This isn’t exactly breaking news, but more of a general update to the people who come here looking for news about when they can get their benefits from Epson. Recently, Epson filed an appeal challenging the settlement. This is what the official settlement site says:

Appeals have been filed challenging the Judgment and order granting final approval of the Settlement and application for attorneys’ fees. As a result, the distribution of Settlement benefits is on hold until the appeals process is completed.

Originally, they did note that the benefits would not be paid until the Court had given final approval and all appeals had been “expired”, so this isn’t a total surprise. This is somewhat interesting since Epson originally settled this back in April of 2006, and now they are appealing it, but basically this is always what happens with these types of cases. Maybe it has something to do with lawyer’s fees, maybe one person isn’t happy about it, I don’t know. All this stuff goes on behind the scenes, so unfortunately at this moment, all everyone can do is continue to wait.

Since compact/portable/snapshot photo printers seem to be growing in popularity, people are probably beginning to wonder what the best model is. Up until recently, there wasn’t a huge selection of models and out of those, there really wasn’t any model that was declared the best by the public. The reviews and reactions to the models out there mostly fell in line with what you’d expect based on the manufacturer: Epson made good stuff, HP made pretty good stuff, Canon made good stuff in limited quantities and Lexmark basically made junk.

We haven’t really received a lot of feedback from our customers/readers as to what they think about certain compact photo printers, so I’ll just take a look at what’s availble out the Net.

- the top three compact photo printers according to CNET are the HP Photosmart 475, the Epson PictureMate Flash 280 and the Epson PictureMate Snap

- the top three selling compact photo printers on Amazon are the Canon iP90, the Canon SELPHY DS810 Photo Printer and the Epson PictureMate Deluxe

- this thing on about.com says that the top three are Canon i70/i80/i90, the HP Photosmart 375 and the Epson PictureMate Personal

Overall, it seems like the Epson PictureMate series has been rated pretty well by both professional reviewers and customers (all but the PictureMate Pal, which is an entry-level model that isn’t worth the small savings). Like most of their inkjet printers, HP compact photo printers perform pretty well but are never the best available. It seems like it’s a good idea to stay away from Kodak printers, just because I’ve only seen one get a good review and then most others get only decent reviews. It’s really not worth it to get a Kodak because you have so many other reliable options like Canon and Epson available. Plus, since some of these printers use their own ink/paper and not standard ink cartridges, you don’t want to be hunting around for some weird Kodak products that aren’t sold anywhere.

At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show, Epson released two new “hi-definition” inkjet printers: the Stylus CX7000F and the Stylus Photo 1400.

The Stylus CX7000F looks to be a pretty standard all-in-one inkjet printer. It is rated at 27 ppm for black and color printing and it has a bunch of connectivity options. Other than that, the only unique feature seems to be that if the black cartridge runs out, it uses the color cartridges to make black so you can keep printing. Epson says that “the Epson Stylus CX7000F delivers all the versatility consumers demand, in addition to the superior output quality they have come to expect from Epson.” We don’t really see that. This printer should be available later this month and it will retail for $150.

The Stylus Photo 1400 is a wide-format printer that prints at up to 13 x 19. It uses a six-ink system and Epson’s MicroPiezo print head, which sounds fancy. It can print directly to CDs or DVDs and it can supposedly produce a high-quality 8 x 10 photo in one minute and 48 seconds. Epson makes a point of saying this is the time for a normal print and not a draft won, so they get points for that. The 1400 is replacing the Stylus Photo 1280, which in terms of printer technology is ancient. The 1280 has been on the market since at least 2003 and printers have changed a lot since then. But when it came out, the 1280 was pretty cutting edge due to the fact that it was a wide-format printer and because it used six different inks. Back in those days, they put the five colors all in one cartridge, something that probably seems a little ridiculous now. The Stylus Photo 1400 probably won’t be as popular as the 1280 due to increased competition, but it will probably be pretty popular with professionals. It’s going to cost $400 when it hits the streets, although Epson failed to mention when that will happen.

Different things cost different amounts depending on what country you are in. Prescription drugs cost way more in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world. Gas is really expensive in Western Europe. 1980’s Levis are very cheap in Russia. Now, Epson ink is really cheap in China.

Epson has begun selling their ink at 1/3rd the price they charge everywhere else. Epson explains that they are doing this in part to fight counterfeit cartridges, which is a big problem in China but not so much in other places. Epson appears to be selling the equal quality ink for a much lower price, which could in turn lead to higher printer prices. So far they haven’t expanded this pricing strategy too much, but if it’s successful then there really wouldn’t be any reason not to. They probably feel like there is just a ton of competition out there so they need to try something to stand out in China’s booming market. Either that or they are only going to do this in China until people are hooked on their products at which point they will bring back their old prices.

Epson ignites printer price war [infomatics]

We have added a whole bunch of new Epson cartridges to our site. A lot of people have been looking for cartridges for the Stylus CX5000 and CX6000 and we finally have some. The following cartridges work with the Stylus CX5000 and Stylus CX6000:

T069120 black
T069220 cyan
T069320 magenta
T069420 yellow

As of 2/7/2007 we have also added compatible brand cartridges to our offering. These compatible cartridges replace the following Epson cartridge numbers.

T069120 black
T069220 cyan
T069320 magenta
T069420 yellow

We have also added Epson Stylus Photo R380 cartridges, Stylus Photo R260 cartridges and Stylus Photo RX580 cartridges.

T078120 black
T078220 cyan
T078320 magenta
T078420 yellow
T078520 light cyan
T078620 light magenta

Huzzah!

Last week we reported on CNET’s review of the Epson PictureMate Pal and now it’s time for the PictureMate Snap, the next level up in the series.

The PictureMate Snap has the same basic design as the Pal, with a few minor differences. The main difference is the LCD, which is bigger than the Pal’s and also adjustable. It’s definitely nice to not have the LCD isn’t stuck in the control panel like on the Pal. Other than that, it’s got the same handle design that the Pal has and it also the same connectivity options, plus the ability to connect external storage devices.

As far as the actual photo features go, it has a few more options than the Pal in terms of photo size and enhancement. You can print in new layouts like passport size and you can do all sorts of crazy photo editing like adjusting saturation and adding frames. But very few people will likely notice those new options, since for a lot of people it’s enough work just to hook up everything correctly and print the photos out (I’m not saying people don’t know technology, just that these compact printers can be pretty complex and few people are interested in taking in the extra step of editing their photos to perfection). The print speed has been increased from 1 page per minute to 1.24 ppm.

The PictureMate Snap will retail for $200, which is $50 more than the Pal. For that $50, you get a better LCD, better print speed and better photo editing capabilities, while the overall print quality remains the same. The choice is yours, America. If anyone out there owns this printer and wants to help everyone make up their minds, leave us a comment and let us know.

Buy this printer

CNET has review the PictureMate Pal, Epson’s newest low-cost compact photo printer. It is the least expensive model out of Epson’s Picturemate line, which also includes the Snap and Flash models. The PictureMate Pal has a pretty unique design, so it’s probably best to start out with a photo of it to get a good idea of what we’re working with here:

It looks sort of like a mini icebox with a handle, and then the top flips up to reveal the controls and 2″ LCD. The LCD is embedded into the body of the printer, but it flips up for easier viewing. You can also feed paper through the top of the PictureMate, and then all the pictures come out on the bottom. It is a pretty unique design, but is anyone honest going to be taking this printer with them outside of their house? Like someone is going to take it to a wedding and set up shop there?

As far as features go, there isn’t a whole lot that stands out about this machine. Then again, it’s not really designed to wow anyone with its features. CNET prints a 4 x 6 picture in about 60 seconds, which is what Epson advertises. Imagine, a real life print speed that actually matches what is advertised on the box. Incredible. You can also print out index sheets with thumbnail previews of up to 20 images so you can easily pick which pictures from your memory card that you want to print. It has all the usual features where you can edit and fix up your prints on the LCD, but CNET was unimpressed with the amount of enhancing you can do. I think that most people don’t do any enhancing at all so they really aren’t going to notice something like this.

The PictureMate Pal comes with all the usual memory card connectivity options, as well as the ability to connect via Bluetooth…as long as you buy a Bluetooth adapter. Pretty soon one of the printer manufacturers is going to get burned by advertising that all their new printers have Bluetooth capability. Ya, they have Bluetooth capability as long as you buy a separate adapter.

One of the downsides to this printer might be the way that you have to buy the ink. Like with a number of these snapshot printers these days, you buy the ink and paper together in a cassette. So it doesn’t use a standard Epson inkjet cartridge that you can buy anywhere. The supposed benefit of this is that the paper and the ink are supposed to run out at the same time, so you don’t have to worry about running out of ink during a job or having to constantly reload paper a few sheets at a time. But it also means that you are limited by when they say the cartridge is empty. Maybe you printed a bunch of 4 x 6 photos that were just tiny little dots and you still have half an ink cartridge left when the paper is gone - what are you supposed to do? You are supposed to suck it up and give your money away to Epson, that’s what.

CNET gave the PictureMate Pal a rating of 6.5, which translates to “good” for them. They seemed to like it, but at $150 they said they preferred the Canon Selphy DS810 a little more (which only got a 6.7, but is apparently way better than the PictureMate). Right now there is no user feedback on CNET and only one review on Amazon, so if anyone owns this printer, let us know what you think of it.

Buy this printer

CNET has reviewed one of the new “hi-definition” printers that Epson just released, the Stylus Photo R380, and they gave it a pretty good review. They gave it a 7.3 out of 10, which is a very good rating based on their scale.

According to Epson, the main benefit of this printer is speed. It is rated at 32 ppm for black, 30 for color and it can supposedly print a 4 x 6 picture in 13 seconds. Now of course, none of those numbers are truly accurate, but they are still impressive based on the performance of other Epson inkjets. The R380 also has a 3.5″ LCD (basically as big as it gets these days) and the ability to print directly onto CDs or DVDs.

With that giant LCD, Epson wants you to use a whole bunch of features like photo editing and red eye reduction and what not. I’ve always felt like LCDs on inkjets were pretty useless because no one is going to scroll through all their pictures and make adjustments on a tiny screen when they could easily do it on their computer. Why try to get the best version of a picture on a 1″ screen when you can look at it on your 19″ monitor? But, a 3.5″ LCD is pretty big compared to others, and it sounds like Epson has made an effort to make this printer a “home studio” that doesn’t require a computer, so if you are into that then the R380 is for you. For the record, CNET seemed to enjoy using the LCD to print directly from memory cards.

The one problem that the CNET reviewer had with the R380 was the text printing. Epson really bills this as a photo printer, so it’s not too surprising that the text performance is a little lacking - the less expensive HP Photosmart 8250 printed text almost twice as fast as the R380. HP inkjets have always been known for being better at printing text than their competitors, but it’s still worth knowing that if you are looking for a good all-around printer that you might have to look elsewhere. The Stylus Photo R380 is meant for printing good pictures and not really for everyday use.

Right now this printer is selling for $200 regularly and $160 if you use this rebate (PDF). This printer just came out, so there really isn’t any customer feedback at the moment. If you did buy this printer, let us know what you think of it and if the review is accurate.

Buy this printer Buy Epson Stylus R380 inkjet cartridges

Even though they were supposed to come out in September, Epson is now finally shipping their three “high-definition” printers that they announced over the summer. The models are the Epson Stylus Photo R260 and R380 and the Epson Stylus Photo RX580 photo all-in-one.

These three inkjets are supposedly the fastest on the market and Epson says they “offer nearly three times the photo print speeds of comparable HP models.” According to their test, the Epson models could print a 4×6 picture in 32 seconds while it took the HP models 88 seconds. One of the HP’s they compared it with was that Photosmart D7160, which costs about $120. The Stylus Photo R260 is going to retail for $130, so it’s a pretty fair comparison. Incidentally, these tests were conducted by Torrey Pines Research, a local company here in San Diego.

As with any fancy new printer these days, Epson touts some technology they made up and gave a weird name. This time it’s a MicroPiezo print head with DX5 technology. Awesome, huh? Of course it doesn’t really mean anything and the fact that it can produce drops as small as 1.5 picoliters isn’t all that impressive since there are a number of other photo printers on the market that can make that claim. So you kind of just have to trust Epson that this print head is somehow different than every other one before it.

Other than being high definition, these three printers don’t have any unique features you can’t find elsewhere. They all have the standard connectivity features and what not. The Stylus Photo R380 does have a 3.5″ LCD, which is pretty huge, but who knows if people even use those.

Epson Now Shipping Its New Signature ‘Ultra Hi-Definition’ Line of Photo Printers, Bringing Professional-Level Prints at Industry-Leading Print Speeds to Home Photo Enthusiasts [Press Release]

We have received an unusually high number of complaints about the Epson Stylus CX6000 on a post we did a while back. People started posting how their ink cartridges were running out very quickly (a matter of days) and then others started posting how they complained to Epson about the problem. Based on what a few commenters said, there seems to be a problem with the chips on the cartridges. There are errors on the chips that cause the printer to think that the cartridge is empty when in fact, it’s got plenty of ink left. A few people said that they were told by Epson that the ink levels would be fixed when they reached the 20% level. A few people got Epson to send them some new cartridges and one even got a new Epson printer out of it.

Here is what one of the commenters, Floyd, had to say:

I just received a call from Epson’s Customer Service Department. They told me that the problem isn’t with the printer itself. They say that it’s a programmimg error on the chips wihin the ink cartridges themselves. The error causes the printer’s indicators to report ink levels erroneously. It was stated that once the actual ink level reaches 20%, the problem would correct itself. He’s sending out a black cartridge to replace the one in the printer. I will continue to monitor this to see if what they told me is true.They state the error has been corrected and this will not happen in future cartridges.

At first, the problem with the CX6000 (and CX5000) was that the ink cartridges weren’t available anywhere. Now that they are available, they aren’t working.