Epson PictureMate Dash PM260 Compact Photo Inkjet Printer (C11C694201)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Epson PictureMate Dash PM 260 compact photo inkjet printer is an easy-to-use portable photo printer that turns your home or office into a personal photo lab. The PictureMate helps you create professional-quality photos that last up to four times longer than traditional lab prints, thanks to its patented Advanced MicroPiezo technology. Print 4 by 6 inch prints in less than one minute with this compact 9.1 by 13.6 by 10.5 inch photo printer that allows you to print PC-free using your memory card, digital camera, or USB flash drive. In addition, you can print wirelessly from your mobile phone by using a Bluetooth Adapter.

Photos will print smudge free and water and fade resistant, and can last up to 200 years when preserved in a family album for generations to enjoy. This versatile portable printer is compatible with both PC and Mac operating systems, and comes with a 1-year limited manufacturer's warranty.

What's in the BoxPictureMate dash printer, paper and ink cartridge, power supply, quick start guide, printer manual, and CD-ROM (printer drivers, ArcSoft PhotoImpression 5).

The perfect companion to any digital camera, PictureMate is the ideal choice in portable photo printers. In fact, it's been the number one selling small-format printer three years in a row -- the personal photo lab that's easy to use at home or on the go.

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 9.1 x 8.7 inches ; 5.3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 9 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000UMRWCC
• Item model number: C11C694201
  

Technical Details

• Advanced MicroPiezo technology creates professional-quality photos that last up to 4 times longer than traditional lab prints
• Creates 4-by-6-inch prints in under one minute
• Print PC-free using your memory card, digital camera, or USB flash drive
• Photos will print smudge free, water and fade resistant, and last up to 200 years when preserved in family album
• 1-year limited manufacturer's warranty

Costumer Reviews

The photos printed on this paper look really great. They look just as good as something I would have done professionally for a standard 4x6. However, the amount of toner in these cartridges doesn't appear to be anywhere near what they are promising. I got the printer for Christmas (it comes with a cartridge), along with this ink/paper replacement pack. I have printed exactly 102 photos, and have gone through both the starter ink cartridge that came with the printer, as well as the replacement ink cartridge. Now I am left with about fifty pieces of paper and no way to print on them. I am not printing anything unusual (just a bunch of photos of our kids), nor were the photos taken at a very high resolution (5M - not sure if that matters).

So, that would make the cost of printing each photo about $0.38-.40/each, and that doesn't include the cost of the printer itself! I love the convenience of being able to easily print photos at home, but it comes at a high price when you can get it done online or at a local retailer's for $0.12-.20/print. I guess that's why they can afford to charge so little for the printer.

Quick follow-up as of 9/7/08:

I let the printer sit for a few months - just hadn't had time to print anything lately. When I tried to print some photos yesterday, the color looked awful and there were banded lines on it. So I put in a new cartridge, but the photos still looked bad. The troubleshooting guide recommended cleaning the heads 2-3 times. I cleaned the head 8 times per the instructions, and it did look better, but still had the lines. The instructions say:

"If repeated cleanings don't help, you can also turn the Epson Stylus off and wait at least six hours or overnight (this allows any dried ink to soften)."

I let the printer sit overnight, and did another head cleaning this morning. The quality still wasn't back to normal, so I tried another head cleaning...at which point I got an error message that the ink level was low, and that you can't clean the heads with low ink! Mind you, this was a brand new cartridge, and I hadn't even printed any photos on it, just did several cleanings. Since I couldn't clean the heads, I just started printing pictures. The first several came out with the lines, but after that they looked pretty good.

Anyway, I still like the photo quality and the convenience. But I probably blew through $10 worth of ink cleaning the heads. So, my advice to you is if you buy this printer, try to print to it fairly often so the print heads stay clean and not gunked up.

This past weekend we borrowed my friends Canon Selphy and my wife fell in love with it and asked me to buy one for her. So after checking online and reading various reviews, I saw that the PictureMate had a higher rating, more features, printed much faster, had a lower cost per print.

Based on all of those reviews it appeared that the Epson was a better quality unit so I bought one.

After printing the first photo with the Epson, it was apparent that all of the reviews were correct. This is a great printer with lots of options and is extremely easy to use.

Just to test the difference between the Selphy and the Picturemate, I printed the same exact photo that I had from the Selphy and compared it to the PictureMate. There is a major difference between the two. The Espon print was MUCH brighter and had much more detail than the Canon. As a professional photographer, I was really amazed at the quality this little printer.

Another real nice feature of this printer is the size of the screen. It's a large 3.6" screen and is extremely easy to navigate. The Selphy had a tiny screen and wasn't near as user friendly.