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).
