Epsonâ

A great printer that does not even need a computer to do everything from printing photos to burning them to CD.
The latest Epson printers look pretty impressive, and none more so than
the R350.  This printer uses six individual ink cartridges and
Epson’s new HQ dye based color ink for brighter images. Using Epson’s
Variable Sized Droplet Technology (VSDT) to deliver ink droplets down
to 3pl (picolitres), the Epson Stylus Photo R350 can produce borderless
photographs up to A4 (Letter) size at a resolution of up to 5760
optimized dpi (dots per inch).

The Epson Stylus Photo R350 is based upon the highly successfully
Stylus Photo R310, and offers many new features, including an easy to
use control panel, a high quality 2.4″ LCD screen, numerous cards slots
and PictBridge and for PC free printing directly from digital cameras.

The Stylus Photo R350 also features five card slots with 13 supported
formats, and a USB port for easy connection to portable storage devices
and cameras. You can even transfer images from memory cards to a USB
storage device, like an MP3 player, disk drive or other appropriate
attached drive. All this could be a boon for event photographers, as
you really don’t need a laptop unless you wish to modify images.

The color LCD screen and simple to use menu allow users to select
individual or multiple images to print, print an index sheet, play a
slide show, zoom in or out of images, and print directly from their
digital camera, memory card or storage device for convenient printing
at home, at the office or on holidays. The user interface for all this
is vast improvement over previous models and very useable.

It is rated for printing at up to 15 ppm (pages per minute) in draft
mode for quicker production of documents, and at 105 seconds for 6×4
BorderFree(TM) photos on Epson Premium Glossy Photo. In
actual testing, the print time for a 10″ x 7.5″ photo print with
quality settings for best quality was 1 minute 57 seconds. Printing a
CD/DVD took approximately 2 minutes and 40 seconds of actual print time.
CD transport caused no problems during our testing but we did have the
occasional problem for the printer not loading paper properly the first
print after reloading with photo paper. Pulling the paper and
reinserting it fixed it each time.

Print quality is stunning. Colors are spot on out of the box and the
dots are so small that they are very hard to pick except in unusual
image areas. This is an almost perfect printer. Why only almost? Well,
this will depend on individual needs but I really would like to see a
second paper tray beneath the printer, as in many of the Canon models.
Two paper trays and auto selection of the correct one is a great help
to people using their printers for the usual mix of home and small/home
office printing. I also have concerns about print longevity with such
an obviously photo-oriented printer. Epson are making no claim yet
about print longevity and since these are dyes I am not expecting more
than about 25 years at best. I have queried Epson on longevity with the
new HQ inks and will report more when I have the information.

The Epson Stylus Photo R350 is $349 RRP (including GST) in Australia
and is available for purchase at consumer electronics retailers,
computer superstores, mass merchandisers, office superstores and
selected photo specialty stores. It has not yet been released in most
other countries.

With the above qualifications, this is a great printer. It works well,
has great print quality and a lot of flexibility because of the user
interface, memory card ports and screen. Definitely worth a look when
available in your country.

For full product specifications on this and other Epson products please refer to <http://www.epson.com.au>.

PRODUCT NAME    STYLUS PHOTO R350

PRODUCT CODE    C11C607091

PRINTING METHOD    On-demand Inkjet (piezoelectric)

NOZZLE CONFIGURATION    6 x 90 nozzles (Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Light Cyan, Light Magenta)

PRINT DIRECTION    Bi-Directional with logic seeking

LCD VIEWER    Built in 2.4″ colour LCD

PRINT SPEED

BLACK TEXT (MEMO) A4    Approx. 15 PPM (Economy) *1

COLOUR TEXT (MEMO) A4    Approx. 15 PPM (Economy) *2

PHOTO 4″ x 6″    57# sec per photo

“Second” rating refers to the time taken to print one page. “ppm”
rating refers to the number of pages printed in one minute. The
computer environment we test under is as follows: CPU: 1GHZ Pentium
III; RAM: 128MB; OS: Windows ME; Interface/Connectivity: USB

# When printed on Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper

RESOLUTION

     5760 Optimised dpi using Resolution Performance Management (RPM) Technology

PAPER HANDLING

PAPER FEED METHOD    Friction feed with Paper Feeder

PAPER SIZES*    A4, A5, B5, 4″ x 6″, 5″ x 7″, Envelopes (No. 10, DL, C6, 123 x 220mm)

* True BorderFree printing is available on the following media sizes:
A4, 100 x 150mm, 4″ x 6″, 3.5″ x 5″, 5″ x 7″. Media types recommended:
Photo Paper, Premium Glossy Photo Paper, Matte Paper Heavyweight.

INTERFACES    USB 2.0 hi-speed*

SUPPORTED MEMORY CARDS

     CompactFlash, SmartMedia*, Memory Stick,
Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick Duo**, Memory Stick PRO Duo**, MagicGate
Memory Stick, MagicGate Memory Stick Duo**, Microdrive, SD (Secure
Digital) Card, MultiMediaCard, miniSD Card**, xD-Picture Card,
xD-Picture Card Type M

* Maximum capacity is 128 MB

** Adapter required

* Functions under USB 1.1 when used with external CD-R / Zip drive,
PictBridge and USB Direct print connections. Includes front & rear
USB ports.

OPERATING SYTEMS

     Mac® OS 10.2 or later

Microsoft Windows® 98 / 2000 / Me / XP / XP 64-bit

PRINTER SOFTWARE (AVAILABLE ON CD-ROM ONLY)

PRINTER DRIVERS

ON-LINE GUIDE

Epson Creativity Suite

Epson Easy Photo Printing

Epson PhotoQuicker

Epson PRINT Image Framer

Epson PRINT Image Framer Designer

Epson Print CD

Epson Web-to-Page

COLOUR MATCHING

Epson Colour Management System included in Windows® and Mac® drivers:

      Windows® ICM (Windows® 95/98/Me/2000/XP)

Apple® ColorSync 2.0 compatible

SRGB (Windows® 98/Me/2000/XP)

WARRANTY

     12 months return to base

     Optional Additional 2 Year Warranty    3YWR350

     Epson Warranty

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS (OPERATING)

TEMPERATURE    10 ~ 35oC

HUMIDITY    20 ~ 80% RH

ELECTRICAL SPECIFICATIONS

RATED VOLTAGE    AC 220 ~ 240V

RATED FREQUENCY    50 ~ 60 Hz

POWER CONSUMPTION    13W (ISO10561 Letter Pattern)

OPTIONS

DIMENSIONS     W483 x D478 x H297mm

WEIGHT    6.1kg