The Espon 1400 a wonderful photo quality printer using dye based inks with claims of 100 years longevity. Unlike earlier Espon printers that came with their so-so proprietary software - this one comes bundled with a registered copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements. I have not looked at this software for years, and was amazed at the features it contains. With it's Layers, Healing and Cloning, almost all of the Filters found in the full blown Photoshop - the average photographer (professional or amateur) may find it hard to justify spending the serious money required for Photoshop CS2 or CS. Of real importance to me is the printers ability to easily and accuartely print my CD's and DVD's for a professional look. Over the years I have used labels with no sucess, LightScribe which takes far too long to burn the image, and more recently a series of DVD's from Verbatim designed for movies that have a somewhat more serious look to them. All of this last week for around $350 Candian dollars - - - plus a $50 Epson mail in rebate. And if I had of been on the ball a week earlier could have benefitted from an additional $20 off from the Vistek camera store in Toronto.
I am still using my Epson 2400 for watercolor and other heavier art papers, for black and white (the 1400 B&W's are acceptable, but no where near the look of those from the 2400), and when I am producing critical prints where I do not care about the Gloss Differential look, that is always evident on RC style Glossy, Luster and Semi-Gloss papers. But now that I can be more confident about the lasting power of current dyes in the 100 year range (not much different than the claims for pigment ink sets like the 2400 has) - I am using this printer for all of my client work where standard 5x7 and 8x10 glossys are the final product.
It's the CD/DVD printing that has really made this printer a great value for me. A large part of my business now includes supplying DVD's and having a professional look is imperitave. I have put together a little video that quickly summarizes the CD/DVD printing process and contains the real time printing of a DVD - that shows how quickly, simply professional looking printable DVD's and CD's can be produced:
View the Google Video here:
http://rwoutsidethebox.com/?p=81--