are totally invisible. We prefer this year’s color quality even if it’s a little too bright. Prints give the impression of having a gamma problem. Blacks are dark and whites very bright, however intermediate colors are not very intense. It’s as if we have taken all pictures with a flash. We also lack of red and that is really surprising for Canon! So monochromes prints are completely black and white and they tend to be a little green.
Summary: - Ergonomics: too many controls, and pieces need to be more solid on the final product. We like the big monitor, the transport handle, and battery. - Quality: ink drops are invisible, and prints fear no water. Too bad that colors are so light and black and white pictures aren´t really neutral. Except for these points it is quite good. - Print rate: 1 minute 20 seconds per picture. We have seen worse, but it’s good overall. Nothing to say about this point, even if ideally we would have preferred a printer able to print 5 pictures in one minute. - Cost: 29 cts per picture. Canon made a good effort. They are back in the race and are comparable to HP, Epson and Lexmark
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HP Photosmart A516
HP Photosmart A516
Unlike Canon, HP relies mainly on ink jet technology for 4" x 6" printers. All their efforts were focused in this area and we have to acknowledge that they have progressed quickly! This new A516 has new cartridges and this generally means radically different results.
New ink, new heads, replacing the consumable by another may result in better rates, new color quality and smaller ink drops. HP announces on its packaging that it can print one photo in 53 seconds! They also say that the print is water resistant. We will see below that we have liked many aspects of this printer but not these two.
We start by inserting a memory card and launching a print. The time to print one picture was 1 minute and 50 seconds. What happened to the 53 seconds?
A closer look is required to find a small asterisk below their claim that asks you to take a look at the manual. In fact to print a photo in 53 seconds, you have to take the card back, enter printing parameters, choose standard paper (80 g/m˛) instead of photo and then standard quality instead of high. Quality is not equivalent at all. The photo is pale, strongly overexposed, and ink drops are more visible. You would never choose these parameters.
With more "normal" parameters, we happily noticed that the quality was much better. Ink drops are smaller and a lot less visible than in the past. They are much less disturbing than before. Now, when we see dots we can easily mistake them for noise in the image. It is a little like a film with a high sensitivity. The print no longer betrays the origin "digital camera + personal printer", unlike the previous generations of HP printers.
Color quality has also changed. We particularly liked the colors in previous years, which were very accurate and never had a strong dominance. This time, HP chooses to follow the wrong example of Canon printers in 2004 and 2005. Colors are more vivid and reds are stronger. The foreseeable consequence is that black and white prints slightly lose their neutrality.
A problem with the ink
Is it due to the new ink? The only thing we can say is that we didn´t notice it with the previous models. Now the ink takes several minutes to dry on the Premium Plus Photo Paper (kindly provided by HP for the tests). We usually put the pictures printed face down to write the name of the printer and the printing mode used on the back. Here, we found the bad surprise of having the photo transferred to our desk. Once the picture is printed, put it on the side, wait 5 minutes, and cautiously show it to everyone. Avoid putting your finger on the photo, you might leave an indelible fingerprint and even have some ink on your fingers. This fragility is of course unfortunate and doesn´t match HP´s claim. It is clearly written on the package that prints are water-resistant and this printer has been tested by one of the most famous American institutes, the Wilhelm Imaging Research, who demonstrated that HP´s photos have a better resistance with time compared to thermal sublimation prints. We do not share the same impression. The pictures of thermal sublimation printers that we have in our possession for two years now are unchanged and this isn´t the case of our ink jet prints…
Back to the A516. There are three steps for the ink to dry. The yellow is apparently OK. The magenta takes a couple of minutes. The only one left is the blue, or cyan. In case of an accident inks can be cleaned with water, which was the case for our office desk. The towel came out blue
On the left, the photo just came out of the printer. On the right, 5 minute later.
We clean the table with water: the towel is blue
This problem of blue ink is also found on paper. We put the picture under water and a blue flow came out leaving the picture with only yellow and magenta. And we have to say that it was best not to touch the picture. Once it is wet, the remaining ink in only a thin film than can be easily removed. Take a look at the result in the video:
PS : Mea Culpa, HP´s paper used in the video for the test is the HP Premium Plus Photo Paper, and not the one mentioned in the video – which isn´t even a paper sold by HP.
We tried the above test on the paper provided and recommended by HP and rated 5 stars instead of 4 on the photo pack (the HP Advanced Photo Paper). The Premium Plus is the highest quality paper. But what if we tried the same test with Canon PP101 paper? Bingo! End of our problem. The same test however with regular paper gave terrible results. In short this is an inadequacy between the paper and the ink. We also conducted the test with HP paper in the photo pack, Advanced Photo Paper. Here too, the colors do not go away. According to HP, this paper dries much faster (as we saw) but – still according to the manufacturer – it’s less resistant to pollution. You should protect your pictures to keep the initial colors with transparent film or glass.
Controls, options...
Nothing surprising about this printer. No "exotic" formats: pictures are printed on 4" x 6" paper and as usual with compact cameras, 11% of the picture’s height is cut. The monitor is very small but very handy compared to printers, which still don´t have one (like the Olympus P11).
The monitor is small but does tell us something. In the meantime we can´t do anything
After one minute, each second seems very long.
The monitor has the very good idea of giving the remaining time. We can clearly see how long the printer will be blocked. We say “blocked”, because we can´t do anything when it is working. It isn´t possible for example to take a look at another card to see which photo we will print next. It is best to select the pictures via the OK and the directional buttons and launch all of them at the same time.
As it often happens with these small printers, edited pictures are not accepted in autonomous mode (it depends on the type of JPEG compression selected, the A516 only accepts standard), or via the memory card player. It is best to stick to raw pictures directly coming from the camera or print them from a computer. But in this case, why spend so much money for a mini-printer if you print your photos from a computer? It is best in this case to choose a multifunction…
Printing options are reduced to the minimum. We can activate the picture editing function and that is it. Modifications are very subtle.
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Quality in pictures
Picture quality
Only comparing two printers to see which is the best isn´t enough. We know this, but Sagem, Samsung, Epson and co still haven´t announce the substitute for current products. We decided to reintroduce the current main products, those who are still current up to this date, and the printers that these two are replacing for you to see the evolution and what still needs to be done. As always, there are two reference images: one extract of the original image and one produced by the photo lab, Fujifilmnet (that doesn´t mean that this lab is our favourite – which actually isn´t the case).
Color photo 3X magnified
Original image
Original photo X3 magnified
Photo lab Fujifilmnet
Canon Pixma mini260
Canon Selphy DS810
Epson PictureMate 100
Lexmark P450
HP Photosmart A516
HP Photosmart 475
Sagem Photo Easy 260
Samsung SPP-2040
If you read the previous pages, you won´t be surprised by these extracts. All pictures reported show that ink drops are less visible (for Canon we see it perfectly on the monochrome extract below) and the color rendering has changed. Canon came back to more accurate shades. It isn´t perfect yet as pictures look overexposed or that we used a flash that was too strong.
HP has minimised visible ink drops and started to display more vivid colors. It is less accurate than the previous color table but it is more appealing. The majority of users will prefer this color rendering. The HP photos shown here were printed with the photo pack (ink + paper), the Advanced Photo Paper and not the Premium Plus. The first one dries much faster and the second has better quality and a better resistance to pollution. As we saw in the previous pages, the ink of the A516 doesn’t dry with it. Also, photos obtained with this paper are even redder than with the Advanced...
The improvements are interesting. The two printers deliver good enough pictures for anyone to enjoy. Now, if you are one of those who is always looking for the best of the best even if there isn’t such a big quality gap, we have to say that sublimation printers are still a little ahead. Samsung´s printer, which is a little over one year old, is still up to this date THE absolute reference. The test is still up to date (the price is a little lower that it was at the date of the test since we can easily find it today at 150€).
Black and white picture 3X magnified
Original image
Original picture 3X magnified
Photo lab Fujifilmnet
Canon Pixma mini260
Canon Selphy DS810
Epson PictureMate 100
Lexmark P450
HP Photosmart A516
HP Photosmart 475
Sony Digital Photo Printer FP50
Samsung SPP-2040
Colorimetric changes measured from HP and Canon photos have a consequence on monochrome shades (which are in fact a combination of cyan, magenta and yellow inks). The new Canon mini 260 prints greenish photos and the HP´s are a bit red (it is less critical than for Canon).
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Speed and photo costs
Time to print a 4" x 6" photo
Only two printers are able to print photos in less than one minute (Olympus P11, Canon Selphy DS800) and they produce terrible pictures. For now, it is best not to ask for too much in terms of speed or else photo quality suffers. It doesn´t require too much patience as the good printers like the Sagem and the Samsung respectively print photos in 1 minute 2 seconds and 1 minute 13 seconds. The symbolic minute is broken but not by much.
Our two new printers are not more accurate than the two previous ones, but are a bit slower.
And now here is the live test of the two printers! Welcome to the race between the Pixma mini260 and the A516:
Cost of pictures printed
Canon and HP both have chosen the photo pack: ink cartridge and photo paper are sold together. For one photo it costs approximately 29 cts. This is the best current price and it is equivalent to the most economical photo pack of the Samsung thermal sublimation (120 papers + ink). Sagem is however more expensive.
The release of a photo pack is a good thing for Canon and was eagerly awaited since the release of the previous printer line.
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Conclusion
Conclusion
Canon and HP have made some progress, that is undeniable. Printers are less expensive and colors are nicer. Everything is for the best but…we are still waiting on some things. Even if prices are more affordable, these printers still cost as much as a very satisfactory multifunction printer. Prices have to continue to drop. Ideally and we will be a bit extreme on this part, we would like to buy them for less than 50 euros. We have to say that we would already be happy with a first step at 99€. 50% more, two times more for some of them is a bit excessive to us.
Well, you will be surprised to hear that such an economical product, under 100€, very good and fast, is already available! This is the Samsung SPP-2020, a model based on our favourite 4" x 6" printer the SPP-2040. The two peripherals are identical except for a couple of ergonomic details. The SPP-2020 doesn´t have a color monitor or memory card player. Prints have to be commanded from the computer or in PictBridge (direct connection with a digital camera). This last option finally becomes comfortable as cameras more and more integrate very big monitors up to 3 inches (diagonal); and they become more they become more usable than the one integrated to printers.
We have to however point out that none of the printers is able to compete with the discount prices of some of the photo labs for larger orders. One of the most aggressive, Pixdiscount, has prices up to 0.01€ per 4" x 6" photo! With the invoice and production fees, you will pay 6.99€ for fifty 4" x 6" pictures, or 0.14€ per print. This is half the price of the cheapest printer and you don´t have to spend the 100€ (or more) to buy the peripheral.
Finally, (and now I feel like I am rambling on) why do these printers not give the choice to print in 4" x 6" or in 5"x7" when we know that 95% of photos (bridges and compacts) will all be truncated by 11% in height when they are printed on 4" x 6" paper. I don´t understand and the answer of the manufacturer is because there is no 4" x 6" paper. This is too easy and we remind you the name of the brand on the paper: Canon, Epson, HP, Lexmark. It would nice be nice to see an effort in this area.
Besides the original tactile monitor on the HP Photosmart D7360 (a topic of a future article), the main and almost only improvements for Canon and HP this year were for 4" x 6" printers. The stars of today´s article are the new Canon Pixma mini260 (169 euros) and the HP Photosmart A516 (149 euros). Many things are improved starting with the price, speed, and cost per photo.
Lexmark comes back to more classical designs for its economical line. They don’t have color monitors on the first products unveiled and are all priced under 150€. This absence complicates the printing of photos in autonomous mode. They have, however, borrowed Brother´s idea of introducing a document loader in an affordable product, the X5470 and will be sold next month for 129€. 
New ink, new heads, replacing the consumable by another may result in better rates, new color quality and smaller ink drops. HP announces on its packaging that it can print one photo in 53 seconds! They also say that the print is water resistant. We will see below that we have liked many aspects of this printer but not these two.
Well, you will be surprised to hear that such an economical product, under 100€, very good and fast, is already available! This is the Samsung SPP-2020, a model based on our favourite 4" x 6" printer the SPP-2040.